Cheat day kidney stone


#1

So every other Sunday I spend the day with my mother. We usually go to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, but it’s hard for me to get enough to eat there without spending a lot of money. The breakfasts are all a tiny bit of meat with maybe two eggs, and then a bunch of carby sides. So this sunday I said we should go to Golden Corrall, so I could load up on bacon. Between the sweetened bacon and the temptation of the spread, I gave in and cheated hard. French fries, tater tots, home fries, doughnuts, chocolate milk, chocolate covered marshmallows. I went apeshit.
So needless to say I got thirsty. All of a sudden my body is making glycogen, and I need water to store it. I couldn’t get enough to drink, especially with my mother taking her sweet ass time when shopping. More than once I had to ditch her to go buy something to drink. I got home way after my usual bedtime. So despite several large bottles of overpriced mineral water, long stops at every water fountain I saw, and a few Powerade zeros, I slammed about another half gallon of water before going to bed. I slept pretty well.

When I woke up I had to pee as I usually do. It’s a rare day when I don’t open my eyes and immediately go to the bathroom. So I went to the bathroom and started to pee. Dark, bloody pee. I started to freak out, but quickly slipped into denial. “I’m probably just a little dehydrated, and the red color is probably just that red Powerade coming through. That happens to some people,” I said to myself. I drank a bunch more water and went about my morning. (I work the night shift, so after getting to bed late and sleeping in very late my “morning” started around 2:30 AM.) About 6 AM, I peed again, and while it wasn’t dark and dehydrated, it was still obviously bloody. No more denial, I went to Dr. Google for help. It mentioned that bloody urine is most commonly associated with kidney stones, especially if it happens after becoming dehydrated. I got scared. Despite no other symptoms, I was sure it was a kidney stone, and I’ll tell you why.

Normally I eat KetoAF. Mostly beef. I have a guilty pleasure, though. It’s still keto, but definitely not carnivore: Lily’s chocolate. Lately I’ve found more and more of it sneaking into my diet, especially with the recent sale at my local grocer. Chocolate is a high oxalate food. Most kidney stones are calcium oxalate. “Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuuuuuuuuuuuuck.” I waited until my doctor opened and called, only to get a recording that they were closed. Of course they were, it was memorial day. “FUCK FUCK FUCK MY LIFE”

Ever since my mom learned how to text, she sends me a goodnight text after she gets up in the morning, and wishes me a good night at work before she goes to bed. So I’m sitting there wondering what to do while reading more about kidney stones and how some women have said it was worse than childbirth, when my back starts to hurt. “Oh boy. It begins,” I think to myself. I go and lie down on my bed as if that will make a difference. Around then I get the morning text from my mom. Ah-ha! Mom was a nurse. She will know what to do! I tell her what’s up, and I get a text back “keep drinking water and CALL THE DR.” I explain to her that I tried and they were closed. She explained to me that if I had listened to the whole recording there was an exchange I could call and get a message to an on-call Dr. that would let me know if I needed to go to the ER now, or wait for things to get worse. Also she said to find a strainer and start straining my pee. So I called the exchange, and they said they’d pass my message on to the Dr and I should get a call back in a few minutes. I lay there and another wave of pain starts. This one is worse. It actually gets pretty bad, but not bad enough to make me want to go to the ER before hearing back from the Dr. This wave of pain subsides, and I go tell my roommate what’s up in case it gets too bad for me to drive. After talking to him I realize it’s been like an hour since I’ve called the exchange, and there hasn’t been a call from the Dr. It’s almost noon, and I need to get back on a normal (for me) schedule, so I txt my mom that I’m going to bed but will keep her updated if the Dr. calls or if I need to go to the ER. Between the anxiety of having a kidney stone and sleeping so late the night before, I have some trouble getting to sleep, but probably drift off about 1:30 or so. I wake up to pee about 6PM, and realize I slept fine and without any pain. I’m a huge wimp. If something hurt even a little I would have woken up for sure. My pee only had a trace of blood in it. Nothing in the strainer. I went back to sleep and got up just after midnight feeling fine.

I had miraculously dodged a bullet. When my Dr’s office opened I managed to get an appt that day. It was around my bedtime and I had work that night, but I went anyway just in case. He said that I should keep drinking plenty of water and straining my pee. The stone was probably bouncing around in my bladder, and may take a few days to come out. He said he could do ultrasounds and cat scans, but they’re expensive and probably wouldn’t tell us much, if anything. He said to stay hydrated and to stop eating the chocolate. If I catch the stone in the strainer I should bring it in for analysis.

