Repeaters and veterans: how do you handle the mind over finding out you have another one in the making?
Stone Fighter #56ED91Apr 10, 2026👁️ 2.3k❤️ 104- Strategy
- Patient journey
had TUL surgery in september last year. 9mm stone was crushed, but a very small fragment was still in the kidney after post op check. doc said it would come out naturally.
fast forward 7 months, that fragment (or a new stone, idk) is still in there, but it has become a 3mm stone. it doesnt cause pain or problems now, but it is giving me a lot of stress in anticipation of the future.
it has stuck for 7 months, me think that it will grow even bigger before coming out, and it will come with days or even weeks of pain, and then here we go again with the surgery or hold it out dilemma (both will be painful, i know both already)
no physical pain now, but what is killing me is that any discomfort on my flank hit me into rabbit hole of thinking far into the future where all this problems arise. it is difficult to just "forget" that the stone is there.
the anticipation is killing me.
how do you handle this, my seniors?
Comments (5)
Stone Fighter #57D5F3Apr 10, 2026I have become one with the knowledge my kidneys are a ticking time bomb.
Stone Fighter #72299FApr 10, 2026Between the left and right there’s always one brewing.
Stone Fighter #2EEB2FApr 10, 2026I panicked a few years ago when I found out I had 10+ in each kidney. I spent hours thinking about how awful it was going to be. I stopped drinking soda and drank more water. 6 years passed between that attack and my next. Imaging at the ER the second time showed only one stone. I ended up passing most of the stones with no symptoms or very mild symptoms.
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