Perhaps the classes are a bad idea...give yourself a rest man!


No... the classes won't cause any harm, and distractions will help to make the time pass faster. Because all you can do with a kidney stone is wait it out.

It is an amazing kind of pain, totally relentless. It doesn't wax and wane, it never gives you a chance to catch your breath and regroup. It's like somebody clamped a hot alligator clip to your insides and it just sits there and you never, ever get used to it.

Resting (that is, lying down or sitting) does nothing for you. In fact, it gives you too much opportunity to dwell on the pain and just makes it worse. Sometimes a hot shower will reduce the pain for a little bit, but until you actually pass the stone, there is no real relief.

Just in case anybody is interested in the gory details... the pain is *not* caused by the stone itself, and the size of the stone is almost irrelevant. (Most of them range from pin-head size to the size of a BB.) What happens is this: the stone passes from the kidney into the uretor (the tube that connects the kidney to the bladder) where it irritates the wall of the uretor. This irritation causes the uretor to constrict around the stone and stops the flow of urine from the kidney to the bladder. The kidney continues to pump urine into the blocked uretor, and the pressure buildup causes the uretor to swell and stretch until the pressure overcomes the blockage and moves the stone further along. This process repeats until the stone finally enters the bladder. It is the swelling and stretching of the uretor that causes the pain.

Once the stone reaches the bladder, you are pretty much home free. Unless you are straining your urine to try and capture the stone (so the doctor can see which of the several types it is and advise you on diet modifications to prevent recurrence) it is unlikely you will even notice when you actually expel the stone.

Just about the only relief is pain medicine, and unfortunately pain medicine effective enough to reduce the pain to a tolerable level will usually preclude other activities, such as thinking. So, while going to class won't cause any harm, it is not likely to be all that productive.

tanstaafl.