Can a 5 mm lower pole kidney stone go away without me knowing?


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Found out in Jan 2025 that I have a 5 mm lower pole kidney stone through an ultrasound but now repeat testing in April 2026 says “no renal calculi” but scan visibility is also “satisfactory” which I guess means ok but not great. Might I add this time the tech didn’t make me lay to my sides to check it from all angles, I think they may have missed checking it from all different angles because they only did the flat position check.
A 5 mm stone is pretty big , this is my first stone but reading all the stories here people have pain passing even a 1mm stone that is impossible right my 5 mm stone just vanished into thin air or passed without me knowing?
Also lower pole stones are the hardest to pass from what I read because they are working against gravity so that makes it even more impossible. I still have flutters/painless spasms in kidney area so likely the stone is there irritating my kidneys, even on the right side that never showed any stones.
And I have been checking my urine regularly and haven’t seen any stone being passed or felt anything.
Comments (3)
I was told I had 7 in one kidney in 2024. Repeat imaging: they magically disappeared ??? The 3mm stone that sent me to the ER was also never found by me despite straining my urine for months afterwards.
Ultra sounds can miss kidney stones. I had a kidney stone that I just went to the emergency room for and they couldn’t find anything in the ultra sound and sent me home. I had to come back the next day because the pain was unbearable and they did a CT scan. Lo and behold I had a 7MM stone that was stuck in my ureter.
Does ultrasound usually not check the ureter or you think they probably missed checking yours or it doesn’t show up on ultrasounds?
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