Ureter Puns

Edit: A relatively small one, bout 3mm

I’m going on day 3 of having a kidney stent and the bladder spasms are unbearable. I have to seriously medicate every four hours. Please tell me this gets better. I’m supposed to go back to work next week — a few days before my urologist will remove the stent. I’m a nurse and I work 12 hours on my feet, how can I do this? Do the kidney/bladder spasms get any easier as the days go by?

Today my husband went back to work and I just want to cry. I have to take care of a toddler, a farm, and my learning disabled 11 year old is home as well due to fall break.

I got my hysterectomy done 2 weeks ago, both ovaries were left. I had very painful periods for 30+ years due to fibroids and an enlarged uterus. The hysterectomy went fine, but as they were closing me up they noticed my left ureter was not working. It had been cut during the procedure.

A urologist was called to repair it. What was supposed to be 3 small incisions turned into being cut open from pubic bone to belly button, 2 nights in the hospital, being sent home with a catheter (taken out last week) and a long stent from my kidney to bladder (stays in a few more weeks).

The hardest thing for me is readjusting my planned recovery timeline, the extended recovery time is so much longer than it would have been had there been no complications. I only had my farm and household chores covered for 2 weeks, thinking I would be able to resume light daily chores by now. I was keeping up on having the house picked up, dishes, and very light cooking, but the last 2 days I haven't felt well at all and now things are getting messy which stresses me out so much. My sister was up vacuuming and doing dishes after 2 days and her friend went back to work after a week. They only took their pain pills for a few days.

I feel like I'm not recovering as fast as I should be. I still have gas pain, my insides are sore, and I have been sleeping sitting up since the surgery. I can't even think about recovering from the hysterectomy, I'm mainly focusing on healing from this huge incision that is extremely uncomfortable, and hoping the ureter heals well over the next few weeks and the stent can be taken out as planned. I am still having to take pain pills, which I hate.

At this point I wish I would have just waited the 5 years and had a natural menopause. All I wanted was to not have horrific periods anymore, and now I feel like I made it worse. Your ureters naturally have a one-way valve that stops urine from going back up to the kidney. I don't have that anymore on my left ureter so there is an increased risk of urine reflux and bladder infections. Not to mention this huge scar. I can't even think about it. I'm just hoping it can heal and fade with a few laser treatments. I don't have tattoos or any major scars so this is a big shock. I know I may feel differently in a year but today I am really down.

To say

I am on my third urologist and she is pretty great, albeit entirely too busy. She is tackling my chronic pelvic pain from multiple angles - but we just a urodynamic study done (not fun) and based on the following symptoms: micro blood in urine, pain worse at night, pain the lower abdominal/pubic bone area - she thinks there may be a kidney stone lodged in the ureter. Or the point where the kidney runoff enters the bladder. I have a CT scan scheduled in two weeks, but this is not a common cause/topic on this forum so trying to ask directly if anyone had this or was suspected of having this.

I am also doing a full MRI of the spine (ugh) on the offchance this is nervous system related and a possible case of small fiber neuropathy.

This is my first post here. I've followed this group for a few weeks now and I've found a lot of really useful information and experiences here.

About 3 weeks ago I was alarmed when I started passing blood in my urine (gross hematuria). I had never seen it like that before. I have known I have stones for a few years now and I have passed a few before with no major pain or discomfort other than the first time I ever experienced excruciating pain that sent me to the ER when I first found I have stones. Since then it's been relatively manageable.

Anyway, after a CT 3 weeks ago following the blood in the urine and a visit with my urologist they found that the stone was about 7mm and stuck in the right ureter. I found this group and I tried just about every option I found here but unfortunately nothing helped in passing the stone.

After 3 weeks on Tamsulosin and not passing the stone my urologist recommended a ureteroscopy because the 2 previous ultrasounds I did showed mild hydronephrosis. So I did the surgery today. I'm sitting in my hospital bed writing this, disappointed because the doctor said during the procedure he did not find the stone in the ureter. He said either I passed the stone and did not notice or the stone moved back into the kidney. I did not even know that was possible hence the question in the headline.

I really don't think I passed the stone because I have been going into a strainer in a container ever since I first started passing blood.

I feel pretty disappointed because I live in Belize and healthcare here is expensive. This surgery cost me $6000 BZE (US$3000) and it was not easy to come up with this money in 3 weeks. The doctor did not recommend a CT prior to the surgery but in hindsight I feel a CT would have been adviseable to pinpoint where the stone was before going into surgery. Now I feel like I'm back at square one and wasted this money which I cannot get back.

