Chris (Sequim, WA) on 04/24/2007:

4-1/2 years ago I experienced an attack while on vacation, coming on at 3 am in a motel. My husband finally had to insist I go to Emergency because he was afraid someone would think he was murdering me.

The morphin took the severest edge of this pain off but I could still feel pain, and it was shown that the stones were there but thankfully on the move, so after 4 hours in Emergency (and a whopping $2600 bill! later), I was released to wait for the passage.

About 2 hours later, 2 pretty large stones passed and instant relief -- although I was extremely tired for 2 days and we had a long ride from the Canadian border to reach our home in San Diego.

These were manufactured in my right kidney.

Last Thursday (4-1/2 years later) an attack in my left kidney started with great intensity. I opted to ride it out at home although I was literally screaming on and off for 2-1/2 days.

My friends thought I was daft not to go to Emergency but we just made changes to my insurance last month to cut back on the large increase in cost and the deductibles, etc. would pretty much negate an Emergency bill being covered. I just did not want another huge bill as I am starting a new business and ran credit up to purchase supplies!

Many are writing about not caring for the taste of the 2 oz. olive oil with 2 oz. of freshly squeezed lemon juice. For an Italian, this is very similar to an easy fresh salad dressing. My problem was that I had severe lower stomach problems (a delicate way of saying I had been drastically and totally cleaned out on Thursday which is very common during an attack). I could not even drink half a glass of water! The vomiting too was horribly intense for a day and a half!

What to do? (Severe chills and high fever accompanied my pain also.)

If you have a friend who is in the medical profession, ask for a suppository that relieves the nausea. My girlfriend is a surgical nurse and she supplied this for me. This worked so well.

I just 'could not' get into any vehicle to get to a doctor's office. This was the worst pain I have ever experienced and I was very very fatigued and getting dizzy and dehydrated.

Another thing that helped me: Perhaps it was because I 'needed' water so badly . . . I am not certain. But I just had to get in the shower! Normally I do not care for very hot showers but the hot water pounding on my back and kidney and tummy gave me temporary relief.

So I started to think: Heat 'expands' . . . Perhaps a little expansion could occur allowing better passage for the stones?

I followed with very hot soaks in the tub. Friday I took 4 hot long long soaks and 12 showers (if you can believe this). (Well at least I would be squeeky clean, if I had to go to the hospital afterall!)

Upon drying, I used a heating pad to my kidney immediately and after I had no more nausea, could keep pain pills down, so I sipped water constantly laying on my 'good' side in bed and finally sleeping in 1-hour stints.

But every hour it would flare up again, sending me in dances throughout the house almost turning myself inside out trying to escape the pain. And I applaud my husband who was so supportive and never complained about having to sleep in the recliner! nor continually have to listen to me crying out.

My husband went on line and found that 'distilled water'is the best to drink at this time. So I did.

I could only tolerate little little bits of banana or crackers and a tiny bit of milk to try to soothe my stomach.

Then slices of pears seemed easy to take.

It was also noted to take large quantities of Vitamin C downed with water to help break up the stones.

By Sunday the pain started moving into my bladder region and it was bad too.

It took 4-1/2 days to pass two rather large stones, every bit as large as the ones I passed 4 years ago. First one and an hour later, the other. They were pretty rough surfaced and a bit jagged-edged. UGH!

But afterwards I told my husband to get the lemons for me and last night I did drink the mixture. I felt no adversion taste-wise because I'm used to this mix anyways and like it.

However, I did experience within about 20 minutes a burning in my left kidney. I was so afraid that pain would start again. The burning lasted about the 2 hours until bedtime and as a precautionary, I took 2 over-the-counter pain tablets.

My feeling is that because of the jaggedness of the stones I was trying to pass, that perhaps the acidity of the lemons may have just caused a bit of the burning. I'm sure there was tenderness (or more) where these stones had been stuck and trying to pass through as some report blood in their urine. It was not bad by any means.

My feeling is that this concoction WILL work "IF" you can actually swallow and keep ANYTHING down at the time you are agonizing and writhing in pain and so nauseated.

Do not wait until you get there (again). I say 'again' for kidney stones usually reappear every few years (OH GOODY!)

I plan on drinking this mixture every month to try to ward off another attack!

I also recommend that anyone prone to these stones revamp their diet. I had totally changed the way I was eating back in October to try to alleviate health problems down the road, but evidently eating too much spinach (my favorite in salads) is not great either.

I also love coffee but had obediently cut back to a cup and a half daily but unbeknownst to me, mistakening thought 4 cups of tea a day was fine. Evidently not, according to yesterday's research. I also cut out desserts except for my 3 pieces of very dark chocolates which I daily consumed.

