Kidney Stones
Call 608-643-7262 to schedule a Urology appointment.
If you have ever had kidney stones, you know how painful it can be. At Sauk Prairie Healthcare, Urologist Dr. Nathan Grunewald treats kidney stones and can help prevent new stones from forming.
By seeing Dr. Grunewald when you first notice signs of kidney stones, such as pain in your side or problems when you pee, he can find your stone earlier when there are more options to treat it.
And should you need kidney stone surgery, Dr. Grunewald can take care of that quickly with laser technology — and you go home the very same day.
What are Kidney Stones?
Kidneys remove waste and extra water from your blood by turning it into pee. Without kidneys, these wastes would build up and damage your body. Instead, the waste becomes pee and flows from the kidneys to the bladder through tubes called ureters.
As your kidneys filter the waste, they work to balance the water, salt, and minerals in your blood. If there is too much of certain minerals and not enough liquid to water them down in your pee, kidney stones can form.
A kidney stone can form in your kidney, ureter, or even bladder. Stones can be as small as a grain of salt or bigger than a golf ball.
Types of Kidney Stones
Calcium oxalate stones: These are the most common type of stone. Calcium stones can get their start if you don’t drink enough water or if you don’t replace the fluids you lose when sweating a lot. Eating foods high in oxalates (like spinach or nuts) or taking high levels of vitamin D may also cause this type of stone.
Uric acid stones: These stones can form by not drinking enough water or eating too much protein.
Struvite stones: Infections in the urinary tract can cause this type of stone to form.
Signs of Kidney Stones
Most kidney stones start in the kidney. If the stone drops into the ureter, it can be very painful. The ureter is a very small tube, so a stone may block the flow of pee. When this happens, pressure builds up as your body continues to make pee. This pressure, along with swelling of the kidney, can cause pain which you may feel first in your side. The pain can also make you feel like you have an upset stomach or even throw up.
Some stones can be “silent,” meaning they don’t cause any symptoms, while others are very painful.
Kidney stone pain can shift around in your body, moving to your belly or groin if the stone is small enough to move through the ureter and get close to your bladder. If this happens, you may feel a burning when you pee or have more frequent urges to go. Sometimes, the stone is small enough to pass through while you pee.
Your symptoms can vary and range in severity, including:
- Sharp pain in your side, back, belly, or groin
- Pain that comes and goes
- Nausea (upset stomach) or vomiting
- Burning when you pee
- Frequent need to pee
- Feeling like you're not emptying your bladder when you do go
- Pee that looks cloudy, pink, or red
- Fever or chills (a sign of infection)
Get medical attention right away if you have these symptoms:
- Severe pain making it hard to sit or stand
- Pain with nausea, vomiting, fever or chills
- Difficulty peeing
- Blood in the urine
Causes and Risk Factors of Kidney Stones
The most common cause of kidney stones is not drinking enough water. This leads to not making enough pee, which causes kidney stones to form. It is like if you make a drink from a powder mix and don’t add enough liquid, leaving behind powder that can’t dissolve. Once a crystal forms, staying dehydrated can cause further crystallization and stone growth.
Sometimes it is hard to find the exact reason you formed a kidney stone. And just having kidney stones does not always mean you’ll have pain or other problems with them. You can have stones in your bladder or in your kidney for a long time that never cause you pain, and you may not even be aware of them. It’s when they move somewhere else — such as into the ureter or urinary tract — that they can cause the most trouble.
What Causes Kidney Stones?
Risk factors for developing kidney stones include:
- Family history, or your own history of kidney stones
- Not drinking enough water
- Being overweight
- A diet that is high in protein, salt, or sugar
- Some medicines, such as diuretics or calcium-based antacids
- Digestive issues such as inflammatory bowel disease or gastric bypass surgery
- Frequent urinary tract infections
Who is Most at Risk for Kidney Stones?
Men or women can get kidney stones, but men are more likely to develop them. Also, people who identify as white are more likely than other ethnicities to develop kidney stones.
How are Kidney Stones Diagnosed?
If you think you have kidney stones because of your symptoms, you should ask your primary care provider if you need to see a urologist. Your provider will make a diagnosis using the following tools:
- Physical exam and medical history, including any history of kidney stones
- Imaging, such as an ultrasound or CT scan
- Blood and urine tests
A CT scan of your abdomen is the most common way to diagnose a kidney stone. The scan will look for kidney stones as well as any other possible problems, like appendicitis or gallstones.
Kidney Stone Treatment
Treatment will depend on the type and size of the stone, as well as your symptoms.
Observation
For a stone that is not giving you much trouble, the first step may be to keep an eye on it and wait for it to pass on its own. Dr. Grunewald might prescribe something for pain relief or even a medication to relax and widen the ureter, helping you pass the stone faster and more easily.
