Pregnant with kidney stones- and tips for stent removal.

Hi everyone, I am a 27F and currently 19 weeks pregnant. I have been visiting this sub a lot the past few weeks and just wanted to share my experience. Sorry that it is a longer read.

I found out I had my first kidney stone back in November of 2025. I had one 8mm stone and one 4mm stone. I had my lithotripsy scheduled for January but found out I was pregnant 2 days prior to the procedure so we had to cancel. My doctors said the stone wasn’t fully obstructed so we were just going to see if we could wait it out through my pregnancy. No problems until about 2 weeks ago I woke up with severe flank pain and I knew exactly what it was. Thanks to my OB I was able to get in with a high risk urologist the next day. He scheduled a ureteroscopy for the following Monday because my kidney had nephrosis. I was very nervous about undergoing anesthesia while pregnant, but I knew the pain I was in was causing more stress to my baby.

I go in for my surgery and the urologist tells me I have a bladder infection and they can not perform the ureteroscopy because of that, but that they still need to put me under to put the stent in to help with the Nephrosis and I was going to have to come back the following Monday for the second half of the procedure once we cleared up the bladder infection. I was so upset about having the stent in for an extra week. After the first procedure for the stent placement I was in severe pain from the bladder spasms and urethra pain, and I had so much pressure on my bladder between the stent and the baby. The first few days were absolutely miserable and I did nothing besides lay on a heating pad all day.

Fast forward to this past Monday I go in for the second procedure. I was nervous due to how much pain I was in the first time but fortunately I came out of anesthesia in much less pain, but still a lot of discomfort due to the stent. It was hard for me to sit up right, drive in the car or stand up for to long. I was miserable. I dealt with the stent all week and was finally able to remove it myself today. I was VERY anxious about this as I do not do well with medical stuff. I did as much research as I could to prepare myself and didn’t sleep at all last night due to being anxious.

Now on to taking out the stent. I took a hydrocodone and then hopped into a hot shower to relax me. I drank about 30oz of water to make sure my bladder was full. Finally I decided it was time and I squatted down in the shower and started to pee and pulled the stent out as I peed. It was painless. I didn’t feel it at all and immediately felt relief. I cried happy tears from how good I feel now. It’s definitely a mind over matter thing.

Being pregnant with kidney stones and a stent in was the worst thing I have ever gone through but my baby girl is doing great and and I’m feeling like a brand new person today. War is over (for now). Thanks to everyone in this sub who shared their experiences and helped me not feel alone.