Kidney Stone Symptoms
Many have described kidney stone symptoms as the worst pain they ever experienced, and this includes women who have given birth! The funny thing is that although kidney stones are fairly common, kidney stone symptoms are often nonexistent. In fact, for some people, the first experience they have with kidney stone symptoms is excruciating pain when the stones begin to pass from the kidneys.
Kidney stones are small, hard masses, like little pebbles, that are made up of salts and minerals found in normal urine. Sometimes, when the urine is concentrated, the salts and minerals will crystallize and stick together, developing into kidney stones on the inner surfaces of the kidneys.
A person can have kidney stones with no kidney stone symptoms whatsoever. Since most kidney stones are quite small, they can frequently be passed from the kidneys without any problems. Kidney stone symptoms show up when a kidney stone is too big to pass easily through the urinary tract tubes.
When a larger kidney stone is moving from the kidney to the bladder, these are the kidney stone symptoms that are most common:
• Severe pain in the back and sides, radiating to the lower abdomen and groin
• The pain hits suddenly and is described as the worst pain ever felt
• Pain that accompanies kidney stones symptoms often comes in waves
• Nausea and/or vomiting
• Blood in the urine
• With kidney stone symptoms, the urine may also appear cloudy or have a bad smell
• Painful urination
• Frequent urination or urge to urinate
A person who has kidney stones but no severe kidney stone symptoms may not even realize they have kidney stones until they seek medical treatment for one of the milder kidney stone symptoms listed above.
When fever or chills accompany other kidney stone symptoms, this can mean infection is present. If this occurs, medical attention should be sought quickly to take care of any infection before it becomes a more serious problem.
There are a few other medical conditions that have symptoms that are similar to kidney stone symptoms. These include appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy, hernia and prostatis, which all require the care of a physician.
Quite frequently, kidney stones will pass without any kidney stone symptoms at all. Even when the intense pain and other kidney stone symptoms appear, they usually last only until the stone has been passed.
Although extremely painful, most people have no other complications or kidney stone symptoms once the stone is excreted. The hard and painful part is passing the kidney stone, and even though there aren't many kidney stone symptoms, the symptoms that appear are so extreme and powerful that people who have lived through kidney stones say it is the worst pain they have ever experienced.