If and when that stone starts moving again, if it gets stuck again I don't know what will happen because I doubt I will be able to come up with this money on such short notice again. I feel like the doctor should really have made us do a CT or ultrasound prior to surgery to know the condition before going into the ureteroscopy. Maybe I am a little more bummed than I should be idk.

Grateful for any opinions here. He put in a stent which he says will remain for 6-8 weeks.

In January 2019 I (now 30M) went to the ER with pain in my side, vomiting, etc. Urine analysis and CT(?) revealed a 5mm kidney stone, and after some fluids and pain meds the pain subsided (presumably passed through ureter) and I was sent home with a strainer and a vial, told to strain my piss, collect the stone and take it to the urologist.

I strained for a few days but had to get back to work as a contractor and straining every time was not feasible, so that quickly stopped. Aside from a few twinges here and there I haven’t had any other symptoms of a stone, and certainly don’t recall passing it.

1. is it possible to have passed a 5mm stone without noticing? It hurt A LOT going down the ureter.
2. Where would it be now, the bladder? How long can it stay there without causing problems or any signs of it?
3. Is it worth going to a doctor to find out where it is now?

The reason for these questions now is I’m finally addressing some pelvic floor muscle issues and wonder if there is any correlation between the two, as well as some other pain radiating from the pelvic floor back to my anus.

I have a 4mm stone in my right ureter for 30 days. I’ve only had 5 painful incidents thankfully. They detected trace amounts of blood in urine 30 days ago, but during my painful attack yesterday, there was visible blood and clots in urine.
I’ve been taking .4 mg of flomax daily the whole time, but as far as I can tell the thing is still in the ureter. My urologist suggests we wait another 2 weeks since I’m still in the window to pass it. What can I do to make this thing pass? I’ll admit I wasn’t drinking as much water as I should.
So my questions.

1. What can I do to move things along? Would a heating pad on my flank help relax things more? Any other ideas?
2. I’m terrified of a stent. What are my risks if I get the scope but not a stent

I need some words of encouragement. I had a kidney stone procedure where I had a stent before. It hurt so bad that I would shake after peeing because the pain was so bad. 😭

Hello friends! I had surgery on 4/29/21 for excision of Stage IV endometriosis with a very well known/respected endometriosis specialist. It was extremely extensive; I actually wound up needing a sigmoid colon resection, as the endometriosis had caused major bowel issues. The surgeons sent 35 (!) samples that were excised for pathology: all endo. The surgery was nearly 7 hours long.

I was released from the hospital on 5/2/21, but was readmitted on 5/4/21 for emergency surgery; Unbeknownst to anyone, my ureter was damaged during surgery and I was nauseous, had excruciating back pain, and was gushing urine out of my vagina. (Sincere apologies for the graphic description.) I was diagnosed with a uretovaginal fistula. A stent was implanted in my ureter by a urologist and remained in place until 6/22/21. The game plan was to remove the stent, do imaging and ensure that there was no leak and that the ureter would have had enough time to heal. When I woke up from the procedure, the surgeon explained that while the ureter was healing, scar tissue had formed and the ureter was starting to narrow. He had to implant a larger stent (wider) in hopes of alleviating this issue. I’m due to have this stent removed tomorrow in the doctor’s office. I’ll then be monitored closely going forward to ensure that no urine is backing up into the kidney. Obviously, none of this has gone the way it was supposed to, and I feel moderately traumatized. I’m 39, but I feel like I’m 139 these days. Both of my endo surgeons are insistent that they didn’t touch my ureters, that there was no endo present on them.

Unfortunately for me, this doesn’t end tomorrow. I’m nervous about the state of my ureter going forward. I understand that the urologist will be monitoring me closely, but I am afraid of needing a major surgery (ureter reimplantation) in order to fix this issue in the future. It almost feels like an inevitability, from everything I’ve read and conversations with the urologist.

Has anyone else had this occur? It’s really been a nightmare, to be honest.

Thank you for reading and thanks for any input in advance! 💜

Hi stoners. I've had a 7mm in my left ureter for about a month now. The 2 X-rays I've done show that it has moved, but only a bit. It is about mid-ureter at the moment. There has been very little pain throughout.

Urologist says we can keep trying to pass, but I should be advised odds are against passing it. (He puts it at about 30% chance.) He said if I don't pass it in another month, we take another X ray and then it's up to me whether we do shockwave on just the single stone, or ureteroscopy and he gets not only that stone but the others currently bouncing around the kidney.

You all know the trade-offs. ESWL is basically painless, but you're only solving one problem. Ureteroscopy is uncomfortable (the stent part) but we'd be killing a lot of birds with one stone. Or, what, a lot of stones with one bird?

Happy to hear advice / thoughts.

