Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy, Unless...

The good news is that I no longer have a 5mm (think pencil eraser-sized) kidney stone in my kidney.  It's been moving right along since November.  The pain I felt in March, April, and into May was the kidney stone moving towards the exit.

So now I have a 5mm kidney stone about 4 inches from my bladder.  The bad news is that's the narrowest part.  The hardest part is yet to come.

My job until the middle of next week is to push fluids and take the meds that the doctor gave me that could possibly relax things and move this stone along.  If it hasn't passed by Tuesday, I'll be back at the hospital for another x-ray and for some blood work.  If it hasn't made its exit by Wednesday morning, they're going to blast it.

Extracorporeal Shockwave Lithotripsy uses focused sound waves/shock waves to break a kidney stone into smaller pieces that can then pass much more easily.

So now I have a plan.  I'm hoping that this thing passes on its own before I have to go get Lithotripsy, because it's EXPENSIVE.  The doctor charges $1800 and the surgical center charges around $5000.  *ouch*

However, that  pain seems to be a lot less than the pain in the kidney.