Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse, shares tips on how to pass a kidney stone. She discusses the importance of drinking more fluids to flush out the stone and suggests methods for pain relief. Jill also mentions the benefits of movement, such as walking, jumping, and even riding a roller coaster, in helping pass a kidney stone.
Takeaways
- Drinking more fluids can help flush out a kidney stone and prevent it from getting stuck in the urinary tract.
- Using a heating pad can provide pain relief and make it easier to drink more fluids and move around.
- Movement, such as walking or jumping, can help facilitate the passage of a kidney stone.
- Seek medical attention if there are signs of infection or if the pain becomes severe and unmanageable.
- Accurate information and prevention strategies are crucial in avoiding the complications of kidney stones.
Jeff Sarris
After 25 years as a kidney stone prevention nurse, today Jill has 10 tips on how to pass a kidney stone.
Welcome back to the Kidney Stone Diet® Podcast, the show about reducing your kidney stone risk and living your best life. I’m your host and fellow student in an all new set today, Jeff Sarris.
Jill Harris
Hey, I’m Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. And if we aren’t white and bright, I don’t even know what to tell you. This has never happened before in the history.
Jeff Sarris
It is so bright. I had to wear a white shirt because we are on the road right now. So we’re in a little little beach house in New Jersey visiting Amara’s dad. So I had to change it up. I’m wearing black. It doesn’t fit with the vibe, but we’re not going to miss an episode. We are one hundred and ninety eight now into this show and we are not missing.
Jill Harris
Amazing. We’re not missing, but when we appeared, when I saw Jeff, when we came on camera together, I’m at my house and he’s in New Jersey, I was like, my God, could we be any brighter? I think the audience will like this. It’s a nice little change. I think it’s good to change things up. And I have rarely seen you in all the years I’ve known you, honey, in white. So it’s so fun. Even the water bottle is white.
Jeff Sarris
I know, right? That’s what’s funny is yeah, I have the white water bottle. Amara has the black one. So it fits with Maven colors and everything that we do. So I don’t know. It’s a lot of fun. But yeah. So today we have some tips for passing a kidney stone. And there’re so many questions, like does walking help pass a kidney stone and all these things that people naturally think about that we want to touch on.
Jill Harris
I love it. I love it.
Yes, so this is for the guy in the comment that said, hey lady, when are you going to talk about how to pass a kidney stone? And he’s right. I mean, you know, here’s the deal. There’s almost 200 videos on this channel and we didn’t even get to something so basic on the Kidney Stone Diet® channel. And that’s what we’re always talking about. But he was absolutely right. And I said, listen, the next one we do, it’s going to happen, baby. So here we go. How to pass a kidney stone.
I will tell you, I’ve heard some stories over the years of how people pass their stone. And let me tell you this, is there science behind all of these things? That would be no. But this is what people have said has helped them. Now, remember, they may say, I jumped off a building, it passed my stone. But you don’t know the whole story. Did they drink a lot of water? Was the stone ready to pass?
You know, there’s so many other contributing factors in what helps pass a stone or like I said, is it just time for it to pass because they do their own things. But here are the things I’ve consistently heard that definitely has helped over the years patients pass kidney stones.
The number one thing is drinking more fluids. This obviously is going to help flush, help that stone be on its way, help flush it out. And that’s really important because you don’t want it to be stuck in your urinary tract and cause issues. So the more you’re able to drink during the passage of the stone, the better chances you have of passing it.
Now, typically, one knows when a stone is passing. I’ve definitely had patients that say, I didn’t feel anything when that stone was passing, girl. Next thing I know, I look down and there’s a rock in my toilet. So not all of you will know that a stone’s even moving, but many of you will. And so when that familiar back pain, groin pain, side pain, wherever you’re feeling it, abdominal pain, nausea, wherever you’re feeling it, when it comes and if you’re able, drink more fluids to help that puppy get out of there. That’s the number one thing I hear.
