And I'm Jill Harris, your kidney stone prevention nurse. So, this is this is a serious one, and this always– when Jeff and I decided to do this one, I was like, "Oh!" I always– my stomach turns. And I'm a nurse for Pete's sake!
But the stories I've heard over the years– I had a couple stories this week that were really horrifying, I have to tell you. Bad. And when you're shocking me after almost 30 years, they were really bad stories, like sepsis, and I get a lot of that, but really bad.
So, I just want the medical community to really take these damn stones seriously, because the pain and havoc that they bring to people, and the fear, the post-traumatic stress syndrome that people have from kidney stones– again, it's a real thing, because kidney stones are such sudden onset. And the pain, for many people, is excruciating.
With that, I'll also tell you, there's many– there's many people that don't have any pain when they pass a kidney stone. But you have to understand, you don't hear from them because those patients feel so bad that they haven't had pain because all you hear is about people complaining about the worst pain ever. And they'll tell me on the phone, "Jill, so you know, I didn't have any pain." And I'm like, "Don't worry." They have like– they have like survivor's guilt.
I'm like, "Don't worry. Many people don't have pain. They just– you don't hear about them.
They're not complaining. They're not saying that. You're going to be the one that says, 'Oh, I'm sorry you almost passed out and you were septic, Fran.
I had nothing.'" You know what I mean? So, there's a lot of people that don't have pain. But the question is, how do you know when you should go to the?
I'm going to preface this episode, too, by noting that these days, our medical condition– our healthcare system is tough, to say the least. So, nobody wants to have to go to urgent care or the if they don't have to. So, believe me when I tell you these are signs and symptoms when you should go.
They are. I would never just send you to the "Well, you know, go over, see what they're going to say." Cuz you're going to be there at least eight hours, in most cases, okay? So, these are– this is when you should go.
The end. Okay. So, I'm going to– this is on my blog, and it's called "When to Go to the for Kidney Stones." So, it's right there at Kidney Stone Diet.
So, these are common signs. Common signs you should go to the. When you have a fever, that can– that typically is a sign of infection.
Get your bum over to the. Don't mess around with that, folks. Don't be taking a Tylenol to bring it down.
If you're having kidney stone symptoms and a fever, right to the you go. Get your wife, get your husband, get your partner. Off you go.
When you simply can't find pain relief. If you're having intense pain– what's intense pain? Everybody's different.
Women will tell me, "Jill, I've never seen my husband cry, and there he was on the floor." Or people– or men will say, "I've never seen my wife this sick. She was throwing up, diarrhea, all of it. Couldn't get comfortable." You got to go to the.
You're passing a stone, most likely, and you need relief. It's not going to get better. Now, sometimes people will say, "It got really bad, but then all of a sudden, the pain was gone, and plop, plop, there it was in the toilet." But if this is pain that you cannot get relief from and it's lasting, okay?
And you'll know. People know. They're like, "Oh, my God, Jill.
I knew I ran to the " or "I got somebody to get me to the." You know, cuz it will be the worst pain of your entire life. There's no compromising. A lot of people, especially people who live on their own, 911.
That's how bad it is. Okay. When you have– Go ahead.
Well, thank you, Jeff. The pain can radiate. The pain can be in your groin.
The pain can be in your back. It can be in your upper back, lower back. It can radiate from your back to the groin, left, right.
It can move around. It can– men will say, "I feel it in my– coming right by my penis." I feel– you know, there– I've had men take a pen cap to their penis to try to get the stone out. I mean, that's how much pain.
I want to make sure– I know that's very graphic, but I– a pencil tips. Just so you know, this is the kind of pain people are trying to get rid of, and that's the– that's where they go with it, because they're just looking for relief, okay? That's the kind of pain.
Can't make this pain up kind of pain. Men are doing that. So, it can move around, and people will say, "You know, I was gardening, Jill, and I felt some pain in my back, and I felt that way for several days.
But I just thought, 'You know, I was gardening,' until then I woke up at 3:00 a.m." Always 3:00 a.m. "And I was not from gardening anymore, and I had to go to the." So, people and people my age, a little older, 60s, late 50s– this is who I'm talking to every day– 70s, they just think, "Oh, it's my sciatica. It's this or that," until they know that it's not, okay?
So, lots of times it can mimic just simple back pain. And the and then it can go away. Maybe the pain was moving, and it got into a new place in the kidney, or maybe it went right above– maybe it got in the bladder.
Maybe it was just right by the ureter. Now, if you're on YouTube, you can see me, but if you're on Spotify or Audible or Apple, wherever you're listening, you have your kidneys, a little– your upper back, a little upper mid back. And then you have these tubes, one, two, from each kidney, and those tubes will take your urine to your bladder.
