Left flank pain for months, suggestions?

Posted , 3 users are following.

Let me preface by saying i know internet is not the most reliable, but i dont have great insurance so affording a bunch of tests when i dont have a clue what we are looking for is something i cant do.

I have had left flank pain on and off for 2-3 months now. I have had kidney stones in both the left and right side before, and when the pain gets bad, it feels identical to a stone. So i went to the ER, and the CT scan showed a 13mm stone in the lower left pole. However they said it is non-obstructing and probably not causing the pain. There were blood and crystals in my urine, suggesting a stone may be passing or has passed recently. Other than that, all other levels including kidney function were in normal range. The ER suggested this was the pain and gave me a few days worth of Lortab to help.

Two weeks later i still had no Improvement in the pain. If it was a stone I would have seen improvement, or at the very least had other symptoms other than pain, right? So back to the ER I went. Same result. 13mm stone stable in the lower left pole, small amount of blood and crystals in urine, but nothing else found. A few days worth of Lortab again, and off I went.

now we have passed about 3 months of the pain. It is intermittent and unpredictable. I have had onsets of pain when i was hydrated/full bladder, and i have had onsets of pain on empty bladder too. my Urinary schedule doesn't seem to effect it. In fact, I havent found anything that can be connected to it hurting or not. I work a moderately physical job. A lot of moving, but no heavy lifting. I have several injuries to my spine from a car accident, but this pain feels different. It is mimicking kidney stone pain but i have no other symptoms. No falls/trauma to the area, so I doubt i could have injured a muscle enough to cause pain THIS bad. It is making work very difficult because when the pain flares up it is hard to stand and be social with customers while i feel like my kidney is failing.

Is it possible that massive stone IS the source of pain? It is literally the ONLY abnormality we have found through any of the tests. Should i go back to the ER and be a little more adamant that it needs to be addressed? Even if it wasnt the source of the issue, 13mm is still a HUGE stone, why not just remove it and see if that helps?

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  • Posted

    Did you find out what the problem was, having similar now and i think mine is from scar tissue following a ureteroscopy last January, CT was normal, kidney's fine and no swelling just pain that mimicks a stone

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