I passed my first stone 5 days ago. I still get some pain in the two spots where it hurt the worst passing the stone. I had a CT scan done at the ER and that is when they found the stone I passed, but they did not mention seeing any other stones. I haven't had any fever, nausea, or vomiting. Is it normal to feel some pain and discomfort afterwards?

Last week, I got a unilateral salpingo-oophorectomy due to a complex cyst on my left ovary.

When I came out of surgery, my surgeon had informed my mom that they found a lot of endometriosis and removed what they could. I had no suspicion or indication of endo prior to the surgery and am feeling overwhelmed and unsure of next steps.

The endo they couldn’t remove was on my ureter, which is rare, from what I can tell. The other was an adhesion (unsure of location.) The surgeon told my mom they would treat this with medication.

I’m at a loss. And I have a ton of questions.

1. Is my endo chronic? Will I have to continually undergo surgeries to have it removed?
2. What kind of medicine treats endo? Will I have to take medication forever?
3. Will I have to undergo surgery for the endo on my ureter? It seems serious from what I’ve read

Forgive my ignorance, I am totally new to endo and don’t feel like my questions have been answered by simple googling. Any help you can offer is super appreciated!

This is horrible it's been stuck in there for 2 days. I can literally see where it is, it's moved to almost the glans.

I had a stent removed, 8 weeks after my ureter was cut by mistake during a hysterectomy. I was very anxious and I took one Xanax an hour before, and listened to calming music, but I have to say there was zero pain. The doctor put some local anaesthetic which stung a very tiny bit, then I watched with interest as he put the camera up there, and I watched him grip the stent on the screen which was quite fascinating, and pull it out - the whole thing lasted 90 seconds. I have to say, that I have had leg waxing that hurt more. On the pain level, it was practically zero.

Hi,

First of all, I'm sorry if I use weird words for describing the symptoms, I'm not a native speaker.

I (23M) woke up with pain in the left-hand side of my stomach that went down to my testicles and penis. I had ultrasound and here is the summary:

• 3 stones sized 4mm to 7mm in my left kidney's lower pole
• a 5mm stone in my left ureter
• Grade II hydronephrosis

I talked to 3 doctors that proposed two different approaches:

• Doctor #1 told me to undergo TUL surgery tomorrow
• Doctors #2 and #3 told me to give it a few days (a week tops) and drink a lot of water and walk and jump around for it to pass naturally without surgery.
• My friend, who is not a doctor but has a lot of experience with kidney stones, also told me the same thing as Doctors #2 and #3.

I wanted to know if you guys have any experience with this issue, especially with the 5mm size and grade 2 hydronephrosis part.

Hi Guys

Age: 34

Sex: M

Height: 175 cm(5'9)

Weight 76kg (167lbs)

Race: Indian

Duration of complaint: 5 months

Location: Groin area/testicle on LEFT hand side

Any existing relevant medical issues: 4mm kidney stone on RIGHT hand side (side without pain)

Current medications: Lexpra 20mg daily

I passed a 1mm kidney stone about 5 months ago on my left side. It caused the most intense pain I've ever felt. Ever since there has been a lingering pain that varies in intensity that never goes away, in the same area. Its is a dull ache that sometimes goes down to my testicles and up towards my stomach and back.

I've had 3 ultrasounds, 2 x ct's(one with die). This showed a 4mm stone on my RIGHT side(the side without pain) but no swelling of the kidney or an obstruction. My urine did have a small amount of blood in it, but his could be due to the 4mm stone on the RIGHT side.

Today I did another ultrasound, MRI and blood and urine tests that I'm awaiting the results of. My specialist seems to think this cant be a ureter stricture as there is absolutely no swelling of the kidney or an obstruction in any of my other tests.

He thinks it might be muscular/hernia in that area. I questioned why it is not getting better after 5 months instead of getting worse if it is a tear or muscular.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this? Am a bit stumped as this kind of pain should show an obstruction and hydronephrosis.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this? I have the MRI files and ultrasound report if anyone needs to see them.

Thanks in advance

Most people don't realize that:

"The ureter (one per kidney) is a long, straight, muscle-walled tube. The upper two-thirds has two layers of smooth muscle: inner longitudinally arranged, and outer circularly arranged. The lower third has three layers of smooth muscle; Inner longitudinal, middle circular, outer longitudinal."

Why is this important? Because knowing this will help you to get your stone through it faster. How?

1. Muscle relaxers. Specially ones for smooth muscle, they will relax the ureter and the stone can travel down with less resistance. The easiest one to get is OTC AZO from any pharmacy.