Within these helping to pass incidences, we’re also going to talk about pain because if you’re in pain, you’re not going to be able to do some of the things that people do to pass stones.
Another one is people use a heating pad for pain, to help them drink more water, or move. So if you’re in pain, you don’t want to drink more water, you don’t want to move. So some of this stuff will be interjected in here.
Walking, walking, walking, walking. Is it specifically walking that’s helping pass the stone or is it any kind of movement? It’s any kind of movement from roller coasters to jumping jacks to pacing back and forth to jogging to all of it—movement in general I have heard people swear that it helped pass their kidney stone so I think movement in general is definitely going to be something that’s on your side to help pass a kidney stone.
Jeff Sarris
Just the roller coaster is just so funny to me. It feels like a really salacious title for a book. Ride a roller coaster, pass a kidney stone. It’s just so funny.
Jill Harris
Yep, I mean it’s crazy, right? So people have sworn and there have been little studies here and there that show that getting on. So in our Facebook group, the Kidney Stone Diet Facebook group, people will say, I’m in the middle of passing a stone and they’ll all be like, get on a roller coaster. Well, that’s not easy for everybody. So is it because you’re upside down? A lot of people will ask, what if I go upside down on my bed? So if my feet are on my pillow and I’m putting my head all the way where my feet are and I’m going down, if you’re on YouTube, you could see me, you know, you’re just inverted and your head’s going toward the floor. People will say that helped pass their stone. So headstands in yoga helped pass their stone. Don’t try this at home, folks, if you’re not used to doing headstands, okay? But this is what people have said. People have said a jacuzzi has helped pass their stone too.
People have said that those massages, those guns, Theragun massages have helped pass their stone. Elliptical machines, people have said helped pass their stone. Treadmills, but again people, I’m gonna say, is it these specific things? Because Charles in the background is like, what the hell? I don’t got an elliptical or a treadmill. What am I supposed to do? Just walk, Chuck. That’s it, just walk. That’s all you gotta do. So to me, it’s just movement.
It just so happened to be that was this form of movement for all these patients. They had access to that and that’s what they did. Bending and stretching has helped my patients pass kidney stones. Again, they’re moving. Hang upside down off the bed. That was the other one we’ve talked about. Jumping, this is a popular one folks. If you have this at home, jumping on a mini trampoline. But for those who don’t, you know, a jumping jack. Same thing, same thing. You’re going up and down, gravity up and down, movement, that’s what’s helping it.
Jeff Sarris
Yeah, those trampolines are also interesting because lymphatic drainage is a thing too. And I, we got one specifically for that kind of stuff. It just, you feel the difference. Like obviously not everyone can be jumping on trampoline, but if you can, that can really get the lymph flowing. It’s interesting. I’ve felt so much better.
Jill Harris
Yes. Yes.
It’s all interesting to me and I don’t leave any possibilities out, for sure. People will say that they took a bath with Epsom salt because that relaxed their muscles. Some people have said that has helped them pass a kidney stone. People have told me that their doctor has given them Flomax to help, you know, dilate the ureters, to help.
Also, and I have an article on this on my blog, just pain management for kidney stones. And you may say, well, that’s not a tool, but it is a tool to help pass a kidney stone. Because if you’re in pain, you’re not gonna wanna do all these suggestions that my patients have done. So you’ve gotta manage the pain first so you can do all these other things.
Another tool that they’ve used is anti -nausea medications. Again, if you can stop throwing up, you’ll be less dehydrated, you’ll be able to drink more to help pass that stone. Other things to help manage pain, so you can do some of the tricks we talked about to whether it’s walking or going on a trampoline or whatever.
Some other tricks that patients have used as far as to manage pain—CBD, THC(where that’s legal), Tylenol, Advil, Naproxen, these things can help with pain if you are allowed to take those things based upon other medical conditions you have. I want to be very specific about that.