So I’m at work Wednesday night peeing through my strainer, wondering how long I should keep straining. It’s the third night and I’ve never found anything in the strainer. That’s when I look down and see it. A 2mm peebaby. I named it Natsuki (夏稀, “summer, rare”) since memorial day is the unofficial start of summer. I have become the proud Papa. I’ll be taking it in to the Dr. this morning.

Moral of the story? When you have a cheat meal, you’re only cheating yourself. I got off easy. I could have been in for hours of extreme agony. Also plant antinutrients can really fuck you up.

TL;DR, my cheat day dehydrated me and gave me a kidney stone, but by some miracle my suffering was mild and brief. Stay keto, kids.


#2

:joy:

I’m not laughing at your story, just the way you tell it. Spoilers and all.


(Carl Keller) #3

Kidney stones are serious and you managed to make your experience with one comical. If I were your kidneys, I would avoid these one night stands with carbohydrates. :stuck_out_tongue:


(Brian) #4

Glad the stone was quick and mild. I’ve had a couple, probably similar from the way others talk about them. Hurt, yeah, but the Aleve was enough.

When I go to Cracker Barrel, I usually just ask them to make me a big omelette with whatever low-carb goodies they have to go inside (I can’t remember, but they’ll tell me what they have and I’ll pick). And for the side, it’s usually a double sausage (sounds big, but it’s four small sausage patties). That, plus lots of coffee. And honestly, that really is a lot of food to me.

I kinda gave up on the regular breakfasts because of all the carbs that they stack up. Biscuits, gravy, hashbrown caserole, fried apples, pancakes the size of a dinner plate and a bunch of sugary syrup… they put out quite the carb spread. And if it’s set in front of me and I paid for it, it’ll bug me big time to leave it on the table. So I really try not to even start down that road.

The omelette isn’t on their menu, at least not here. But they all seem to know exactly what to do when I ask. I think it’s usually 4 eggs, which to me, is just right. :slight_smile:


#5

It wasn’t comical at the time, and probably still wouldn’t be if I had the full blown “kidney stone experience.” I thought for sure I was going to end up in the hospital screaming in agony. I think I might have jumbo sized ureters or something.

As far as kidney health goes, I’m actually pretty paranoid about it. I take b6 and b1 every day for my kidneys. A few years ago my pee started foaming, which can be a sign of kidney failure. A lot of testing showed my kidneys to be functioning very well, but for whatever reason I was spilling a tiny bit of protein. Because of my kidneys I got on a bp med as soon as it got high, and is one of the reasons I started keto. Unfortunately, despite losing 100lbs, I’m still very heavy and my BP has been creeping back up the last few months. I think it may be magnesium, and am going to start supplementing.

Anyway, will definitely think twice before going off the rails like that again.


#6

Thanks for the heads up! I usually would get the double meat breakfast and not get the grits, and let my mom have my biscuits, but that’s only two little sausage patties, three strips of wafer thin bacon, and two eggs. Not nearly enough since I intermittent fast and usually only do two meals a day.


(Jane- Old Inky Crone) #7

Thank you for posting your cautionary tale. You are a great storyteller, I appreciate the humor. Glad it was a mild experience :wink:


(Ken) #8

Hmmm. Kidney stones can take quite a while to form. It’s entirely possible it was related to your previous carb lifestyle than to eating carbs once a week.


#9

I don’t eat carbs once a week, once a month at most, and even then not enough to knock me out of ketosis for a day or two. I see my mother every other week, but I usually stay keto just fine. I’m not blaming the carbs per se, so much as the several months of chocolate consumption, and it’s expulsion precipitated by the pretty intense dehydration. The carbs just triggered the dehydration that sent it on it’s unpleasant journey. I’ve been zero carb since Monday, and I’m still not back in ketosis.


(Full Metal KETO AF) #10

You’re cheat day didn’t give you a kidney stone, but the dehydration that resulted caused the issue. The fact is that most people develop some small kidney stones as they age. It’s uncommon to have none at all. But the growth can get out of control and downright medieval, like some kind of weapon. I think there are things you can start doing to get them to shrink, I was reading a new thread here just a couple of days ago started by a guy who had some serious stones, scary looking crystals that looked like they would rip your uretha up. Keeping very well hydrated is key. That’s why the crystals get a chance to form from the salts becoming too concentrated and not flushing out, chronic dehydration for years. :cowboy_hat_face:


#11

Citrate salts, especially potassium citrate, help dissolve stones and keep them from forming to begin with.