2. Heat. (hot bath, electric heating pad) Heat expands things. The idea here is that when you apply heat to your side while your ureter gets slightly wider, the stone inside it does not. Again, less resistance.

3. Vibration. Imagine a tennis ball in a long stock. How do you get it out? By shaking it. Shaking or vibration or moderate impact sudden stops (aka jumps) will help the stone to slide down. Either localized vibration of your flank with a massager or full body vibration with a motorcycle/lawn mower/roller coaster. (whatever is the most practical)

For older, fatter or less sporty people you can go up a few floors in the elevator, then using the staircase you can come down while slowly dropping your body step by step one leg at a time. This way you miss out on the jumping part but still get the moderate sudden impact stop, that hopefully shakes the stone free. The point here is that even with disability there is always a work around.

So heat it, relax it with meds and shake/vibrate it, just like it is the sock with the tennis ball. Be proactive, don't just suffer passively.

51F, 5’9, very thin, getting thinner fast, white, USA. non-smoker, non-drinker; no prescriptions; occasional Tylenol; was very active, fit and healthy until roughly 6 months or so ago when her health started taking a nosedive; she looks worse every week now. It started with vague abdominal discomfort and episodes where she was freezing cold but her face would get hot and tomato red for hours. She didn’t think much of this, she’s not a worry-wart. But then everything went to shit, fast. Overwhelming sleepiness. Shortness of breath. Rapid weight loss w/o change in eating habits, intermittent severe hypoxemia requiring supplemental oxygen, and now total weakness/zero stamina. Elevated 24-hour urine 5-HIAA. Several Covid tests - all negative. (I might xpost for visibility)

-------------------

At Christmas 2020 mom was great/healthy. Starting in January she began to feel unwell and as of now, she's dropped at least 25lbs since then - probably a lot more - w/normal appetite; she looks seriously ill, her face is wan, eyes are “dull,” and she’s gaunt. Her former vibrant energy is gone, she’s tired all the time, just completely spent. As the weeks go by, over the past 6 mos, she has gotten progressively weaker - by this point she can't stand for more than a few minutes without needing to bend over with her hands on her knees or sit down. She’s out of breath so easily. The only time she feels relatively okay is when she’s eating lol (I’m sorry but we both find that funny and we have to focus on the funny when we can). But while she eats plenty, even eating takes a toll on her energy tbh.

She has been diagnosed with “Chronic respiratory failure with hypoxia” and is on supplemental oxygen as needed; but her oxygen desaturations (which are severe) only happen when she’s up and moving about, moves too much or is walking. If she’s resting her oxygen is fine. She feels exhausted just resting too, though. VQ test normal btw.

Quick notes: She recently had an elevated 24-hour urine 5-HIAA test that was ordered for possible carcinoid tumor/her flushing - it could be a false positive because her colonoscopy was normal and so far imaging hasn’t found one. GI doc wants to do an endoscopy now but will not go ahead with it until she gets clearance from the pulmonologist. And as you might tell from all of this - it will be a miracle if they can find out what’s causing the hypoxemia. So we are stuck for now :(

We are lucky to live in a city wit

Since my stones always get stuck in my kidney, it's ashame they don't have a med that can open up the ureter more. They only got one for the urethra. Life would be so much easier.

Hi again, I had my hysterectomy just over a week ago, on May 24th. I had my post-op today and boy did I have a lot going on!

First off, I've been saying since November, to multiple Drs, (including a uro-gynecologist,) that I've had kidney/ left flank pain and bladder pain and issues. They all said it was my tight pelvic floor. 🙄 Ha! Turns out, my left ureter, ahem, "the anatomic course of the ureter was severely distorted. The distortion put the ureter in harm's way and the ureterolysis was necessary..."

Essentially there was so much scar tissue/ adhesions on my ureter and abdominal wall, that it was distorting my left ureter. You know, the vital tube that connects my kidney to my bladder? They cut out the adhesions and moved my ureter a little to keep it safe.

They also took my appendix, we decided that before surgery. But it was good because I had MILD APPENDICITIS! I also had Adenomyosis, (they took my uterus and kept just my remaining right ovary). So that was super validating.

He found deep infiltrating endo on the scar tissue from my left ovary being removed last year. He also seems to have found it on my cul-de-sac, but his nurse did the appt and I only have surgery notes to go on. (He doesn't touch too detailed on where he found endo, but he notes this area in particular, and I had constant pain that is now gone.) He found endo elsewhere, but not a ton, mostly just fibrosis.

I also had microcalcifications in some part of my uterus, so that sounds painful, lol.

All in all, I feel better after this surgery, by far and have absolutely no regrets. I feel like this is a dawning of a new chapter of my life, and I can't wait to start it. ☺️