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WOW...I am not alone! I am 26 weeks prego just had a stint put in this past Wednesday. About three weeks ago I began to have cramps that got worse throughout the day, this being my second child (first is 12yrs old) I knew it was not labor. I had my monthly appointment that day so I decided to wait to tell the doctor about the cramping. As soon as I got into the dr.'s office they asked for the usual urine sample. I was mortified when I saw the sample was pure red. I tried to keep my composure as I walked back to the room with the sample I did not want to scare all the other moms-to-be. I was given antibiotics and sent home, UTI. It took about 2 hours before the pain became unbearable. I dropped my son off at soccer practice then drove myself to the hospital. When I gave a urine sample in the ER I head the nurse say to another, "you think there is urine in this blood". I was admitted, and given an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed no stones. I was pumped with antibiotics and felt fine. I couldn't get home soon enough. A few days after I got home and the oral antibiotics ran out I started to have pains again. I went in for another check up and told my doctor about the pains. He sent me directly over to the urologist. Urologist said that even though no stones shower up in the ultrasound they are there, stones must be too big to pass. The next day morning I had a stint put in. I have had this thing in for 5 days now. Now that I shared my story, let me get to my point. I read that some of you have had a stint in for months. I don't know how you are doing it??? I am in such pain it is indescribable. Not only does my side ache, the real pain comes from the bladder and vaginal area. Every time I stand up I feel like I have to urinate, it burns nonstop. It takes forever just to find a sitting position that I can stand. It just plain old hurts badly, constantly. I am on Tylenol 3, which not only am I not crazy about taking it does absolutely nothing for the pain. Considering that fact that I can not do a thing due to the discomfort and sheer pain I plan to call my urologist FIRST thing tomorrow morning (Monday) and make an emergency appointment to discuss other options. It is 2005, not 1905 there has to be an alternative to having a stint in for the next three months. As I am sure all of you have, I have a million things that I have to do. I run a business, attend college and have a 12 year old son and a house to manage. I can't just sit in pain. I cry numerous times a day; this could easily put me into depression. I feel hopeless all day. I may just be getting my hopes up, but I am going to have to demand that this stint be taken out. I can't take it. I am to the point that if I could get to this darn stint out myself I would. I hate the fact that we have to deal with this and I refuse to accept it. I will do anything to keep my unborn child from harm, but I need to know all of my options. I will update as soon as I get any answers. Until then if anyone has any suggestions as to how to relieve the pain let me know. Also, I was told to stay away from acidy and spicy foods, tea, coffee for this may irritate the stint. Has anyone heard anything about what to or what not to eat? Also, I am really surprised at the lack of information on pregnancy and kidney stones out there.

I've been reading these posts for a couple of months now, suspecting I was suffering from kidney stones. I just would like to offer my experience in case it can help someone else. I was originally diagnosed (at around 18 weeks) with a UTI based on blood in my urine -- urine was not sent out with culture. Pain and discomfort did not not lessen with antibiotics and pyridium. Several times I called my doctor's office and told them the pain was getting worse, not better. I was dismissed as a complainer who was not familiar with pregnancy (this is my first). At least twice since then I was diagnosed with a UTI, but requested each time that my urine be sent out for a culture. Each time it came back negative for infection. Do not let your practitioner ASSUME you have a UTI based on blood in urine alone. ALWAYS request a culture, which will confirm or deny the presence of an actual infection. Today I am at 32 weeks and 4 days and this is the first visit during which I have not shown blood in my urine. This being two hospital visits and three stones later. The moral of my story has two points: DO be sure to drink a lot of fluid (not sodas) from the onset of your pregnancy and DO be sure any blood in your urine is not assumed to be from a UTI -- request a urine culture. I hope this helps someone else avoid the weeks of worry and discomfort I experienced.

I have been vomiting and have severe rt side back pain. It is 3:45 am and everytime I lay down I get sick. I have had no morning sickness and I can hardly stand the back pain, Do I have a kidney stone?

I am now about 28 weeks and I am about to have my stent replaced. when i was 16 weeks, i went to by gynae for my monthly check up and told him that for the last 2 days I had had severe back pain on my left side. After my urine came back positive for blood he sent it in for testing. I barely made it home (5minutes away). Phoned my husband who immediately came home and took me back to the gynae - he submitted me to the hospital where I had a sonar (the specialist at the time spent 10 minutes first looking at the baby while i am lying there in serious pain and throwing up with morning sickness and pain) and an x-ray taken - they could definately see something was obstructing but due to the size of my uterus and potential harm to my baby they could not do a proper x-ray or ultra-sound to see exactly where the stones were / are!. 5 hours later they finally decide to give me some pain killers an hour later i was in the OR having a stent put in - I have found it uncomfortable at times but not unbearable - it is now 3 months later and I am about to go in to have it replaced - ironically i started last night having the most unbelievable pains on my right side now and it feels exactly the same as when my stones were moving in my left kidney - so i am hoping one has not developed in the right kidney as well. The unfortunate part about it is that they can't really do anything until i have had my baby. The stent at least relieves pressure and stops any blockage and subsequent possible loss of a kidney. This is not 1905 and thank God because if it was we would have just had to pass them on our own, with the possibility of lossing a kidney, your child and with possibly more harmfull painkillers being administered at that time.
All in all It is a technically short period of your life an although it is excruciatingly painful - we have to grin and bear for our sake and for our childrens sake. - I am so sick of water though!!

