"People don't usually feel kidney pain..."

That phrase might be paraphrased, but it's essentially what my urologist told me during the appointment before my last operation.

"People only feel pain when the stone moves into the ureter or urethea, or when the bladder is bruised or swollen. People don't usually feel stones in their kidneys."

That comment made me feel a little insane. I started wondering whether the pain was real or not, but I was feeling pain in both of my kidneys - a stabbing, slicing sensation. The CT scans showed no stones in my ureter and 7 bilaterally in my kidneys.

For the third time since December, I'm having pretty serious pain in my kidneys, mostly on the left side. Yes, I know for sure I do feel stone pain IN my kidneys, when I didn't used to. Something about my physiology has changed. It's not constant, it comes out of nowhere, but it is very real. NEVER let a doc psych you out, even if that's not his or her intention. During that same appointment, he said, "Patients know their bodies better than any doctor when it comes to this sort of thing," but I let that affirmation roll off my body, because I was so put off by that first statement.

My question is, has anyone else out there had a shift in pain like this after years of textbook stone pain? Can organs become chronically irritated from so many surgeries or is it our brain's way of broadcasting situational awareness of changes within the kidney?

I think I've said it before, but I don't think I'm going to last until my appointment in April, but I hope I do. Then again, it I wouldn't mind having one more trip to the OR right before we move. That way I can have a few months of relative normalcy.

Scratch that. I'm never having an ESWL again....to freakin' painful!!