KIDNEY STONES: 'Worse than childbirth' - CNN.com

Kidney stones: 'Worse than childbirth' - CNN.com

From CNN.com ... WARNING: The following may cause cringing:

Toney Atkins writes: Ouch and ouch again! Men who have never passed a kidney stone need to read the CNN report, because I can testify the truth of it -- although I honestly can't speak on the childbirth pain thing since I have never been and never plan to be pregnant. I have experienced several stones over the past 40 or so years, and none of them were fun as they moved around and especially when they painfully ejected. Even as I write, I have inside me a kidney stone that, according to X-rays, is so large that several doctors, including a specialist, say that I will likely be calling 9-1-1 if it ever tries to pass because it may get stuck in my urinary tract. Heaven only knows how long it has been there, but it has occasionally caused back and side pain for a couple of years. Sorry to be so graphic, but that's the way it is. There are treatments to break apart kidney stones, I am told, but all of them would cause some bleeding, so my specialist refuses to do it because I have been on blood thinner for more than two years and anything that he would do could, and I emphasize "could," cause me to bleed out, or so he says. The article at the above link gives some important information about symptoms, along with some steps individuals can take to prevent these more-than-pesky stones.