Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Kidney Stones!

Ah… CRAP! Yesterday I began having to go to the bathroom (#1) constantly and it was hurting. Today it got worse and I started getting pain in my back on the right side just under my rib cage. It was too late to talk to my regular doctor so I went over to the insta-care. Turns out I have blood in my urine. I am currently on antibiotics for a sinus infection so they don’t believe that it is a Urinary Track Infection (UTI). With the pain in my back they believe it is kidney stones!

I have had kidney stones before and they hurt like crazy. It felt like someone slipped a knife between my ribs and then just left it there. They REALLY hurt! I am not looking forward to this.

The insta-care doctor was going to give me some anti-inflammatory medicine but my primary doctor warned me not to take anti-inflammatory medicines while on all of these other drugs. I mentioned this to him so he prescribed Hydrocodone/APPA 7.5/500 mgs (Lortab) for the pain and told me to drink a ton of water. So it is going to be interesting for the next little bit. (Really not looking forward to this.)

So now I have to ask myself why I got this. As I mentioned earlier I wasn’t taking the Calcium supplements until about 2 weeks ago. I’m guessing that it was the extra Calcium that caused this, and the insta-care doctor seemed to agree. I need to follow-up with my primary Sarcoidosis doctor about this tomorrow. I think I might be to blame however. I didn’t take the Fosamax (Alendronate Sodium) until Tuesday because you have to take it without food, sitting up for 45 minutes and I just hadn’t had time until then. So I was taking the Calcium supplements for about a week and a half before I took the Fosamax. The doctor told me that Fosamax actually lowers the levels of Calcium in your blood because it puts it back into your bones. (This is to counteract the Prednisone) I guess it is possible that since I wasn’t on the Fosamax the Calcium levels got high enough to cause kidney stones. So if I were on the Fosamax earlier perhaps this wouldn’t have happened. I’ll have to follow up with my Sarcoid doctor to see what he says.

For now… Drink tons of liquids… Grin and bear it! Doha!

Michael

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I haven't had hypercalcemia since I was first diagnosed in 2000. It nearly killed me. I just had a check up in January with my Mayo doc and there were calcium crystals in my urine he was concerned about. He says even if I keep my calcium intake very low my body, the "gut" is what he called it, will make it on it's own and deposit it where ever in my body.

When I googled the Plaquenil he prescribed for me I read that it has a positive effect with that calcium/vitamin D process that sometimes goes on with Sarcoidosis. I believe I am feeling less fatigue while taking the Plaqenil too, a nice change.

So in the meantime, I'm with you, drinking at least 2 quarts of water a day.

Bonnie