Ouch: each year, more than 500,000 Americans seek care for kidney stones. Here's the story of one man's second—and how he's preventing any more.
“Here’s How I Knew I Had a Kidney Stone”: A Patient’s Story
Published on Apr. 01, 2025
By Roger Lucas, as told to Dr. Patricia Varacallo, DO
My kidney stone symptoms
One morning last October, I woke up with a sharp, stabbing pain in my left lower back. It came in waves and soon radiated down toward my groin.
I felt nauseated, ended up vomiting once, and noticed my urine had a reddish tint—all clear warning signs that something wasn’t right. The pain was so intense I couldn’t sit still or find a comfortable position. That’s when my wife stepped in and drove me straight to the emergency department here in our part of Dallas.
I’m in my sixties, and this wasn’t my first kidney stone. Once you’ve had one, your odds of having another increase significantly—but this time, the pain was unlike anything I remembered.
Being diagnosed with a kidney stone
Kidney stone symptoms can include sudden, sharp pain in the side or lower back, nausea or vomiting, blood in the urine, and the urgent need to urinate. Dehydration, high-sodium or high-protein diets, obesity, chronic medical conditions, and genetics can all raise the risk.
Almost immediately, the ED doctor recognized my symptoms as a likely kidney stone. He gave me a strong pain reliever and anti-nausea medication to make me more comfortable, then proceeded with tests to confirm the diagnosis.
First, they obtained a CT scan of my abdomen. Sure enough, the scan revealed a six-millimeter stone lodged in my left ureter. The stone was blocking the flow of urine out of my kidney, which explained the intense pain. (My doctor later explained that when a stone blocks the ureter, urine backs up, the kidney swells, and the ureter goes into spasm.)
They also did a urine test, which confirmed the presentation of blood and some crystals. All this supported the kidney stone diagnosis as well.
Once the CT results were in, the on-call urologist came to discuss the findings with me. We talked about my history: I’d actually passed a small kidney stone in my early fifties. I learned—too well—that kidney stones are hard, pebble-like crystals that form when minerals such as calcium or uric acid build up in the urine and stick together. They often remain unnoticed until one moves into the ureter, the narrow tube that connects the kidney to the bladder, where it can block the flow of urine and trigger intense pain.
In that previous episode, the stone had been analyzed and determined to be a calcium oxalate stone. This time the care team deemed it was likely that this new stone was the same type.
Treatment for my kidney stone
The treatment plan unfolded in stages, starting with getting me through the immediate crisis of pain, and then focusing on getting rid of the stone. Once my pain was under control, the initial approach was conservative: we would see if I could pass the stone naturally since it wasn’t extremely large.
The urologist explained that stones around six millimeters are somewhat in the borderline zone, about 80% of kidney stones can pass on their own, especially smaller ones, but a six-millimeter stone might or might not pass without intervention. Because my vital signs were stable and I had no signs of kidney infection or kidney damage, we decided to give it a little time.
He sent me home with prescriptions and instructions. I was told to drink a lot of water to help flush the stone, and I was given a strainer to urinate through so I could catch the stone when it passed. (By straining my urine, any stone fragments could be collected and sent to a lab for analysis of its composition.)
For pain management, I had oral pain medications to take as needed (the ER doctor recommended ibuprofen when tolerable, since NSAIDs can help kidney stone pain, along with a few stronger pain pills for backup).
I also went home with a medication called tamsulosin (Flomax), which is an alpha-blocker that can relax the ureter, potentially helping the stone to pass faster and easier. My doctor said even if it didn’t make the difference, it could help relieve the spasm pain.
For the next week, I stuck to the plan: I drank water almost constantly, took my medications, and dutifully used the urine strainer each time I went to the bathroom. The pain came and went; it was much milder than that first day but still noticeable as a dull ache in the side. I kept hoping I’d see that stone in the strainer and be done with it. However, a week passed and…no stone.
At my follow-up appointment, we repeated an ultrasound and it showed the stone was still in my ureter, not far from where it had been. Given that it hadn’t passed on its own by this point, the urologist recommended we proceed with a minimally invasive procedure to remove it.