And sometimes these stones, lots of times, these stones get stuck in the ureters, and that's where you're getting all the pain, and it's going to block your urine, and that's when you can get septic. There's so much that goes into this, okay? So, fever, you can't find intense pain relief, you're you're just have continuous diarrhea, continuous vomiting, I want you to go to the for that because you're going to be severely dehydrated, and you're going to be in trouble for that.
So, I'm talking like you can't get off the commode whether you're throwing up in it, you're pooping in it, whatever you're doing, it's just non-stop. You got to get to the hospital for that. Cloudy or red urine.
Cloudy urine can indicate an infection. Red urine typically– well, it is blood. You want to check that out, okay?
Now, cloudy or red urine, you– if you're passing a stone, you're going to have blood in your urine, okay? It doesn't mean you necessarily have to run to the but if it's in combination with cloudy urine, you might want to, at the very least, call your doctor for that. Now, if you have red urine, please pay attention to this.
Red urine means blood in the urine, okay? Blood in the urine. A doctor will take that very seriously.
Yes, it can be a kidney stone, but they are going to want to rule out bladder cancer, because that is a sign of bladder cancer. Do not dismiss your urine looking red, ever. You need to rule out cancer.
That's a serious thing. I know, I've had bladder cancer, so I know. Okay.
The other common sign that you should go to the is you have– this is very important as well– you feel like you have to pee, but nothing's coming out. It could be a stone that's blocked. Your ureter, e- and it's blocked your urine flow.
If pee can't leave, it's going to get backed up. That's a serious thing, and that's when you can get septic. So, if it feels like you have to pee, but nothing's coming out, it could be a UTI, yes, but if this is happening along with all these other things that I just talked about, that's when you go to the okay?
Does that make sense? That's a that's an important sign. Now, when– so this is going to take– this is I'm going to pin this with, yeah, sometimes we feel if we have a UTI, you feel like you got to pee, nothing's coming out.
So, when do you know I should go to the and when is this a UTI? So, UTIs, normal UTIs versus a kidney infection perhaps from a stones a stuck stone, UTIs are uncomfortable and go away on their own, typically. But if you have frequent UTIs, you go to the doctor, they're like, "Yeah, Cindy, you got a UTI.
Take this antibiotic." You take the antibiotic, you feel better, but it keeps coming back. That could be an infected stone in your kidney, and that's really important, too. So, let me explain this to you.
Some of you, I have had a lot of patients with this. Some of you will come to me and say, "You know, Jill, I have UTIs a lot." And I will say, "Do you have stones currently?" "Yes, I do." "Has the doctor ruled out that those stones are causing the infection?" "No, not yet." Many times, you guys will have stones that have infections inside of them, and they're causing the constant UTIs.
You've got to talk to your doctor about that. So, lots of times, you'll just have a UTI because you didn't wipe yourself properly, sex with a partner, blah, blah, blah. People get UTIs.
If it keeps coming back, that could be a signal that a stone that you have inside you could be causing an infection. I would talk to my urologist about that, okay? That's a problem.
You want to– you don't want to delay treatment on constant UTIs. You want to push back with your doctor if you have a current stone. Now, when do we have signs of a kidney infection?
When do we have an infection in our kidney? What are the signs of that? Could be back or side pain continuously, fever, chills, again, nausea, nausea, vomiting, pus or blood in your urine, and the ability– inability to urinate.
So, these are also– they go along with the things that I'm telling you should go to the for that because it could be an infection. That's when you want to run over there. So, there are– and I and you guys should go to this article, my blog, Kidney Stone Diet, "When to Go– When to Go to the for Kidney Stones." If you just Googled "when to go to the for kidney stones," you can find it.
But it's a nice little list of things that you can determine when you should be going, because, again, many of you may not have insurance. It's not like I don't understand that. A trip to the is not something you just go cuz you have a sniffle.
You're not going to go to the– I have– Here's what I'm trying to say. I need to calm down, cuz this kind of stuff I get very passionate about this. Many people will put off going to the because they don't have money.
That's a real freaking thing in our country, and it's disgusting to me, but that's the way it is. And the other reason is they may have healthcare, but it sucks, it's not good healthcare, and so, you know, they're like, "I don't want to have to go there if I don't have to. I don't have money for a thousand-dollar visit." But guys, you got to pay attention to those symptoms.
So, I'm telling you to go to the without not with– without just– Jeff, help me here. I'm telling people to go to the it's really important, but I would never just say it without thinking, "This is real money, folks," you know? So.
