melissel Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 If you have, can you tell me about it? I still have a 7 mm x 3 mm stone (the tiny one seems to have passed though), and my urologist is strongly advising the lithotripsy because of the length. He said I can wait and see, but it's nearly to the opening of the ureter, and once it gets in there is when I'll be calling him from the ER :( According to my doc, it's a twilight anesthetic, not a general like I've heard. He also doesn't place a stent unless the stone is really large. In my case, the fragments will be small enough to pass on their own. Can you tell me what exactly was done to you? I've read something about lying in a bath of gel-like material, but them someone else told me it was a hammock :confused: Am I dressed? Undressed? Will I be in pain from the procedure AND the fragments passing? I can't schedule yet because I potentially have jury duty next week, so I want to get past that. I'm also not looking forward to paying for this. Gah! I am so bummed--I was really hopeful that my stone was gone after this weekend's kidney activity! TIA if you can offer any experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leav97 Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Been there. Done that. It wasn't bad. I went into the room in a standard hospital gown. Moved over to the hammock style bed. Woke up in my hospital room. Don't remember anything of the procedure. I know the submerge you in something or it wouldn't work correctly but, I didn't ask. I was complete dry when I woke up. :001_huh: It took a couple of days of pain killers but, it wasn't as bad as having my tonsils out. My other option was surgery and a 1-2 day hospital stay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted February 14, 2012 Share Posted February 14, 2012 Just curious, have had kidney problems for 3 weeks now..seeing urologist tomorrow..but my CT scan on Friday showed NO kidney stones (relieved of that) but then my mom said her Xrays (back in the 80s) never showed her kidney stones but the MRI did...did your kidney stones show on a CT scan? I would think a CT scan is much more detailed than an Xray, I laid on a table and this was placed in a big circle thing...just curious if that is what they used to see yours or an MRI...hope you feel much better soon, my husband's boss had lithotripsy done, he did great with it :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
melissel Posted February 14, 2012 Author Share Posted February 14, 2012 Thanks to you both. Between the money and the procedure itself, I'm so freaked out right now. I'm trying to calm myself down! Ma23peas, my stones did show on both my CT scan (6 months ago) and my recent x-rays. On the second x-ray, though, the stone was so faint that I didn't even see it until the urologist pointed it out. It had moved into a place where the background of the film was already light, so the stone wasn't easily visible. I don't know whether a CT scan would be significantly clearer than an x-ray, because I only have the written results from my CT, not the film/video/whatever. I think it is possible for the stones to be hidden on an x-ray. My large stone is visible once I knew what to look for, but I also had a smaller one initially. That one is no longer visible, and the doc was basically like, "Well, I don't know where that one went, you may have passed it or it may be in there somewhere, I don't see it." But it's so small he doesn't feel the need to pursue it further. Whether it could also be hidden on a CT scan? I don't know. Is this your left or right kidney? If it's on your right, could you be feeling gall bladder pain instead? Or do you have blood in your urine as well? It's all very frustrating and scary. I'm sorry you're dealing with it too :grouphug: Leav97, your post has made me feel a bit better. I was picturing having to be naked in some kind of goo bath, a la The Matrix! Talk about adding insult to injury :tongue_smilie: And I just talked to insurance, and the most we'll have to pay out of pocket is $1,500 (:svengo:). That will at least cut down on what I have to pay to have my stinking gallbladder out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ma23peas Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 :grouphug:Having health concerns on top of financial can be defeating! Keep up your great attitude, I always tell myself, my worries today will not be my worries ten years from now :tongue_smilie: I started having pain in both kidneys, he put me on macrodantin, then the pain was just my right kidney, had blood in my urine after a night of pretty bad pain, still shows traces of blood but the color is def better...now the pain is back to both sides...ugh! Figuring it is just a latent infxn that needs stronger meds...will have answers tomorrow and feel much better! Good luck with your procedure and let us know how it goes!:grouphug: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VA6336 Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 My husband has had two lithos for kidney stones. They used general anesthesia for one and twilight for the other. The twilight was at a hospital and it was insanely expensive. The general anesthesia was at an outpatient clinic, a fraction of the cost and he received wonderful care from the staff. We paid 15% of both procedures, over $1500 for the hospital one and about $200 for the outpatient clinic (which was a satellite of the same hopsital!). He was sore for a few days after both, had some pain meds but was fine within 2 days. At the twilight one, he felt like someone was snapping his back with rubber bands, but he was numb and it didn't hurt. Neither involved a bath of any kind, but he did have to remove clothing. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mary in VA Posted February 15, 2012 Share Posted February 15, 2012 We've had a busy kidney stone year in our family! My dh had a lithotripsy during the summer. Don't know about the hammock etc, (He's tied up or I'd ask) but he was in a twilight sleep and had no pain afterwards. They must have blasted the stone to smithereens because he never felt anything pass. He didn't have any pain with the stone prior to the procedure, but our dd has stones and we know the pain she has. We didn't want dh to be traveling, or to be hit at a very inopportune time (like a dd's wedding day!) and decided to get it out of there. Older 21 yo dd, who has a history of kidney stones, was struck with one in November. She was in extreme pain and SICK!!! She was 12 hours away at college. The stone was stuck in her ureter (between kidney and bladder) They knocked her out with a general and inserted a stent. She had it in for almost 4 weeks and then had to be knocked out again to remove it and the stone. The stent was very uncomfortable and she felt like she had a UTI the whole time. As an observer, I would say the lithotripsy was a piece of cake compared to the stent, etc. We have military medical care, so we never saw the bill for the lithotripsy. But my dd was in a civilian hospital and the bill for the first stay and procedure alone was over $25,000!!!! Thankfully, it was covered by our insurance! After watching my dd suffer with these I'm all for getting them out!! Mary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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