He described two possible procedures: shock wave lithotripsy and ureteroscopy. In shock wave lithotripsy, they use targeted sound waves from outside the body to break the stone into smaller pieces. It’s noninvasive (no incisions), and afterwards the tiny fragments can pass out naturally.
Ureteroscopy, on the other hand, is an endoscopic procedure. The doctor would insert a small scope through my urethra and bladder up into the ureter to either laser the stone into pieces or grab it out. Both procedures are common for stones, and the best choice often depends on a stone’s size and location.
In my case, the stone’s location and size made shock wave lithotripsy a good option, and it sounded a lot less intimidating to me than having a scope inserted (even though I’d be under anesthesia for either one). I agreed to the lithotripsy.
Shock wave lithotripsy for my kidney stone
A few days later as an outpatient, I underwent the extracorporeal shock wave lithotripsy. They gave me sedative medication and I lay on a table with a specialized machine pressed against my back.
I don’t remember much thanks to the sedation, but the procedure took under an hour. The shock waves broke the six-millimeter stone into several smaller fragments, as intended.
I went home the same day with instructions to continue drinking lots of water. Over the next two days, I passed multiple tiny sand-like stone pieces in my urine with minimal discomfort—so much easier than what I’d been through before. It was a huge relief to know the stone was out.
The clinicians analyzed the stone fragments, confirming they were composed of calcium oxalate, as expected.
With that problem solved, my care shifted to preventing this from happening again.
Preventing future kidney stones
My urologist gave me a game plan to help prevent more calcium oxalate stones, and I was all ears—after what I’d been through, I never wanted a repeat. Thankfully, my wife has been supportive and is helping me stick with the changes.
Staying hydrated is priority number one. I aim to drink enough to produce about 2.5 liters of urine daily, which keeps it pale yellow or clear. I always carry a water bottle and refill it often.
I also lowered my salt and meat intake. Too much sodium increases calcium in urine, and heavy animal protein can make urine more acidic. Both calcium and acid raise the risk of stones. Now we cook with a lot less salt, have cut back on processed food, and have added more plant-based proteins.
My doctor also recommended adding lemon juice to my water. Citrus fruits are high in citric acid, which turns into citrate in the body and helps prevent stones. Now, I squeeze fresh lemon into a few glasses of water each day.
After recovering, I did a 24-hour urine test to check my mineral levels. It confirmed I excrete a lot of oxalate, which reinforced the need for these changes. If needed, my doctor said medications could help too, but for now, lifestyle changes are doing the trick.
What to do if you suspect you have a kidney stone
If you’ve ever been hit with sudden, intense pain and questioned whether it could be a kidney stone, you’re experiencing something that affects more than 1 in 10 Americans over the course of their lives, according to data shared by the Cleveland Clinic. The pain is often described as one of the worst imaginable—frequently compared to the pain of childbirth.
“The smallest size could be as small as a poppy seed or just even crystals that show up on a urine test but aren’t visible to the eye,” says Smita De, MD, PhD, a board-certified urologist at Cleveland Clinic. “They can get as big as filling the entire kidney, so that can be more than 4 or 5 centimeters, depending on the size of somebody’s kidney,” she adds.
If you think you might have a kidney stone, especially if you’re experiencing sudden, sharp pain in your lower back or side that comes in waves, it’s important to pay attention to your symptoms and act quickly.
Start by calling your primary care doctor if the pain is mild and you’re not experiencing other concerning symptoms like fever or vomiting. Your doctor can assess your symptoms, order imaging tests, and determine whether you’re likely dealing with a kidney stone. If so, they may recommend pain management at home, increased fluid intake, and possibly a referral to a urologist.
However, there are times when kidney stones go from manageable to medically urgent. You should go to the emergency room if you experience:
- Severe or escalating pain that isn’t controlled with over-the-counter medications
- Nausea or vomiting, especially if you can’t keep fluids or medication down
- Fever or chills, which could indicate a serious infection
- Difficulty urinating or blood in your urine
- Known history of kidney stones and pain on the same side
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