Wait, no kidney stone?

53yo male here. I went to the ER toward the middle-end of March with awful pain that turned out to be an 8mm stone stuck in the first 1/3 of my left ureter, per the CT scan results. Saw a urologist a couple days later, and finally got surgery booked for May 8th.

I had mild pain for a few days after that first episode and could handle it with Tylenol. I was drinking lemon water and taking my Flomax, hoping this thing would somehow pass on its own before surgery. After about a week I didn’t need pain meds anymore, but I kept taking my Flomax. No real symptoms for about a month going into surgery. I figured I got lucky and the stone had settled in a spot that let urine flow, so it wasn’t hurting much at all. Every now and then I’d get a little twinge reminding me something was still going on.

Fast forward to surgery day. I felt great walking in, and I told the Dr and the nurse that I hadn’t been having much pain at all for a few weeks. For whatever reason, they didn’t seem the least bit surprised by that.

While I was in recovery, the Dr. poked his head in and said I’d already passed the stone, so there was nothing to laser. It took me a while to process what had just happened. Now that I’ve had surgery, had a stent in for 3 days, gotten the stent out, and I’m in about as much pain as that first episode with the stone, for seemingly no reason, I’m just a bit angry about the whole situation.

I was under the impression that my 8 mm stone probably wasn’t going to move anywhere fast, and that I’d know about it if it did. I took my Flomax and drank lemon water only for 6 weeks. I’ve got a few questions that hopefully you guys can help me with before my follow-up visit with the Dr.

So what most likely happened here? Did I pass the 8mm stone and not realize it? Was the imaging wrong? Were there a few smaller stones clumped together that finally broke apart and passed in smaller pieces? Should the Dr. or I have demanded more imaging before going through with surgery, given that I was mostly symptom free?

The good news is that I’m stone free on the left side, but the CT showed a 5mm stone and several smaller ones on my right side. So I’ve got that to look forward to down the road.