hi, I'm a nurse but never did urology as a speciality. I have a kidney stone in my left kidney which won't move through the renal calyces and renal pelvis. It's been giving me chronic left flank pain and left abdominal pain.I have a problem keeping myself hydrated d/t another medical condition,which doesn't help me keep from getting stone formations. I've passed a few apparently very small stones over the last 5-6 months.had to go to ED twice because of the pain from them,but the one in my left kidney, and one apparently impacted in my bladder aren't moving. I'm on my 3rd UTI from this and my urologist want's to do this retrograde pyelogram. will this procedure just be able to remove the one in my bladder or can she get to the kidney and remove the one out of my kidney this way also? apparently the one stone in my bladder is 2-3 mm and the one in my kidney is only 4-5mm. Because of the chronic knawing ache with occasional sharp pains in my kidney and abdomen,and the one in my bladder being impacted and causing these UTI"S,she wants to do this under general anesthesia because it's very painful?It's painful enough passing these "sand stones",so I can't imagine being awake while they shove this scope in and root aroun My vein access is terrible from all my medical problems, so she said they want to put me under and have the anestheologist but in a jugular line. Sorry this was so long, but I was hopeing one of you could answer my questions. Naturally I forgot to ask her these questions and now it's the weekend! thanks, marilyn

retrograde pyelogram is a test usually done to visulize the kidney stones to determine if blockage is occuring. since they are administering anesthesia, they may be planning on doing stone retreval of stone in the bladder.

stones in the kidney pelvis cannot be removed with this test. is the doctor taking about performing lithotripsy after the pyleogram? this is where shock waves are used to break up stones into sand like grains in the kidney and upper ureter, which are then passed into bladder after several hours-days and passed with urine.

since you have a medical condition preventing adequate hydration, examination of stones to determine makeup is imperative which will help pinpint treatment.

see below:

retrograde pyelogram

http://www.stjohnsmercy.org/healthinfo/test/urology/tp080.asp

http://www.surgerydoor.co.uk/so/detail2.asp?level2=retrograde%20pyelogram

diagnosis and treatment options:

http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/stonesadults/

my dh has had many calcium oxilate kidney stones over thirty years: in the 90's now. since endocrinologist added allopurinol to his treatmement plan, his stones are small and easily passed. he gets them about every 6 months instead of every 6 weeks, with last lithotripsy about 7 years ago.

hope this info helpful and your feeling better soon.