We may also give you a pee strainer to catch the stone when you pee. Or we may test your pee to see if medication could help prevent future stones. Knowing the type of stone can be helpful in treating future stones.
Kidney Stone Surgery
You may need kidney stone surgery if your stone does not pass on its own, you are in too much pain to let the stone pass on its own, you have signs of infection, cannot pee, or the stone is affecting your kidney functions. Fortunately, technological advances now allow minimally invasive approaches to kidney stone surgery.
Ureteroscopy
Ureteroscopy involves passing a very small telescope, called a ureteroscope, into the bladder, up the ureter, and into the kidney. This enables Dr. Grunewald to see your stone without cutting into you. When he sees the stone, he then uses a tiny basket-like device to grab smaller stones and remove them. If a stone is too large to remove whole, he can break it into smaller pieces using a laser. Either way, the stone or its pieces are collected for lab analysis to get information used to better prevent and treat future stones.
Laser Lithotripsy
The procedure to break up kidney stones is called lithotripsy. Dr. Grunewald uses a laser to break up the stone. With the ureteroscope in place, a laser is then inserted and breaks the kidney stone into pieces. There are no incisions made so healing time is less than with traditional surgery, usually about a week. Anesthesia is used during the procedure to reduce pain and so you don’t remember the procedure.
Ureteral Stents
A ureteral stent is a long, thin tube inserted into each ureter to keep it open and allow pee to flow from the kidney to the bladder. Stents are used:
- When a kidney stone may block a ureter without a stent in place.
- When a person has a kidney stone blocking the ureter while also having a urinary tract infection.
- After surgery due to inflammation in the ureters.
Stents are usually temporary. Depending on the patient and the need for the stents, they may stay in place for a few days or weeks.
Preventing More Stones in the Future
About 50% of patients with a kidney stone get another one within seven years. But there are things you can do to keep them away, especially once you know the type of stone you had and its cause. We will provide you with a personalized plan and recommendations to help prevent stones from happening again.
Medications
If you are at risk of forming kidney stones, Dr. Grunewald may prescribe medication to help keep them from forming.
Changes to What You Eat
People often wonder about the foods that cause kidney stones. Here are some changes to your diet that can help prevent stones from forming:
- Drink plenty of liquids: Drink at least 100 ounces of water (including lemonade and other liquids) daily to stay hydrated. If you exercise a lot, you’ll need to drink more water. Avoid too much caffeine, which dehydrates you. Also avoid cola, which is high in fructose and phosphates and may also lead to kidney stones.
- Limit certain “trigger foods”: Even if you are in good health, your diet may encourage kidney stones to grow. Foods such as animal protein, eggs, spinach, beets, chocolate, nuts, and colas have been linked to kidney stones. Also, foods high in oxalates — rhubarb, spinach, beets, bran flakes, potato chips, and French fries — can be a kidney stone trigger.
- Eat citrus fruits: Lemons and limes are high in citrate, which can help prevent kidney stones.
- Reduce salt: Lots of salt can raise calcium levels in your pee and cause stones to form. Cutting back on the salt you get from food and drinks will also help your heart and your blood pressure.
- Get enough calcium: Yes, calcium stones are the most common type of kidney stone, so we can see why it may be confusing to encourage calcium intake. But eating calcium-rich foods like kale and salmon isn’t a bad thing — only when you also eat too much.
- Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables: Eating at least 5-9 servings of fruits and vegetables daily is recommended for everyone. Eating fruits and vegetables gives you potassium, fiber, magnesium, antioxidants, phytate, and citrate. These elements are known to help keep stones from forming.
- Eat less meat: If you have cystine or calcium oxalate stones and high levels of uric acid in your pee, animal protein may be to blame. If your diet is increasing your risk for stones, you may need to eat less meat. This includes fish, seafood, poultry, pork, lamb, and game meat. You may be asked to limit eating animal protein to only once per day or less, and to eat smaller portions. The amount to limit depends on how much you eat now and how much your diet is affecting your uric acid levels.
Talk to Our Urologist at Sauk Prairie Healthcare
We know your bodily functions are not always the most comfortable topic for you to talk about, but our Urologist at Sauk Prairie Healthcare specializes in making those conversations easier for you. If you can come to us with early signs of kidney stones, such as discomfort in your side or urinary difficulties, we can identify your stone earlier, closely monitor your progress and offer you the least invasive treatments possible.
Should you need kidney stone surgery, we can take care of that for you quickly and conveniently, right here at our hospital. At Sauk Prairie Healthcare, we offer you the latest technology onsite with a laser capable of treating all stone types — and you typically get to go home the very same day.
If you are having kidney stone symptoms, we can help. We’ll get you in quickly to get you the care and relief you need.