Dear Tracy! I feel your pain. I am the orignal post. After posting this question, I have consulted my urologist, Nephrologist and OB since I am 3 months pregnant again. My urologist advised that he would not put in a stent unless I was close to delivery (like a week or less) if I had an attack during pregnacy. He advised me that if I had another attack and couldn't pass the stone he would remove the stone by surgery with no real risk to the baby and that the pain meds he would give me wouldn't harm the baby either. He said it was unreasonable cruel to make a women suffer through that much pain with a stent in that causes almost as much pain as the stone itself. I am scared to death to have a stone attack during this pregnancy, but am relieved to know, my doctor would remove it if I couldn't pass it. Maybe this can be an option for you. I feel so bad for you. Good Luck and God Bless.

Dear Nicole, Thanks for your response. As stated I did indeed call my urologist Monday morning insisting on an appointment to discuss an alternative way about handling these stones. The nurse got him on the phone and he insisted that the pain was coming from an infection, not the stint. He said the stint causes mild discomfort, not unbearable pain. I am to continue to take my antibiotics and he prescribed Vicodin for the pain. Also, he said “heating pad, heating pad, heating pad”, which was rather annoying because he sounded as if I was just trying to complain. I had to go into the office to pick up the prescription from the nurse, I was so angry I just sat and waited for the script (for 45 minutes) lacking any emotion. I am glad though that if you do have to go through this again that you have a doctor that understands and will take measures to help you instead of “band-aiding” the problem. I suppose that I am stuck for now. My next appointment is the second week in June; I go to the urologist for an ultrasound of my kidney. Until then, I have to go sit in class for 4 hours tonight, don’t know how that is going to go.

Tracy
I can relate to your story too. I felt the exact same way. They are band-aiding the problem with what I think is a midevil torture device. Stents are for temporary draining of the kidney, not long term. If they were made for that then they would not get built up and have to be replaced. I can't believe they have come up with Viagra for men and have not come up with a better solution for women with stones during pregnancy. Sure, it's better than 1905, but does that mean we have to accept that?

I went for a second opinion and the doctor did take the stent out. He told me he would TRY to get the stone out but either way he would get that stent out of me. He said some people are just not able to tolerate it. I told him thank God.

I was lucky because when he took it out the stone came out too. But I have been reading about people who did not get the stent and took pain meds instead. If you absolutely need the stent then so be it. I just think the doctors are doing this "routinely" at the first sign to cover themselves and are telling the mothers they just have to deal with it in the name of being pregnant. How can it be healthy for a baby if the mother is sick with pain and not eating correctly, and needs to be doped up on medication just to get through the day.

I hope they can come up with a better solution for this horrible problem. If you feel like I felt you are amazing for making it through your class. Good luck to you.

the answer to your question as far as pain management. depends on your doctor, but demerol is usually alright for pregnant women at monitored doses and phenergan for nausea during pain, o2 , tylenol 3 w/ codeine, up to doc. though.. There is no real way to eliminate kidney stones they are hereditary,and the others are element build up based. Acidotic, and calcified build up in the system. Hope it helps.. Take care.. A great preventer I found is AZO standard cranberry pills over the counter. They work wonders. You can buy them anywhere, drug store mostly. Take one a day and drink water.. I would swear by it.. your medicfriend

Not a whole lot of ways to ease the pain during a kidney stone period but demerol, phenergan for nausea during pain, oxygen helps, AZO standard they are overthecounter and help prevent kidney stones from occurring. They are cranberry pills, which line the smooth muscle in the ureters allowing less build up in the tubes causing blockage. After you are relieved talk to your doc about AZO standard or plus. I would swear by them. Helped me kidney stone free for 7years.. your medic friend

I feel much better knowing that i am not going through this alone. I went to my ob today and he says he is going to do a c-sect. on monday!!! The stent will come out afterwards!!!! I can't wait, I had the stent put in because this little wiggle worm inside me is "an over 10 pounder". I can't imagine what you ladies are going through having the kidney stones too. Good luck to you all, you are in my prayers. No woman should ever have to go through this. I completely agree that there needs to be some alternative to this. I had a midwife tell me the other day that i have no tolerence for pain!! it's really frustrating when the dr.s and nurses treat you like an annoyance, complainer, or whiner, esp. when none of them have ever had to endure the pain that we have had to from these stents.

