I apologize to my patients for not being in the office this past week. I instead found myself at the mercy of a passing kidney stone while being 8 months pregnant. This is my second child, and I have lost count of the number of kidney stones I have had in my life, but I still attest that a kidney stone is more painful than labor.

Last Wednesday I woke up with a mild general stomach ache that quickly localized to some sharp pain in my low back around the base of my right ribs. The location of the pain quickly clued me into the fact that this is not your ordinary back pain. After much insistence by my OB, we headed to the hospital. The pain was manageable on regular tylenol, but I was worried about what the middle of the night would bring. So, after establishing that the baby was ok, I was sent home with some heavy narcotics to take if needed.

In the middle of the night, the stone began to move and that was when the pain really began to sink in. My mother came to the rescue at 2 in the morning to quickly get to our house to watch our 11 month old son as we headed yet again to the hospital. This time I was admitted for pain control and fluids. It took about an hour for them to get the pain to a manageable level, but during that time I experienced the most excruciating pain of my life. I believe I was frightening my husband with how inconsolable I had become as I writhed on the bed in pain. An ultrasound the next morning confirmed that a 6mm stone was stuck halfway through my ureter and was causing fluid to back up in my kidney ultimately causing the kidney and tissues surrounding it to swell. The ultrasound also confirmed that the baby was ok, just a bit groggy from the narcotics that were being pumped through an IV. Three days later, a whole bunch of fluid and narcotics later, I passed not only one 6mm stone, but 2 more smaller stones as well. I am now happily back at home with my family and am praying I don’t fall victim to another stone during these last 12 weeks of my pregnancy.

While pregnant, you are more prone to kidney stones for many reasons. The main reason is the increased blood volume your body pushes through it’s system on a daily basis. This means it is that much easier to become dehydrated, so it is very important to drink at least 64oz, ideally 72oz of water a day. And, things like gatorade, iced tea, soda, tea, coffee all do not count as water. Most stones are made of calcium deposits, and the old theory was that dietary calcium needed to be restricted when you were prone to developing kidney stones. This has been found not to be true, as dietary calcium , or things you ingest containing calcium have no direct relationship on whether or not you will form stones. There are other theories on why pregnancy tends to increase the chance of forming a stone, many include the multitide of new hormones that your body produces, as well as supresses throughout the pregnancy. The best advice is to increase your water intake and decrease anything dehydrating such as caffeine, and sugar-substitutes. It is best to eat a well rounded diet avoiding anything processed not only throughout the pregnancy, but for the rest of your life to maintain good health.