Kidney Stone Pain ... Is It Really As Terrible As Everyone Claims?
Those who have experienced kidney stone pain speak just about reverently about the experience:
"Terrible"
"I wanted to die"
"Extremely the worst thing that ever happened to me"
"It is like a knife being stabbed in your gut, and then twisted"
And then the old standby, the one everyone's heard, emphatically stated by any mothers who have had a kidney stone ...
"It was far worse than giving birth!"
Can kidney stone pain actually be all that bad?
Well, I can give you a perfect answer when I say ...
YES!
You see, I have had more kidney stones than I can remember over the past 20-plus years. I'm a big, tough, ex-football player man and most of the stones I've had have had me laying in a fetal position and whimpering like a baby. I'd have done anything, and I mean anything, to get some kidney stone pain relief.
Kidney stones are not anything new, as scientists have in fact found sign of kidney stones in an Egyptian mummy over 7,000 years old (I bet I know what killed the unlucky pharaoh!). Over 3 million people visit health care providers and there are over 500,000 emergency visits because of kidney stones.
What Causes Kidney Stone Pain?
Surprisingly enough, doctors aren't yet certain what causes kidney stones, but know why they can cause like pain.
Your kidneys filter your blood, makes urine, remove waste from your body, and help regulate your critical electrolyte levels. Urine moves from your kidney through narrow tubes called ureters into your bladder, and then empties through a wider tube referred to an uretha.
In a few people, chemicals cyrstallize in the urine and form what's the beginning of a kidney stone. These are very small, but slightly grow over time. Most kidney stones, when they are small, in fact pass out of the human body undetected through the ureter, bladder, and ethetha.
Problems start on when these crystal stones grow bigger. So long as they're in the kidney, they hardly ever cause problems.
But when then enter the ureter, that's when things can get horrible.
Normally, you feel a very sudden and very sharp, cramping pain in your lower back and side close to your kidney or in the lower abdomen. This sudden pain is sometimes accompanied by nausea, and vomiting.
Once in the ureter, the stone acts just like a dam ... the kidney keeps pumping out urine, the urine gets blocked by the stone, and kidney and ureter start to swell. It is this swelling that can cause such excruciating pain.
Kidney Stone Shapes Once in the ureter, the muscles in the wall of the ureter attempt to squeeze the stone along its technique. Both the size and the shape of the stone influence how effortlessly it moves along the ureter (I once had a 4mm "jagged" stone that ripped and tore it's way down my ureter causing much bleeding and pain that was FAR WORSE than a 10mm stone that was smooth and looked like a bullet).
(However, if you ever experience chills and fever during an episode, it may indicate an infection and you really, really need to call a doctor instantly. You don't intend to mess with an infection, particularly a kidney infection.)
While the urine backup is what causes most of the pain, it is also what can push the stone down and into the bladder and which generally stops the kidney stone pain.
If you are susceptible to kidney stone pain, you must be happy to learn there're natural ways that might aid with the pain, help dissolve the stone, and help you pass it quickly and fairy painlessly.
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