I was working on the early stages of a site that required us to use plate and jumping-jack tampers extensively to prep the loose soil. Nasty work working in mud and dirt but a necessary part of the job. Everybody lends a hand when things got rough. Even the senior guys.

Anyway, one of the old hands had kidney stones and had been told to push the water. Hottest days of the year and everyone is humping and sweating. He is taking his pills and chugging the water. He takes a turn on one of the old jumping-jack compactors where the dampers are shot so it really rattles your teeth. After about twenty minutes he hops out of the hole and gets a drink. On the way back he stops off at the porta-jon.

At first it is just a few yips. Then a scream that would curl your hair followed by a minute of swearing, a few mixed prayers, more cussing, a few whimpers and another minute of screaming and crying like a woman.

Then silence.

After a few minutes we figured we had to check to see if he fell in and drown. A friend knocked on the door and he replied that he was fine.

After another couple of minutes he came out. He was still pale, his clothes were soaked in sweat and looked like he he had slept in them for a month but he had the biggest SEG I have ever seen.

The stone had passed.

To this day he credits drinking lots of water and the bone cracking vibrations from a worn out soil compactor.

There is lots of folklore about 'acidifying' your urine to dissolve any stones. I doubt that any of it makes much of a difference. Which explains why there are so many different, and contradictory, versions. If you push fluids, pretty much any fluids, most stones pass on their own. Consult your doctor.

I would just push water and if it got too painful I would get medical help. If a stone goes in sideways, sticks and stops up the works your going to need professional help. Failure to get help can cost you a kidney and, rarely, with complications, cost you your life. Lady down the way had one that backed up and it tore into a blood vessel. She almost bled to death internally and, after a week in the hospital, finally gave it up due to an infection. Not something I want to mess around with.

Pushing fluids helps - IF the stone is small enough. One of the classic problems is the tube gets narrower, and you can get to the point it won't move. Mine seems to be moving.

Running a tammper - heh - with a stone, that MIGHT just kill you <grin>

I would find someone with a multi year degree and massive amounts of malpractice insurance.

My sis in law, cardiac nurse, tried several versions of home therapy for painful stones for several years, finally, pain won out, she went to the specialist, he discovered "crystallized"(?) stones that would have been in his opinion impossible to pass, so she just had the surgery to get removed, all good now.

He also told her that it is likely she will have more. It's her body's way of dealing with whatever causes them.

Somewhere I heard that cranberry juice is good for keeping the stones away. Also, lots and lots of water as mentioned already. And then some more water on top of that.

Fun stuff... you really start wondering what's going on when you start peeing blood! Ugh.

I don't know about kidney stones, however, cranberry juice is great for preventing urethritis, and bladder infections.

I believe that it is equally effective for kidney health but I have NO evidence to support that belief.

Few folks know as much about pain as you do.

I worked at a facility that did ultrasonic lithotripsy-busting renal stones up with sound waves. Laser is better, but the pieces they create do not look like ping pong balls-they look like broken glass, and it takes a bunch o' opiates to get them out. Colic pain-pain created by a muscular tube-like organ pushing on an obstruction, is as bad as pain gets, and gallstone colic, renal colic, and childbirth are that kind of pain. I've taken care of women who get gallstones or kidney stones late in pregnancy, which just ain't fair.

Oh, There are lots of people who know about worse pain than I do - look at cancer patients. Compared to what they go through, what I have is minor stuff

I will say today was a bad day - sometime during the night, my leg bandages shifted, so they had dried out, plus I was having another kidney stone attack - at the same time. I was past the 6 hour window, so I took a pill, changed the lag bandage (made the leg feel better) and laid down for a couple of hours


And roger on the broken glass shaped pieces (floating in blood <g>)