There are many times where you’re going to have to give up on your walking and your rollercoaster riding and your drinking fluids, all of that. What are the signs? And of course, this could be a whole other video, but it’s very important to put it in this video.
What are the signs when it’s time to hang all that stuff up and get your butt to the ER? Here are the signs for that.
So when to go to the ER. If you have fever and chills, that’s very important. You could be sporting an infection so it’s very important. You couldn’t have a stone that is infected. You could have a stone that got stuck. Some people will say, well, all of a sudden the pain went away. I just assumed I passed it and didn’t notice. But actually the stone was stuck in the ureter or was blocking the UVJ junction. And you will know if that happens lots of times because you feel like you have to pee, but nothing comes out. Blood in the urine. Difficulty as I said, urinating or peeing. When your urine is cloudy or has a distinct color or odor, these are signs of infection and also reasons you should be going to the ER. Constant burning with urination and vomiting that may lead to dehydration. So some people will be like, Jill, I tried all this, I was on Zofran, I was on all these anti-nausea drugs and nothing helped. And before I knew it, I had to be taken to the hospital because I was so dehydrated. And so it’s really important to know, and I need to say this because like as a patient myself, you know, the last thing I want to do is take myself to the ER so I get it folks. Number one, it’s so difficult to be seen. It’s expensive. It’s scary. It’s all the things.
Bt I cannot tell you how many patients I’ve had in my career that did go septic. And that’s when you had a stone that’s infected, you may or may not know this, and now you have an infection in your blood and it’s spreading within your body, and that’s really serious. And that’s not rare that I hear this. At least once a week I have a patient that was septic, and that can be ICU.
So let’s do what we can, and when nothing’s working, we take ourselves to the doctor and we say look it’s been a couple weeks doc nothing’s happening here I’m in pain I’m not eating I can’t I can’t I’m not doing my daily activities I need to be seen I need new imaging I don’t know if this stone is stuck and that’s when you call it off and get help so that’s very important. Some stones just come out on their own some stones no matter what you do they will need an intervention so be wise don’t put it off. If you have signs of infection, get your butt to the ER, your doctor’s office, something. That’s very serious. I can’t overstate that, okay?
Also, here’s a fun thing. Some people will say, Jill, I swear, I had sex, and it popped right out. Now, if you’re feeling well enough to have sex, God bless, go have sex. It’s movement. It’s movement. So a lot of people will say, you know, I ejaculated and there came the stone. Okay.
So I’m just saying, sex is movement. So have at it, folks. But lots of you will be in pain, and let’s just say you’re not going to be in the mood. But it all counts. So I’m not opposed to that either. Why not?
Jeff Sarris
Definitely. So, I mean, that’s a whole thorough list. I like that because it sort of, it runs a gamut of everything. You have fluids, you have the activity of all the different things that you’ve sort of experienced or heard from people that you’ve worked with throughout the years. And I just wanted to touch on the subsisting real, real quick. That’s what’s so, I’m sure just so hard to hear on your end because people have gone through just horrific things before they get to you. And like we have this show and we always ask, if you can share, if you can like, subscribe, share, because we want to reach people before they get to that point. And, I’m sure just on your side, having so many people who are already past that point, it’s just, it’s crushing because of how you can help them before they even get there.
Jill Harris
Yes.
Look, I think it’s a great point and one of the things, there’s so many things that drive me, Finn, no, shush. He’s had it today because I’ve been working a lot. There’s so many things that drive me to keep up this work and one of them is just how sick people have gotten and that’s because there’s not a lot of good information out there and at the very best it’s very conflicting. So people really don’t know what to do to prevent kidney stones. And so that’s why we’re here and Finn is also very very upset by all of it too as you can see.
Jeff Sarris
Well, I think that’s a perfect place to wrap this week. Thanks everyone for tuning in. Remember you can go to kidneystonediet.com to find everything, all the free and premium resources. But thanks again, like, comment, subscribe, and we’ll see you next time.
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