Can I pass a 5mm kidney stone?

The following is designed to entertain and inform, not provide medical advice. Always consult your doctor before starting a new treatment.

Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet podcast. This show's about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life. I'm your host and fellow student, Jeff Sarris.

And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. I just love seeing him right here, folks!

It's so nice!

I know, it is. We love it. We love being together.

Yeah, we might have to do this more often.

Yeah, especially since it's summer, too, so, you know, we don't have to worry about traveling in snow.

Yeah, absolutely. And… Is that out there?

Yeah, that's buzzing outside my neighbors.

Oh, okay. I just wanted to be sure that wasn't just my microphone here.

No, that's buzzing out– people are trying to get in my home.

Yeah. But, yeah, we've been talking about some other things, too. We'd be curious where you are located.

Like if you are– whether you're watching on YouTube, listening on Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever, leave– go to YouTube, go to this episode, leave a comment below and let us know where you're located. And if we were to do something like this, maybe in person, we're thinking about giving it a try to see if we could get a handful of people we can answer question– we, being Jill, can answer questions in person and sort of get to know you guys on a different level.

It'd be a lot of fun.

We'd like to take it on the road, folks. We would. So, yeah.

Yeah, let us know where you're at. And if you're in Chicago, specifically, obviously, that's where we're both located, so we probably would start here. But we were just talking about that because being in person, it adds another layer to everything.

It's so nice. But, yeah, just let us know, and no promises, but could be something we do in the future, so we'd like to get your feedback and see. But we're back at it with another listener question.

And what do you say we just dive right in there?

Let's go. Let's see what we got.

I feel like I say– say the same thing every time, but I get in my– in our routines. That's how we do things.

We do, all of us.

Well, let's see.

Hi, Jill. My name's Candy, and I live in Oregon. I'm having– I had a ultrasound done on my kidney, and one– had a couple of them, 2 3 and 5.

But looking on Google, it looks like if you have a 5 it should have a– a zapped. I don't know! Whatever.

But my doctor hasn't contacted me about it, so I figure he must not be concerned, but I am. Any advice? Thanks.

Candy, right? Candy? I always want to make sure I get people's names correct.

Okay, so Candy, which I love that name, from Oregon. It's a great question. So, thank you for calling in.

We love great questions.

Yeah, and basically it's, "Can she pass this stone, right?" Is that the question versus she said, "Getting it zapped"?

Yes, she's like, "Hey, I got this thing in me, and my doctor ain't calling me back, and I know that Google says if it's under 5 I can probably pass it. If it's over 5 it should probably be taken out or have it zapped," as she said. And so, here's the deal.

Yes, if you Google this, "What size should I get my–" you know, "What size does a kidney stone need to be for me to have it surgically removed?", it will say 5. So, first of all, I want to acknowledge the fact that, you know, she has this stone, couple stones inside of her, and, you know, no one's called her back yet. And me, as a patient with my cancer stuff, I hate when my doctors don't call me back.

It's not their fault. They're really busy, but I understand where– I understand how she feels, so Candy, I feel you, girl. So, what should you do?

If I were you, I would call the office or get in the portal and say, "I understand my ultrasound came back, my stones are this size, I've read that nothing needs to be done if they're not 5 or above, what do you think we should do about this?" The doctor may say, "Look, girl, they're small, let them pass on their own." The doctor may say, "Hey, after looking at your ultrasound, they're in a kind of strange place.

They may block, they may– different things, so let's take them out." The doctor may also say, "What would you like to do?" Even though the stones aren't bothering you, you may not like knowing that those stones are there, Candy. So, the doctor may give you an option. Typically, surgeons will say though, if they ain't bothering you, let's leave them alone.

We'll do imaging every six months and we'll just keep an eye on them. You'll do a urine collection, if you haven't already, Candy, and make sure you find out why you form those stones because you do not, if you opt to leave them there, which is totally fine, you do not want them getting bigger. So, the Kidney Stone Diet is very important to start implementing because you can really make sure– I have patients that still send me Christmas cards 20 years later.

"Jill, there's still there. Didn't grow, didn't move," okay? Following the diet, great.

If you don't– if you don't have to have a surgery, Dr. Coe always says this, "If you can walk into a hospital, walk out." So, he would probably tell you or your surgeon may even tell you, "They're not bothering you, we'll leave them alone." So, have a conversation. The fact, everybody, listen to me, the fact that your doctor has not called you back yet means you should call them if you're worried.

I don't want anyone sitting in their house worried about things. Get in the portal, call the office. It doesn't mean the doctor doesn't care about you, it just means that the doctor's super busy and haven't– hasn't gotten to you yet.

Or, the doctor doesn't see an issue because they're teeny-tiny and he's not going to call you. But you should have some answers, so get a hold of the doctor or the doctor's office. But whatever you decide to do, another thing I would say, ask the doctor, "Are the stones in a place where I really don't have to worry about them?" You want to ask questions so you make the most educated, conscious decision you can to either remove them or not.

I really think the doctor will probably say, "Don't worry about them because they're not causing any issues," but you need to find out, because they are tiny. So, do that and get your answers. But I'm sorry that you've had a stone, and I don't want you to get any more, so make sure you start the diet, get a urine collection ordered, I don't care if the doctor says you don't need one.

If anyone here has had a kidney stone, you need a kidney– a 24-hour urine collection. Many, many times the doctor will say, "Let's wait for a second stone," and I want to say, "Why in God's green Earth are you saying that?" Do not wait for anything to happen, get on prevention now. I just don't understand that.

