Need advice on passing these stones — my life has been a mess since last September. Long post, fair warning.

Hi everyone.

Here’s my story. Back in September 2025, I had a really bad kidney stone attack.

I was doing yard work when I started feeling weak and nauseous, and my left flank started hurting. I figured I was just worn out and dehydrated since I’d been at the yard work for quite a while. Then I went to the bathroom and saw bright red urine. RED ALERT!

The pain kicked in, but it wasn’t intense at first. I got rushed to the ER, and on the way I felt some pain, but nothing like the dramatic stuff other people there were going through. After bloodwork and an ultrasound, two doctors agreed it was kidney stones — tiny microscopic ones, basically sand, that had sandblasted my urinary tract. They gave me tamsulosin and told me to drink an herbal tea that helps you pee.

That’s exactly what I did, but after about 4 days the pain came back. Weirdly, I didn’t need any paracetamol, diclofenac, or any painkillers at all. A second lab confirmed the same result: kidney “sand.” There was no blood in my urine, and I was peeing like a fire hydrant thanks to the tamsulosin and that tea — seriously, that tea is powerful stuff.

Then, after 4 days, the pain returned — and this time it was SEVERE. I was hurting so badly I could barely talk, shaking uncontrollably, and painkillers did absolutely nothing, like I was popping tic tacs. At one point I took two buscopan pills (they help with renal colic) plus one diclofenac capsule. NOTHING!

Back to the ER, same tests, doctors confirmed everything again — just kidney sand, my urinary tract was clearly irritated, but no actual stones. I got chewed out for not seeing a urologist for a specialist opinion. I was like: dude, it’s only been four days, I got the labs, everything looked fine, and I had zero pain.

After the scolding and a shot in the butt, the pain finally eased off. I got some sleep at last and started drinking even more water than the 2.5 liters the doctors recommended. I even grabbed alkaline water with an 8.8 pH, which they also suggested.

Then I saw the urologist, and for some bizarre reason he found a kidney stone on the ultrasound that was about 7-9 mm long!!! HOW?!? By this point it was my third ultrasound, and four doctors had said there were no stones — and now this guy, who barely even looked at me and was annoyed and pissed (pun intended) at someone, tells me I have a huge stone. He booked me for a contrast CT scan.

After that CT, the diagnosis was crystal clear: NO STONES, NOTHING. I’m healthy as an ox. That doctor was wrong — I never had stones. I even got the CD with the images, and even I can see nothing’s wrong. From that second episode around mid-September until 4 days ago, nothing — almost 7 months with zero symptoms or pain. I even did heavy lifting, chopped wood, drove machinery that shook me around for hours, pulled weeds, all kinds of hard physical work — not a peep of pain, no cloudy urine.

And then, out of nowhere, the pain started again. MY GOD! It wasn’t as bad as last time, but bad enough that I threw up 4 times, barely slept, and spent the night just trying to keep the painkillers down long enough to work. Somehow diclofenac and buscopan did the trick, along with a hot water bottle on my flank. The pain stopped, and the next day I felt like roadkill.

Tomorrow I have a lab appointment to check whether I have kidney stones again. After chugging huge amounts of water and having that herbal tea again, things seemed okay for a bit, but the pain keeps popping up here and there. It hurts for a while, then stops once the wave passes. That wasn’t how it went last time — after the last episode I had some soreness, but the pain never came back. This time it’s a mix of pain and soreness. I’m drinking a ton of water and my urine is clear all the time — not a hint of red or cloudiness.

I get the lab results tomorrow and have to report back to my family doctor within a week. She’s referred me to a urologist who specializes in cases like this — but sadly, that appointment isn’t until June 10th! That’s way too long to just sit around waiting and doing nothing.

So what can I do to help my body flush these things out? I’m a 35-year-old male with no allergies to anything. What should I do? I’m planning to keep drinking that herbal tea — it contains:

* *Origani  herba* * *Saturejae montanae herba* * *Serpyli herba* * *Ononidis radix* * *Thymi herba* * *Palygoni avicularis herba*

I noticed that after a cup, my soreness drops a lot, but I’m capped at two cups a day.

More water? Any specific foods? Any specific things to do?