Right kidney area pain

[Idontknownemore]

Excruciating pain from my right kidney, had wee tests this morning and nothing found in wee, it’s coming in waves, one minute I can be fine the next crying and making labour type noises in pain, been going on for ages (few months) but ramped up in the last few weeks and today particularly awful.

Referral to rheumatology for suspected lupus put in a couple of weeks ago and told to just wait. GP aren’t concerned because wee is clear of infection/blood/protein etc.

As I’m breastfeeding I can’t take strong painkillers and told because it’s kidney pain to only take paracetamol and not ibuprofen. I have 3 young dc to care for and dh in work 6am-8pm so you can imagine I’m in agony and it can be distressing for the dc (I’ve being sick too).

Weeing more often but drinking more often.

Forgot to add point of the post-

Has anyone else experienced this? What was it? What do you think it could be?

Thanks for reading.

This sounds like kidney stones. They can sometimes cause blood in the urine, which would show up on a dip test, but not always. They can only be diagnosed via a scan unfortunately. If it's unbearable, I would call the GP again.

Sounds identical to me when I had a kidney stone, I was pregnant and had to have a nephrostomy for mine but I was mooing like I was in labour and was given gas and air it was that bad! Kept getting told it was a UTI and given antibiotics at first but my urine tests were always totally fine

i agree it sounds like a kidney stone. Dihydrocodeine (not codeine) is safe in breastfeeding. You would not be u reasonable to attend A&E with a renal stone!

*unreasonable

Thank you. I’m absolutely terrified now 😅 I hate labour (been there 3 times!!) and always been told passing kidney stones is on par, so this is like the worst thing to hear!

I’ll try and get back on to the GP tomorrow, I’m currently writhing in agony on the verge of tears, can’t go to A&E as DH leaves for work at 5am so I’ll just have to ride it out. It’s coming and going in waves, the dull sore pain is there constantly and weeing a lot.

Quick update - Gp had no appointments, so I booked a private ultrasound (bloody el it’s dear!) and confirmed 2 stones in my right kidney and 1 in my left, so going back to the GP tomorrow to hopefully get it sorted. Thank you for the replies!

Ouch OP! So glad you managed to get it diagnosed ASAP (even if you did have to pay 😫) hoping it's easily treated for you

Unfortunately, there's not a lot the GP will do other than maybe prescribe some Zapain/Naproxen for thr pain. They will say to wait it out and let the stones exit the body on their own. You'll only need help if a stone gets stuck. Most stones pass naturally. You'll know when one is on its way out and will feel instant relief the moment it exits!

Thank you. How will I know if it’s stuck? It’s incredibly painful at times (when the waves come) and I could definitely do with some strong meds to get through it at points.

The pain will be that a stone is stuck in the ureter, the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder.
When a stone is in the kidney it's not painful, and once it's moved into the bladder it's more a dull ache (well that was my experience) until it passes out with your wee.

Drink, drink and drink to try and flush it down into your bladder. I found paracetamol and codeine rubbish, and pain only subsided once I'd tried ibuprofen and then I vomited from pain and it must have dislodged the stone, or it had just made its own way out at that exact moment. It stayed in my bladder for about 2 weeks and then I passed it.

Some stones may be too big to get through the ureter but I don't have any experience of what you'd need to do.

oh ok, my stones are currently in my kidneys and definitely causing me pain, they’ve been causing me pain for a while too.

Pain doesn't mean the stone is stuck. I've passed a lot of stones unfortunately as I have 2 different kidney conditions. I'm always in agony when the stones are moving around, making their way from the kidneys down to the bladeer/urethra. Inguess its all the squeezing/bashing the sides. From my experience, I usually pass a stone a couple of days after excruciating pain. There's only been one time where I was suddenly in absolute agony for about 3 hours and then passed a stone. Quickest stone ever 😅 I can't put in to words the sense of relief I felt as soon as it came out. It was like a switch went off. Hopefully yours is a quick passing stone. You will know when it's in urethra, it just feels like there's something there. You can feel it pass out too. Scoop it out when it passes to see how big it is. That one time I was in a lot of pain and it passed quickly was such a big stone 🥴 I'm regularly prescribed Zapain to help but honestly, it doesn't even touch the sides 😖

Long story with me but initially I had pain in same area coming in waves etc and it bothered me more at night and almost disappeared in the day for 2 weeks, then one night it ramped up a gear and I started vomiting etc. I was diagnosed with a kidney infection with clear urine (A&E dr confirmed this is possible for the infection to be encapsulated within the kidney). Long story short I had something called a PUJ obstruction (ureter tube was kinked so my kidney was swelling with urine and frequent kidney infections was the upshot until I had my operation to correct). But yes same pain can be caused by kidney stones as the blockage is the same.

Sorry I missed that you have been diagnosed so ignore me! Wishing you better and glad you have been diagnosed and can fix it now xx

Update;

Since had an NHS ultrasound and the sonographer scoffed at me going private and disagreed that I had kidney stones, I asked if it’s possible that I passed them in that time (I was doubled over in pain, then around 2 hours later had rocky looking things in the toilet a few days ago) and she just laughed and said absolutely not.

Im so confused, she told me not to use private scans as they’re unreliable and cause a lot of worry and was really dismissive because I didn’t have blood around the passed stones in the toilet. Im pretty much pain free now so atleast that’s a positive, still wake up in the morning with really sore kidneys though but other than that I’m fine!

Sounds exactly like you've passed them to me! You should have fished them out 😅 I've got quite a collection now. It's helpful to see what kind of stones they are as that gives you an idea of why/how they formed. Not sure why the person doing the scanning was so rude! Glad you've passed them :) hopefully you don't get any more!

Gallstones?
I thought I had kidney issues. Turned out to be the gallbladder

Oh and just to add, the stones don't have blood round them when they pass, they just look like yellow spikey stones! I think once, I had a tiny spec of blood on the tissue when I wiped after passing but that was once and it was the tiniest drop. So definitely could be stones. She sounds like she doesn't know a thing!

Thank you! Yes they were little and spikey.

It can’t be gallstones as I’ve had my gallbladder out (had a gallbladder full of stones in 2018).. fun!