Back in November of '97 I had some pain and bleeding which led me to see a urologist. Armed with insurance, finally, I looked forward to treatment outside the Harbor clinical setting, hoping for something more personal. The doctor I saw detected some abnormal swelling of my prostate which concerned him more than my other complaints. I explained to him that I had dealt with other problems related to my current situation but he seemed very dismissive of my previous concerns and experiences, wanting to get right in, do a cystoscopy and see what was going on. The procedure was done in a hospital, but this time they knocked me out completely. It turned out that the problem with my prostate was from scarring caused by the previous five cystoscopies. While I was under, my Doctor used the cystoscope to scrape some of the offending scar tissue away.
In June of '98 I passed my first recognizable stone. It was yellow, small, very hard, vaguely rectangular and obviously crystalline in structure. Sadly I lost or misplaced this stone. In early December I began having pain and bleeding. I was quite sure that I was obstructed. My Doctor placed a stent via cystoscopy, as described above, and left it in for a week. After a week he removed it and within a day or two I obstructed again. My Doctor was having some difficulty accepting this because the stone did not show up on the x-rays. He did an IVP, described on the previous page, determined that I was obstructed and placed another stent. Several weeks later I underwent a procedure called Extra-Corporeal Shock-Wave Lithotripsy where the stone is bombarded with powerful energy (sound waves?) focused very tightly (5 cubic millimeters). This effectively smashes the stone, making it pass easily. This procedure seemed to work, and just last week (2/4/99) he removed the stent he had placed nearly a month before.
Although I feel better, we've yet to discover with any clarity why I am now producing stones, nor have we determined any connection between this current problem and my previous condition, although it is the same kidney that has produced both problems.