Stoned again! Redux

When it rains, it pours. Right after I had my stroke, I went to the doctor about a pain in my back on the right side. That doctor sent me to another doctor. The second doctor almost killed me by mixing up my drugs -- but that's another story. The second doctor, we'll call him Dr. X., decided that I had kidney stone. Alas, indeed, that was true. that's the part of the story is true. We'll talk about how Dr. X. nearly killed me in another post.

Well, I had a kidney stone. Fortunately, I have had kidney stones before. Now for those of you who are uneducated, there are two distinct types of kidney stones. The most common kind is caused by calcium buildup to the kidney the second, and by far more rare, is the uric acids Crystal buildup in the kidney resulting from a condition called gout. the symptoms are similar, but the treatments are completely different. For uric acid crystals, they pump you up with fluids and wait. The stone resolves itself. Usually. With calcium-based kidney stones, they generally do a process called lithotripsy.

Mistake number one. I have a history of gout. I told the doctor that. Even so, he still recommended lithotripsy. That's what happens when you go to a surgeon. He recommends what he knows. I talked to a number of people about lithotripsy. Basically, the cure can be worse than the disease. Unless your stones are killing you, don't do it. Based on that advice, I didn't. And, of course, the doctor was not happy. However, realizing that the stones were resulted of the doubt, the doctor prescribed allopurinol, which is fine. However, you do with all my meds and his hands, he prescribed potassium citrate. other than the fact that that drug interacts with every other medication I was taking it was fine. Well, it nearly killed me. It crashed my blood pressure. Everybody asked me what he prescribed. Now I'm debating whether to sue over. I probably won't. Bad karma.

This weekend been suffering for three days with the residue left for the big uric acid crystals. Fine one minute. Flat on my back the next. However, three days of aggravation beats four months of lithotripsy treatments!

The moral of the story? I'm not going to sue the doctor. They call it the practice of medicine. mistakes happen. When in doubt -- do some research. You are in charge of your own fate, ultimately.