so i had lithotripsy to remove kidney stones

And they gave me a paper telling me to filter my urine. Nobody explained it to me (and I was still sedated from the procedure) so I'm hoping a doc or someone that's had it done can explain. The point of filtering the urine is obviously to collect fragments of the stones (I had 10 in two clusters) for chemical analysis. My follow-up is scheduled for two weeks from now, which I'm assuming is the time it normally takes for them to clear your system, but I'm not sure.

My initial thoughts were that they'd empty from my kidney the first few times I urinated, but so far all I've seen is a lot of blood, which tends to clot and block the filtering paper. I was led to believe that I'd be pissing sand at some point.

Can anyone enlighten me as to whether I should be seeing these fragments in my urine relatively soon after the procedure or if it's completely random? I'm also wondering if I should just take a regular urine sample in case the fragments are so small the paper doesn't catch them. FWIW, my stones were located near the top of my kidney fairly near to the exit.

Oh and I was told a certain amount of blood would be normal, but when should it stop? I read it can point to signs of blockage or infection, but it's only been a day and a half so far.

thanks.

Ouch! You have my sympathies.

sorry to hear that, I've heard that kidney stones are extremely painful

I didn't have the procedure when I got kidney stones because they were msall enough to pass, but it took a while to actually piss out the large chunk of the stone. I think it was the next day.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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I didn't have the procedure when I got kidney stones because they were msall enough to pass, but it took a while to actually piss out the large chunk of the stone. I think it was the next day.

how big was it?

About the size of half a grain of rice.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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About the size of half a grain of rice.

ouch. I went to the hospital a couple months ago for my stones when I woke-up in pain in the middle of the night. I haven't pissed anything even a quarter the size of a grain of rice to my knowledge. I had one when I was 18 as well. Never pissed anything out then either... They should theoretically be broken-up pretty small now, but what the hell happened to the earlier ones that didn't get blasted by lithotripsy?

I'm no doctor, but eating more bacon and smoking a pack of cigarettes a day probably would have solved this problem before it got started.

Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim

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I'm no doctor, but eating more bacon and smoking a pack of cigarettes a day probably would have solved this problem before it got started.

It's great to know I'm now immune......

GQGeek: ouch, hope you get better soon.

In my experience, the time frame is pretty random. I had three distinct episodes with
three to five stones, one shortly after the initial pain, one about two weeks later, and one several months to a year later. Apparently it can take a LONG time to get out of the kidney and through the ureter, even in sand form. Only one of these instances involved much blood, which was ironically the least painful incidence. No idea if lithotripsy increases the probability of bleeding or what, but I wouldn't piss blood for more than two days without at least checking in with a doc.

Good luck though.