It's Gone!

After four months of pain I finally got help and the kidney stone has been removed.
I couldn't find any really exciting photos to include in this posting. I did come home from the surgical center with some photos of the inside of my bladder as well as with a jar of shattered pieces but I will leave that to the imagination. I also tried to get some good measurements or descriptions but the best I have come up with is that the adult female bladder is about the size of a tennis ball when it is empty. My stone was 15mm. It isn't hard to imagine why it was painful, especially when it lodged in the opening to the urethra.

The procedure was accomplished by the urologist inserting a camera and an instrument something like a miniature jackhammer into the bladder and then actually hammering on the stone to break it up. Most of the pieces were removed in the procedure so I just had one to pass here at home.

Apparently it was a smaller stone in the kidney which moved (on one of the very painful days) down into the bladder and has been growing there since. There is usually a cause for people developing stones so the doctor wants to see me in a few weeks to discuss prevention of future stones. I'm just grateful that it is gone and any pain from the procedure should be gone in just a few days. YEA!