Wow! I went through this with my last pregnancy and I couldnt find anyone else online who had stones while pregnant - we should start a support group!!

We hope to have more children and I am so scared of having stones again. I had a "nephrostomy tube" placed from the outside of my back, into the kidney. It was hell to have it put in, it was very traumatic for me. It was painful for a long time but I got used to it. THEN after I gave birth (i passed the stone but they left it in just in case there were more) they couldnt get the tube out!!!!!! My body calcified it to my kidney :( It was so scary

I had to have a lithotripsy and then they also went internally with lasers and tried to break it up but couldnt get it out. It was such a nighmare. A week later my urologist tried the "pull hard" method and it finally came out.

As a result of all the antibiotics my son and I battled thrush for 8 MONTHS. Please, if you are on constant antibox take lots and lots of acidopholus - the refrigerated kind from a health food store.

the stents sound absolute miserable. Im so sorry you are all going through this. {{hugs}}

I had a kidney stone attack at 24 weeks....I am currently 32 weeks......it did not hurt the baby at all. I was put into the hospital and put on pain medication that didn't effect my baby. They monitored his heartbeat for the entire time I was in the hospital and he was great...kicking and rolling. I still have not passed the stones.....so I still have attacks but I don not take the pain medication they gave me I simply breathe through the attack....as I am sure you know how painful they are. Because I am pregnant it is difficult to treat the stone in a normal manner....but you deal with it.
Hope that helps!

I just came back from the doc, blood in my urine, sending it out for culture to see if it is a kidney stone or uti. I was so glad to see this board, thanks for all the info! This is my second pregnancy, I didn't have any problems the first time. I know I haven't been drinking enough water but this pain in my left side will make me from now on!

Hi I'm due in less than a week and have been hospitalized twice with kidney stones. I was put on morphine and gravol for both occurences and am worried that this drug is so strong it could have some effect on my baby, although my obstetrition said it was safe. Is it common to be prescribed this for pain? My worst fear now is that I will have an attack while I am in labour. I feel subtle pain in my side but it does subside with a lot of water intake. Has anyone had an attack while in labour? My doc says an epidural will eleviate the pain if this happens. This is my second pregnancy my first one now seems like a dream (no problems). Thanks for sharing your stories everyone they've been helpful.

I am 30 weeks pregnant and just got back from the hospital for kidney stones...and I feel so horrible for all of you women that have had to go through the pain and suffering of this horrible thing! I feel really blessed, though, because I thankfully, haven't had to have a stent (and I don't want one ever, from the sounds of it!). I went to the ER b/c of the HORRIBLE pain in my left side and back..and since this is my first pregnancy, I didn't have any clue if the pain meant something was wrong w/ the baby or what...but thank God it turned out to be a kidney stone that actually is now floating around in my blatter. It passed from my Kidney to my bladder, and that was the pain I felt (which they eased at the hospital w/ Demerol and Phenergan) but now I'm just waiting for it to pass thru my Urethra...I'm ahving to strain all my urine to see if it comes out...but I was wondering if anyone had tremendous pain when it came out or if it just passed thru without pain? They said it could take weeks for it to even come out of the bladder...has anyone had this happen? I don't feel much pain at all right now, just achy sometimes, and the docters say it's b/c of the scraping that occured when the pea-sized stone when thru the hair-sized ureter to the bladder. I'm also nervous that I may be susceptable to get more stones during the rest of pregnancy or with additional pregnancies in the future. I'll just have to pray not! All in all, I'm thrilled to hear that labor is "a walk in the park" compared to the horrendous pain of the kidney stone! I know if I could handle that, I'll be able to handle labor! By the way, I'm having a boy...and I've drank sooo much water thruout my whole pregnancy...sometimes more than 96 ozs. a day, so I don't think dehydration had anything to do w/ my stone...

HI Ashley! I am so sorry for your pain but am very glad you passed the stone on your own. Now that the stone is in your bladder you may get a sensation that you need to pee or that the stone might put pressure on you when it's ready to come out, but for all 3 of my stone attacks, passing the stone from the bladder was painless! It was actually the best- most releiving part of the whole thing to know it's over. Keep drinking your water and avoid caffeine, salt and other stone forming foods since you could be prone to another stone especially if you have some left in your kidneys! I have some in my kidneys which makes me feel like a walking time bomb!!!! Good Luck to you and your baby!!!