I have a niece who has passed kidney stones as you have for most of her life. I think she is 40 now so it has been a rather unpleasant life. She has of course become addicted to pain meds and now doctors will no longer prescribe them for her. She is pretty pitiful. I dont condone addiction, but in this circumstance, I can just about understand it. Just thought you might like to know that you are not in it alone. Good luck and God Bless you in your journey

My boyfriend, has the same issue. He passed his first kidney stone with no problem when he was 18, then about a year ago he had to get a cystoscopy to blast one out had a Ureter stint. Then a month ago he had one traveling on each side at the same time, and they did a litheotripsy. then its about a month later, and he has a 5mm stone that he just got blasted today. He also passes little ones all of the time. I wonder if there are any underlining conditions or diseases that is causing these stones. I feel so bad for him, he has also missed so much work. He's suppose to be seeing a Kidney specialist this month, so I'm hoping they come to a conclusion.

The first thing is to find out what type of stones you are making.
There is medication that can slow down the amount of stones a persons body makes. The other thing is changes in diet such as eliminating or decreasing your oxalate intake.
Oxalate is found in many foods and drinks such as coffee, teas, sodas, etc..
chocolate, sunflower seeds, fig newtons, the list goes on and on.

There are categories for low, medium and high oxalate foods, drinks even condiments and fruits.
Another big culprit is sodium.

Then on the other hand there are people like myself who have eliminated a lot of this stuff from my diet and still produce stones.
My son and husband also suffer from kidney stones.

Nephrologist (kidney doctors) are your best bet when dealing with so many stones, you still need the urologist to remove the kidney stones if you can not pass them but the kidney doctor can help with medications and dietary changes.

Please write me as I am unlikely to find this forum again as I stay in me "batcave" most of the time. My likfe is ruled by kidney stone pain. I have passed more than 40, have had 12 surgeries for them, endured a nephrosomy for 4 months during one of my pregnancies, and have chronic pylonephritis. I had the unfortunate experience of living in Las Vegas for the past two years, and was unfairly marked as a "drug seeker." Not sure, but I think that youhave to actually take the narcotics to become addicted to them, and at the time, my nausea and vomitting from the pain prevented me from doing so. From the dehydration, being unable to take fluids and vomitting so much, I had an acute MI. I am 37, have 6 children, and went into full kidney failure, and congestive heart failure. Still the label remained, and we had to relocate our family to attain better medical care, but there are still no answers for my chronic kidney pain. THe renal and heart failure has reversed as the stones that were blocking passed on their own, I take flomax daily, but I am unable to do much other than lie around in a fetal position until the next stone passes. Please, if you are suffering like me, please e-mail me so that we can share resources, or create some! Thanks for listening.

Serenity, you have it down. Thank you for all your great info. I'm suffering bad now too. I had my first stone at 15, and now I am 36 and have chronic stones for about the past 2 years. I can now go sometimes 2-4 months before I get a stone on the move again, and I think Its because I got completely serious about my diet, which by the way, was not bad in the first place! And although I thought I drank enough water, I guess a gallon a day is not enough for me. It seems like all I do is drink fluid now. Water being number one, distilled right now, seems to be helping. Instaed of reading a paragraph, let me try and simplify what works for me, and what does not:
KEEP IN MIND NONE of these "goods" will have refined sugars, caffeine (sodas, tea or coffee, etc

GOOD! (in order of use and importance to me for last year)
-WATER ( i drink distilled now for over a year)
-Organic apple juice
-BRAGGS Apple cider vinegar "with the mother" (I hate this one, but I have to tell you, I can almost feel it waring these stones down, and you can fix it with water, and honey to make it more palatable)
-Pure cranberry (you can get use to the taste, I enjoy it now)
Notice all these are liquids! Liquids, liquids!

NO GOOD!
-Sugar of ANY KIND!
-Any dehydrating foods/liquids:
soda, coffee, tea, juices with added sugar
-Mineral rich foods:
-Kale
-Chard
-spinach
any hardy green
-Red meat for some reason bothers me almost immediately, too bad I love it so much, but Ive stopped
-sausages
-hams

My rule has been, if its dehydrating I skip it, or in a VERY small bite, and that's it.

I'm still getting them, but not as frequent. The last 2 have been the worst of all. (just 2 days ago) And I sympathize with Banjo Booger, when you say you are at your wits end, and just wanna jump! Although I'm probaby the most positive person people meet, this thing cuts me down so bad, when its over I lay there and think..."what! This is no way to live! When is the next one going to hit?" And all the suicidal thoughts. But I hang on too. There's got to be a way! I want my life back! I'm so happy to voice my frustrations here! I swear some people are thinking that I may have drug problem or something, and I'm such a purist that it make me so frustrated! But believe me, when the pain gets intolerable, and Im throwing up, and passing out, I will reach for a pain killer now. I'm over trying to "endure" it anymore. It's so ridiculous! So Booger! When you are feeling crappy, leave me a message!