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I developed kidney stones and had to have a stent put in. I asked the Urologist for something to relieve the UTI-like side effects that were driving me crazy and to tears (but not nearly as bad as the kidney stones had been). He prescribed Pyridium (aka Phenazopyridine). I'm wondering why no one else on this thread seems to be taking/took Pyridium for the stent's side effects? It's a Class B drug, which my OB says is safe to use during pregnancy. For me, it works most of the time, which has been a god-send.

I took Pyridium for my Stent. It still hurt when I used the bathroom, but it did ease the pain a bit. After my son was born (C-Section), I had to wait 8 weeks before they could take the stent out. They tried to take the stent out but the stones had calcified around the stent and they had to take it out during my lithrotripsy procedure. After that, everything was fine! To help ease some of your minds, My son is now 2 years old and that aweful part of my pregnancy seems like a distant memory. We are working on #2 now, so hopefully it doesn't happen again. I will tell you this, if it DOES happen again I will be very reluctant in getting a stent put in!

The baby was pushing on the ureters for most of the pregnancy. My pain was reduced once she turned head down. Now she's pushing on my bladder, which is close to "normal" pain for this point in the pregnancy. I have noticed that if I don't take the pyrudium my kidney hurts, so I guess it helps up there as well.

Thx Annelamama & Tmdinan for UR replies to my Jan7/08 post and UR advice on stents. It sounds like it isn't worth getting them. Also it was good to find out about Pyrudium (phenazopyridine) being safe to take during pregnancy for the pain of the k-stones passing.

I've had more k-stone issues since that post & passed another major stone almost 2 yrs to the day of my 1st one passing, but my 2nd big one was in the other kidney. This is not good news to have bother kidneys effected by this.

I've changed my diet to eating & drinking more of things that are supposed to help prevent k-stones from forming & also things things that help break them down such as lemonaide. I'm still always feeling blockages & wake up in pain every morning until I go to the bathroom & urinate.

I recently started taking Chanca Piedra to help crush what stones I've in my kidneys, & sometimes still take the Uva Ursi when not taking Chanca Piedra. For now I have put off TTC until I can get this cleared up. If the Chanca Piedra doesn't work, then I'll opt to get my k-stones surgically removed. I've had enough of this ongoing problem & want to TTC & not have to worry about another stone from the blockage trying to pass during pregnancy.

To stent or not to stent. That seems to be an eternal question for us pregnant ladies.
In my case, the stent was definitely the right thing to do. The urologist was reluctant at first (because of the epidural), but I had 5 trips to the ER for morphine in a 2 week period, had missed 8 of 10 days of work, was told to expect more stones and was only 20 weeks pregnant. In addition, my hospital of choice was far away, and at one point I went to the nearest ER where my doctors were not "admitting," was sent to L&D (instead of the ER) where they didn't want me and didn't know how to treat me and refused to give me morphine. It took 3 hours of literally screaming my head off to get them to give me the proper pain treatment. That alone convinced me to get the stent.
The night of screaming turned out to be the night the stone left my kidney. It got impacted at the bottom of my ureter, never passed and was continuing to give me trouble.
The stent was the way to go to get through the next 20 weeks. During the procedure, my doctor did note that I have a very narrow ureter and he had to use a very narrow gauge stent. It "tickled" right where the impacted stone was, but didn't make me miserable until another stone developed (so maybe the stones are really to blame). Thanks to the stent, I didn't need morphine. Some Percocet was enough to manage the pain over the next week and the stent kept the urine flowing. But whatever that stone did to me, the UTI symptoms went through the roof, which was when I was given the Pyridium. I took it 2x/day for a month. I've been able to cut back to 1x/day, since the baby turned.
One other thing I noticed was that all of my attacks were accompanied by constipation. In fact, I was treating what I thought was only constipation for weeks before I ended up on the bathroom floor asking my husband to call an ambulance. I guess my backed up colon puts pressure on the ureter and complicates an already partially blocked kidney. SO in addition to LOTS of water, I now eat a bowl of HIGH fiber cereal everyday and take 100mg of Colace 3x/day. When I do get constipated (and sure enough the kidney starts to hurt), I take Milk of Magnesia to cure it. I also switched to 1 children's vitamin and 1 woman's nutrition bar per day. It seems to spread out the iron intake.
I have no idea if the 2nd stone passed out of my kidney or the 1st stone ever fell into my bladder. Given the occasional back pain, something is going on in there. We'll find out after the baby is born. But there is some comfort in knowing the stent is "doing its job" and I'm not continually running to the hospital for morphine or popping percocet.
It's been psychologically exhausting managing this pregnancy (my first was a cake walk in comparison). Oddly enough, my first pregnancy was during the winter. I was thirsty all of the time and drank lots of water with lemon juice (instead of tea) just by chance. I know nothing but the potential for kidney stones.
I have much empathy for the women who have experienced many more and/or larger stones and complications than I have.

I guess you don't know if a stent will work for U until U get one. What tmdinan said happened to her-w-the stone calcifying around the stent scares me. I've already had a kidney completely stop working because of k-stone blockage & it was many painful mo's until it started breaking up-w-the use of Uva Ursi.

What U had to say annelmama about UR stones and constipation is very interesting. I've had severe constipation issues for about 4-5 yrs now, where I sometimes don't have a bowel movement for over a wk & I will be eating lots of fiber and fruits to try to move things along and I often have to resort to taking a laxative. Then that either doesn't work immediately or works too well,lol.

When I think about it, I have these severe constipation incidences every time I have a stone passing from little stones to the major ones that have had me bed ridden and projectile vomiting from the pain.

In my case there is a lot to get sorted out first before I will feel comfortable-w-TTC, however I'm really wanting to be a mom soon. I guess my cats will have to fill that void a bit longer. I worry that a baby crowding everything internally when pregnant would just further complicate all these issues for now. So, I'm giving myself a 1 yr plan to get in good health first.

Thx for UR replies, it's very helpful. If my Chanca Piedra doesn't work and I opt to get surgery or that ultrasonic wan thingy done, I'm wondering what's the best one to choose that will completely clear all blockages out and isn't as invasive.