Kidney stone pain? misdiagnosis? so confused and worried

[kneeswrites]

The other night, I went to sleep feeling okay. I felt a bit nauseous but it wasn't anything crazy. I woke up at about 3 a.m. with intense upper back pain. I am a super, super heavy sleeper, and I don't think I've EVER actually been woken up by pain before. It was hard to explain the pain, it was like basically just my entire upper torso and it curled around into the top of my belly. It was constantly bad and then would come in waves, almost like contractions (I was induced and had an epidural pretty quickly with my daughter so I don't fully understand what labor feels like). It was almost a burning pain in the center of my chest/back. It got worse really fast. I tried to get in the bath to see if it helped, in case it was like braxton hicks or something, but about two minutes into my bath I was jumping out to call 911 because at that point it was so excruciating and I was having trouble breathing or speaking. It felt like someone was constricting my entire torso, in waves though.

Well anyway, I called 911 and told them I was 27 weeks pregnant and explained that I had horrible back pain and couldn't breathe well. In the ambulance I reiterated that I was 27 weeks pregnant. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't preterm labor. They said that they didn't think it was baby and so they were sending me to the closest hospital, the one without a NICU or maternity services. I was in so much pain I couldn't argue.

At the hospital, they gave me morphine which made the pain just barely bearable. They took some urine and blood and did an ultrasound and said I had some kidney stones. Prescribed me lortabs and sent me on my way, saying I'd pee them out in a couple days.

Well, it's been a few days... I haven't had the pain of the other night at all, but I have been feeling super crampy and painful in my lower abdomen, like period cramps. And today I also have shooting pains right above my pubic bone.

I'm just nervous because the pain of kidney stones is supposed to be in your lower abdomen/back and groin? With nausea and vomiting? I was mildly nauseated from the intensity of the pain but I haven't had any since except as a result of the lortabs. And the pain I had was closer to being chest pain than back pain, but it wasn't normal chest pain either. It was so weird and horrible. It was literally just like my entire torso was spasming.

I wish they had done more to check to see if I was in labor. I mean obviously I wasn't cause I didn't have my baby but what if it was a warning sign or something? They didn't once check anything. The closest they came was the ultrasound but they just checked my kidneys. I should note I think this hospital is semi-incompetent and the fact that they are not prepared to deal with women in labor makes me nervous they might miss something.

I am out of lortabs from the period-cramp pain. And I just feel really anxious and I can't stop it, it's like I constantly feel like I'm forgetting something or I am supposed to be doing something.

What would y'all do? Have you had kidney stones before? How did it go, and what was the pain like?

 

[Eleanor ace]

You poor thing! . I've had kidney stones and they were really painful, but the pain was pretty much all in my lower back and what felt like my urethra. It did come in waves like you describe and then was pretty constant while I was in the process of passing them. If it was me I'd go to another hospital and ask for an ultrasound and any other checks they can/will do to make sure it isn't pregnancy related; hopefully it isn't but I'd definitely want to be sure.

 

[icegurl470]

I'm surprised the they weren't more concerned about preterm labor, but since they saw the stones in the ultrasound they were probably pretty convinced that was the cause. I had kidney stones once and would say the pain was pretty comparable to labor. Your kidneys are located high up near your ribs so I can imagine it can cause pain high up in your back and chest. I think the location of the pain depends on where the stone or stones are, I think the pain travels down into your lower back and abdomen when you're actually passing them.

In my case I was passing small stones for a few days without realizing it and got a bad UTI that wasn't going away. Then one night I had the pain as you described. I was lying in a ball in the bottom of my shower unable to move it was so painful. Then I had a lot of blood and bloody clumps of tissue in my urine and white bits of debri. I called the ER and they told me it was kidney stones. They told me there wasn't much they could do and to just drink tons of water to flush them out so I literally just sat in the shower all night and drank water and peed down the drain, it was gross, one of the worse night of my life. By the next morning I had passed all the stones and I was completely better and my UTI finally started to clear up.

My dr said they were likely calcium kidney stones, these are one of the most common. He told me to stop taking my calcium supplement. I was taking a multivitamin with calcium and eating a lot of dairy so I was probably getting too much. Taking too much calcium can cause calcium deposits in your urine and when these deposits clump together they can form stones. his advice was to drink more water, decrease my calcium consumption and increase my vit D. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium properly. I haven't had any issues since.

The cramping could be caused from passing small stones. I think I had been passing small stones for awhile and attributing it to other things. Hopefully you pass them all relatively easily. If they're really large they will surgically remove them, but the fact that they just sent you home with a pain killer means they must have thought they were small enough to pass on their own. It's crazy that's there's not much more they can do. If it keeps happening you may have to do some digging to find the underlying cause, but it's not uncommon, especially during pregnancy. Unfortunately, its just one of those things that can happen that you just have to deal with. Hope you feel better soon and the rest of your pregnancy goes more smoothly.