“When do I go to the hospital for a possible kidney stone?”

In this episode of the Kidney Stone Diet podcast, Jill Harris discusses the critical signs and symptoms that indicate when someone should seek emergency care for kidney stones. Jill shares her extensive experience as a Kidney Stone Prevention Nurse, emphasizing the importance of recognizing severe symptoms such as intense pain, fever, and changes in urine color. The conversation also touches on the challenges of navigating the healthcare system and the importance of timely medical attention to prevent serious complications like sepsis.

Takeaways

• Kidney stones can cause excruciating pain and serious complications.
• Not all kidney stone patients experience pain; some may pass stones without it.
• Fever is a significant sign of infection and requires immediate medical attention.
• Intense, unrelenting pain is a key indicator to go to the ER.
• Cloudy or red urine can indicate infection or serious conditions like bladder cancer.
• Inability to urinate can signal a blockage and necessitates urgent care.
• Frequent UTIs may be linked to kidney stones and should be discussed with a doctor.
• Healthcare access can be a barrier to seeking emergency care.
• Timely intervention is crucial to prevent severe outcomes like sepsis.
• Patients should be proactive in discussing symptoms and treatment options with their healthcare providers.

Jeff Sarris
So when do I go to the hospital for a possible kidney stone? Let’s talk about that.

Jill Harris
So this is a serious one. this always, when Jeff and I decided to do this one, I was like, 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 then 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 are excruciating.

With that, I’ll also tell you, there’s 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 of 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 skills.

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, 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 know when you should go to the ER? 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 ER 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 ER. Well, you know, go over, see what they’re going to say because you’re going to be there at least eight hours in most cases. OK, so these are this is when you should go. The end.

Okay, so I’m gonna, this is on my blog and it’s called, when to go to the ER for kidney stones. So it’s right there at Kidney Stone Diet. So these are common signs, common signs you should go to the ER. When you have a fever, that typically is sign of infection. Get your bum over to the ER. 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 ER 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 gotta go to the ER. You’re passing a stone, most likely, and you need relief. It’s not gonna get better. Now, sometimes people will say, it got really bad, but then all of sudden the pain was go 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, my God, Jill, I knew I ran to the ER or I got somebody to get me to the ER. You know, because 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. When you have, go ahead. Well, thank you, Jeff. The pain can radiate. The pain can be in your groin.

Jeff Sarris
Where about would the pain be in general?

Jill Harris
The pain can be in your back, can be in your upper back, lower back, it can radiate from your back to the groin. Left, right, it can move around. Men will say, I feel it my, coming right by my penis. 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 wanna make sure, I know that’s very graphic, but pencil tips.

Just so you know, this is the kind of pain people are trying to get rid of and 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 a.m. Always 3 a.m.

and I was not from gardening anymore and I had to go to the ER. So people my age, a little older, 60s, late 50s, this is who I’m talking to every day, 70s, they just think, it’s my sciatica, it’s this or that, until they know that it’s not. So lots of times it can mimic just simple back pain 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, little upper mid back, and then you have these tubes, one tube 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 just have continuous diarrhea, continuous vomiting. I want you to go the ER for that because you’re gonna be severely dehydrated and you’re gonna be in trouble for that. So I’m talking like,

You can’t get off the promote whether you’re throwing up in it, you’re pooping in it, whatever you’re doing. It’s just nonstop. 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, if you’re passing a stone you’re going to have blood in your urine. It doesn’t mean you necessarily have to run to the ER, 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.

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 ER 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 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 ER. Okay? Does that make sense? That’s an important sign. Now, when, so this is going to, I’m going to pin this with, 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 ER and when is this a UTI? So UTI, normal UTIs versus a kidney infection perhaps from 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, yes, 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.

Lots of times, you’ll just have a UTI because you didn’t wipe yourself properly, sex with a partner, 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 don’t want to delay treatment on constant UTIs. You want to push back with your doctor.

if you have a current stone. 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, vomiting, pus or blood in your urine, and the inability to urinate.

So these are also, they go along with the things that I’m telling you. You should go to the ER for that because it could be an infection. That’s when you want to run over there. So there are, and you guys should go to this article, my blog, Kidney Stone Diet, when to go to the ER for kidney stones. If you just Googled when to go to the ER 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 ER is not something you just go because 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 because this kind of stuff, I get very passionate about this.

Many people will put off going to the ER because they don’t have money. That’s a real friggin’ 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 thousand dollar visit. But guys, you got to pay attention to those symptoms. So I’m telling you to go to the ER.

without not with without just Jeff help me here I’m telling people to go to the ER it’s really important but I would never just say it without thinking this is real money folks you know so how am I saying that help me say that better I would never be glib about that

Jeff Sarris
Doesn’t escape you that it’s a big choice to make, but sometimes it’s very important and it’s like that can be very serious to postpone it too long.

Jill Harris
Yes. Yes.

Yes, thank you, thank you, thank you, because I have had, I have had patients die from sepsis, because their spouses called me, they waited too long, Jill. I have had, I have a sepsis, which means you have an infection in your body, that you have an infection in your blood caused by a kidney stone problem, and now it’s going into your organs, and your organs can fail. This is serious. It’s not, it’s not.

rare it’s also not common this is something i hear a story about probably a few times a month okay so i’m bringing it up guys not to scare you but those are warning signs that you should hop onto the ER again i’m going to encourage you to save that article when to go to the ER for kidney stones just put Jill Harris you’ll come up at kidney stone diet and save it and really look at it they’re important things

that in this day and age that somebody might put off because of our healthcare system being what it is, but please don’t because it can really be that serious and I think I’ll end there.

Jeff Sarris
Yeah. Yeah. And for a deep dive in everything, head over to kidneystonediet.com or you’ll find that article and everything else. But yeah, thanks for tuning in. This is more of a serious, not really playful episode, but it’s an important one. And we hope that you heed the advice and we will see you week.

Jill Harris
Bye everybody and guys thanks for all the trust that you put into us we value you very much. Bye guys.