Good luck, mrblack. I've had two kidney stones 20 years apart. The first was quick and mercifully brief. Was going to take daughter back to college, but got a pain I couldn't believe or relieve.
Wound up on the bedroom floor in fetal position for awhile, then went to the bathroom and (thank heaven) passed it. Ugly little thing like a bumpy bb. Drove the daughter to college, took the stone to doc Monday, and stone was confirmed.
Probable cause was thought to be drinking too much milk, or milkshakes, or ice cream, so cut that back, but found after the second stone 20 years later nobody yet knows what really causes kidney stones.
Second stone was more gradual misery. Was heading for beach, had to turn around and go to an emergency room. Tests confirmed the stone, fairly large, and I got that zapper machine that you may be referring to.
Not many around. Fortunate to have one at Walter Reed in D.C. Was scheduled to go in the morning the terrorists slammed the airliner into the Pentagon, but I hadn't stopped my aspirin therapy for the required week, so I had delayed appointment.
A week later I went in, had the procedure, was out in half a day. Procedure was painless, but ... still had to pass the stone fragments! That hurt as much as a regular kidney stone, but after a couple painful bouts, the frags were all finally gone and the relief was worth whatever treatment was necessary.
I had been given given oxycontin in the interim, but the only one I took made me so nauseated (worst barfing I can remember in years) I never took another.
Kidney stones elicit a lot of sympathy, and rightly so. As the saying goes, with a kidney stone you are not dying, but wish you were.
As others have said, drinking lots of water seems to be best therapy, although you have to pee all the time. Better flushed than crushed with stone pain, that's for sure. Best of luck, you'll be all fixed soon.