That's like– that would be like a doctor saying, " Jill, you got a– you got a tumor, but let's wait for chemo, we'll wait for prevention until– we'll wait for another tumor to come." And people will say, "Well, that's very dramatic, Jill." No, it's not, it's the same thing to me. Why are we going to wait for somebody to get something else before we do testing?

Let's not do that, folks, get your 24-hour urine collections ordered. Thank you.

That's so important.

It really is. Some days, even though I say this so many times a day, I just get so annoyed that I have to keep saying it. It's like, we can really prevent up to 80% of recurrence rates are just dropped.

Up to 80% of new stones can be reduced, that risk can be reduced, when we find out why we're getting kidney stones and get on the right treatment plan. Getting on the right treatment plan will always be the Kidney Stone Diet because it's just a healthy diet anyway, but it may be medications for you, so you need to find that out, and the urine collection will say why you made that stone.

Other people will say, "Jill, my doctor did a stone analysis, and he knows that I make a calcium oxalate stone, so he or she said I don't have to do the 24-hour urine collection." Pooh-pooh! Yes, you do. Even though you made a calcium oxalate stone, there's many different reasons why you made that stone.

You need to find out, get a urine collection. And I know that you guys may be sick of me saying it, but I'm not– never going to tire of saying it, because we can prevent kidney stones and that's what you need to know.

Yeah, you find out what your makeup is, and that's the beauty. It's not just the result, but it's sort of where you're at, the snapshot. It's a snapshot of your day, really.

Yes, it is. Yes, and so it's just very important, because you could think you're on a low-salt diet until you do that urine collection. You're like, "Oh, my god, Jill, there's no way I eat that much salt." Well, yeah, it is, because the body don't make salt, so you had to bring it in.

So, and then when they really look at their– turning it around, Buster Brown, they're like, "Oh, my god, I just– I had no idea how much salt was in an olive. Who knew?" Well, what do you think you like it for? You think you like that green thing, whatever that is, with that red thing in the middle of it?

No, it's salt! I don't even know what the hell an olive is, except a salt bomb. Write in the comments, what is an olive, by the way?

I don't know, and that's not what this show's about, clearly, Candy, but I'm just wondering what an olive is. And what the hell is that red thing in the middle of it? It's disgusting!

It's just salt. Don't eat them, people.

Do you– this is unrelated, but I personally don't like olives.

No, I hate them.

Okay.

They're just dumb.

I know Amara behind the camera loves them, but–

Amara, that's dumb! Sorry to throw you under the bus. But, yeah, it's–

The black ones or the green ones?

Yeah, black ones. If I were to eat an olive, it would be the black one. That green-red kind of thing?

Hell no. I call them the Christmas olives. No.

No..

But, yeah, when it comes to sodium, though, those are– that is a– that's an oatmaker.

Oh, my god. Yes. Or when people say, "I like a–" when I was– when I was in nursing school, I was bartending to put my– doing some bartending, and we would make dirty martinis, and dirty just means it's extra salt, because it's the olive juice, which is all salt bombs.

And, "I want extra– I love olives, Jill. I want extra olives in my martini." Well, that's just– that's just extra salt, people. And people don't know, because no one's turning it around on the olive jar.

They're having a goddamn olive. Oh, I said goddamn on YouTube. You'll edit that out, right?

We'll edit– that's fine.

Yeah, okay. So, I– I'm just saying, no one is looking at an olive, who's eating, turning that around. They're not looking at it, but if you did, you'd be like, "Oh, my god, who knew that you were eating that much salt, right?" I mean, it's in everything.

Candy said, "Jill, I didn't ask about olives, and actually I'm clicking off right now and going to bed." Okay.

No, but I also like– I feel like I haven't heard it yet, that Dr. Coe would say, "If you can walk in, you should walk out." I think that's a really interesting perspective on that.

Yeah, if you're well enough to walk into a hospital, you should walk out, because, you know, you don't want to– you don't want to have a surgery if you don't need one. But I've always said this: some people really like knowing that they don't have any more kidney stones, and that's– that's just a big anxiety lifted off their shoulders.

So, if you're that kind of person, Candy, and you just want the damn things out of you, and the doctor thinks that's a feasible thing– sometimes these kidney stones are in the meat of your kidney and they're not going to go near those. So, the important thing in that case would be follow the diet, do the 24-hour urine collection, see what's– why you're making the stone, and make sure you do everything you can to make those not get bigger, okay?

So, there's sometimes that the stones are in a place in the kidney where they should not be touched, they're not causing a problem, and they will just do imaging here and there, and can do your 24-hour urine collections, and you can be absolutely fine. You can leave the Earth with those kidney stones and not even know. Yeah.

Well, with that, I want to thank Candy for that question. And if you're out there with a question, the number again is 773-789-8763, and we would love to feature you in the future. And if you want to dive deep, we have the Kidney Stone Prevention Course, which includes the accountability calls where you get to work with Jill in a group setting, which is so valuable because you get to really get to know everyone else who's also going through the same things you're going through, and–

It's a great support group, yeah.

Yeah, it is. It's just another layer to the habit change and getting to where you want to be. So, you can find all of that and more at kidneystonediet.com, including the free weekly email newsletter that Jill sends out every Sunday now, right?

Every Saturday we changed it to. It was– we'll just call it– it's a weekend newsletter. We never know what the hell we're doing.

Weekly newsletter. Yeah, every weekend right now you're getting a little inspiration to keep you on your path. You can find that and everything at kidneystonediet.com.

If you're watching on YouTube, if you subscribe, give a thumbs up, and hit the bell for notifications, it means a lot, helps us on our journey to reach more people. But with that, I think we will wrap. Thanks again, Candy.

Thanks, Candy. We'll see you all next time.

This is our last show together in person. Wow.

We'll see ya.

Bye!