painful urinary stent removal

[principal56]

I have had kidney stones removed surgically on three occasions over the past ten years.  Each time the Dr. has left a stent in my urinary tract.  The first two times the stent had a string attached to it.  When the stent was removed it caused minimal discomfort.  The third time which was perfomed recently, the Dr. said he preferred not to attach a string to the stent.  I agreed, not knowing that I was agreeing to a procedure that was infinitely different from my previous experiences.  A week after surgery, I had the stent removed in the doctor's office.  No pain medication was administered.  The removal of the stent was one of the most painful events I have ever experienced.  Twice during the procedure, my bladder was filled with water.  This was also extremely painful.  
Is there justification for conducting such a procedure without measuires to abate the extres pain that it causes?

[violet60]

Wow. Interesting comments. Finally found "the truth". I have to have a stent removed next week. It is so uncomfortable that I can't wait, but scared of the pain of removal. It does have a string. Why don't they inform us of the pain and spasms? It would be somewhat easier to bear if we knew what was causing the pain and if it is normal. Its been 6 days and I still have bleeding. I'm drinking lots of water. That's all they told me to do. All I have read about ureteral stents is nothing like what I feel. My legs are weak and I can't stand for very long, it hurts to urinate, my back hurts and my ureteral area hurts where the stone was, which feels like spasms. I am a 51 y/o female. I was supposed to have a stone on the right blasted (ESWL), but instead he basket extracted a stone from my right ureter and put in a stent. I had no idea he was going to do that until I woke up from anesthesia. They told me I could go back to work the next day. Ha. Very frustrated. I was supposed to have the stent removed tomorrow (Fri), but doc is out of town until Tues so I have to wait. I will definitely take a pain pill before!!

[ajayint]

Hi,

I am 31Yr OLD Male, I had 8MM stone stuck at the end of uretor . Doctor did the ureteroscopy to remove it yesterday .he broke it with laster . procedure took around an hour as doctor told me it too long time to break the stone.

Now he told me that he has left a stent and will be removed after 4 weeks,

I had bearable pail after the ureteroscopy . i felt of passing urine immediately i became concisous after the procedure , it paind a lot first time and for whole first day while passing urine but manageable.

today is my second day and feeing better , but i am scared about stent removal after reading above as i dont see and string out ...
so far it was okay for me ...

[Figaden]

I had a stent put in after a failed laser lithotripsy 2 weeks ago. Went back for round 2 to blast out my stones. They put in another stent, this time with the string. I am a 30yr old F. The stent was to be left in for a week but within hours it got dislodged and migrated down into my urethra causing instant incontinence. Lucky for me I was already in hospital. The urologist came in and had to remove the stent, he did so surrounded by his entourage of interns and nurses, oh the things we put up with when in pain! The removal was uncomfortable but not at all painful, took all of 10 seconds andcured the incontinence right away.
Had really bad bladder spasms that started about 45 minutes after the stent was removed, and pretty bad pain since then (that was yesterday morning). Am home now and oh so happy to not have to put up with that stent anymore! The first one was pretty bad too, constant pain, horrible when urinating, especially near the end, but i guess that pain was better then what could have happened without the stent....

[Helen59]

Hi Folks,
  If anyone knows what you’re going through – I do!!
I had my first kidney stone at age 15 – I am now 52.
My stones are made of Cystine.  The hardest to break up.
I lost track on how many surgeries I have had.
In the past - I always had stents put in with the strings that hung out.
These are no problem – I have pulled them out myself- no doctor’s help.
**BUT- in May of 2011. I had a Nephrostomy tube inserted again.  Surgery was done.
I was sent home with the stent in. It was the kind with no string.
It was green with curled on each end.  OH MY GOD! This was terrible!
He pulled it out of my kidney- I screamed- He stopped. Then I yelled “PULL IT OUT”!!!
He pulled it all the way out. There were stones formed on the end that was in my kidney.
He was shocked. Then he told me the pain was spasms. He sent me home.
I ended up in the hospital hours later, with pain and passing gravel.
*** Has anyone experienced this?
I also had a problem with swelling? I think this is from the stent?
First my throat swelled. Then my feet, hands, eyes, jaw….
All one body part at a time. As soon as one swelling went down, another body part would swell.
I went to the hospital. I was put on steroids, Benadryl.
Now I keep looking at myself to see what’s going to blow up next.
I have had this surgery so many times over the years with no problem.
But this time was bad. I know I will need it done again. But this time I know what I need to
tell my doctor.  I want the orange stent with the string or none at all.
Hope this helps-Helen

[SeaSpraysWonderfulLife]

To anyone wondering if they should take something for pain for ureteral stent removal: prior to having my 1st stent removed, I asked the first urologist if I needed anything for pain.  he said "No big deal."

Thankfully, I decided to look it up on the web and read where some people said it wasn't a big deal, but one said, "For the love of God ...take a pain medication!"

That was all I had to read.

I took a percocet.  It was the most exquisitely excruciating experience I ever had!  Tears instantly came to my eyes and streamed down and I cried out "JESUS!"  Not as a swear word but it was a reflexive "HELP!" and it was over.  It was fast.

But that set the tome for my concern about everything urological.  Unfortunately, that night ..I ended up back in ER with 3 more stones, admitted and back in the OR stented  and had it removed in office again and I was so afraid.  It was awful.

I have had more stents since then, but thankfully a different urologist and I take 2 or 3 percocet and can still feel it. But ..I would n-e-v-e-r e-v-e-r allow anyone to remove a stent without paon med or in the OR.  Fortunately for me, the other removals were in the OR.

I felt like my first two experiences were inhumane compared to second urodoc.

I have experience with this and so I would say ..if you are a person who is stoic or high pain tolerance then go without if you want but if you aren't tell your physician you want to have medication to cover the pain.  It is a humane and reasonable patient expectation.

Also there are varying sizes of stents and so that should be a consideration.  I had a really small stent removed in office with percocet in me and I was shocked it was out.  The first two with other doc were horrendous experiences. then the only other one was a bit larger, but he removed it slowly and that helped ..kind of stop-go stop go and it hurt but I could deal with it.  Also, I have found since then if he removes stents slowly I don't get bad kidney spasms afterward.  Not as strong anyway.

When I had a long, difficult and painful labor, I only whimpered ..never cried or hollered out.  I can take pain.  This was beyond what I could handle.

[kevin_r]

Lynda,
We are not all anatomically the same, and it is more difficult to remove a stent for a man, than a woman.  If you can't understand the basic difference then there's no use in discussing it further.  Moreover, one procedure might be comfortable for one person, but is excruciating for another person.  I have never, ever, heard a person describe stent removal as you have here.  I am simply shocked.