Kidney Stones, Take 2

What's worse than a hormonal teenager with an attitude?

A hormonal teenager with an attitude that happens to be in a lot of pain.

Jeff had his first bout of kidney stones in June. The doctor thinks he had two at that time, one in each kidney. But by the time he had his CT scan, there was only one. He ultimately passed them on his own.

Nearly three weeks ago, he was feeling pain again. If you've ever had a kidney stone, you know it's a very distinct pain. So, he knew exactly what the problem was. Because of the time of day and the amount of pain, we went to the QuickCare clinic instead of waiting to make an appointment. They confirmed that he had blood in his urine and agreed that he probably had another stone. They scheduled another CT scan for the following week. Sure enough, another stone.

That CT scan was exactly two weeks ago. Jeff has NOT passed that stone yet...OR he has ANOTHER one. Today he was in quite a bit of pain. So, I made a doctor's appointment for him. The doctor was surprised about his appointment two weeks ago. One, because his medical record wasn't updated. Two, because there was only about ten weeks since his previous bout of stones.

Ultimately, the doctor upped his pain medication...which makes me a little nervous. Jeff is not that big. The dose that he took previously made him loopy. But when Jeff indicated that it only killed the pain for about 3-4 hours, the doctor gave him a higher dosage. He also gave him an antibiotic to fight any infection he may have acquired. And he told him to take off school today and tomorrow so that he could really push the liquids in order to pass this stone as soon as possible.

Then he told us...Jeff has ONE WEEK to pass this stone. He has a follow-up appointment next Tuesday. If he hasn't passed this stone, they're going in after it. After the doctor explained the process by which they would do that, Jeff practically passed out...and said, 'pass the water.'

I don't know if it's the pain or the meds, but he's been a COMPLETE BEAR all day long. I wish there was something I could do to make him feel better. But I assure you, until I figure out what that is, I intend to stay as far away from him as possible in order to avoid the next barrage of loud, ugly, mean words.