Seems too little, too late. Also I hardly ever eat red meat (at least not more than once a week and the portion is small).

Evidently these stones were years in the making. I have also been a very heavy milk drinker since childhood and even though I had cut back to 0% fat and to only 3 cups a day, I may cut this back to one a day and supplement with calcium pills since I am 56 now and need calcium.

I also noted that Magnesium is very important.

I will most likely continue drinking at least half my water allotment from distilled water. Seems that the minerals in tap water are not good for those prone to kidney stones. However, I feel we do need minerals to an extent, so will do a half and half and try to keep my intake to 64 to 72 oz. daily.

I do not like extremes of any kind and am leary of believing everything published.

I am pulling lists of foods to cut down on but I plan to make a little schedule for the lemon juice and olive oil.

I heard that over in the 'old country' (Italy) that this is a 'tried and true' remedy. So this is not really anything 'new'.

By the way, I feel just fine this morning! The only thing is that it may take a few more days to get my strength back from this ordeal because it felt as if a bulldozer kept running over me.

I am buying decaf coffee beans today also.

If you feel an attack coming on, I highly advise the drinking of the lemon juice with the olive oil RIGHT AWAY. Why wait? I will never wait until I get that nausea and CAN'T keep anything down again.

Better yet, do it monthly.

Chris (Sequim, WA) on 04/24/2007:

4-1/2 years ago I experienced an attack while on vacation, coming on at 3 am in a motel. My husband finally had to insist I go to Emergency because he was afraid someone would think he was murdering me.

The morphin took the severest edge of this pain off but I could still feel pain, and it was shown that the stones were there but thankfully on the move, so after 4 hours in Emergency (and a whopping $2600 bill! later), I was released to wait for the passage.

About 2 hours later, 2 pretty large stones passed and instant relief -- although I was extremely tired for 2 days and we had a long ride from the Canadian border to reach our home in San Diego.

These were manufactured in my right kidney.

Last Thursday (4-1/2 years later) an attack in my left kidney started with great intensity. I opted to ride it out at home although I was literally screaming on and off for 2-1/2 days.

My friends thought I was daft not to go to Emergency but we just made changes to my insurance last month to cut back on the large increase in cost and the deductibles, etc. would pretty much negate an Emergency bill being covered. I just did not want another huge bill as I am starting a new business and ran credit up to purchase supplies!

Many are writing about not caring for the taste of the 2 oz. olive oil with 2 oz. of freshly squeezed lemon juice. For an Italian, this is very similar to an easy fresh salad dressing. My problem was that I had severe lower stomach problems (a delicate way of saying I had been drastically and totally cleaned out on Thursday which is very common during an attack). I could not even drink half a glass of water! The vomiting too was horribly intense for a day and a half!

What to do? (Severe chills and high fever accompanied my pain also.)

If you have a friend who is in the medical profession, ask for a suppository that relieves the nausea. My girlfriend is a surgical nurse and she supplied this for me. This worked so well.

I just 'could not' get into any vehicle to get to a doctor's office. This was the worst pain I have ever experienced and I was very very fatigued and getting dizzy and dehydrated.

Another thing that helped me: Perhaps it was because I 'needed' water so badly . . . I am not certain. But I just had to get in the shower! Normally I do not care for very hot showers but the hot water pounding on my back and kidney and tummy gave me temporary relief.

So I started to think: Heat 'expands' . . . Perhaps a little expansion could occur allowing better passage for the stones?

I followed with very hot soaks in the tub. Friday I took 4 hot long long soaks and 12 showers (if you can believe this). (Well at least I would be squeeky clean, if I had to go to the hospital afterall!)

Upon drying, I used a heating pad to my kidney immediately and after I had no more nausea, could keep pain pills down, so I sipped water constantly laying on my 'good' side in bed and finally sleeping in 1-hour stints.

But every hour it would flare up again, sending me in dances throughout the house almost turning myself inside out trying to escape the pain. And I applaud my husband who was so supportive and never complained about having to sleep in the recliner! nor continually have to listen to me crying out.

My husband went on line and found that 'distilled water'is the best to drink at this time. So I did.

I could only tolerate little little bits of banana or crackers and a tiny bit of milk to try to soothe my stomach.

Then slices of pears seemed easy to take.

It was also noted to take large quantities of Vitamin C downed with water to help break up the stones.

By Sunday the pain started moving into my bladder region and it was bad too.

It took 4-1/2 days to pass two rather large stones, every bit as large as the ones I passed 4 years ago. First one and an hour later, the other. They were pretty rough surfaced and a bit jagged-edged. UGH!

But afterwards I told my husband to get the lemons for me and last night I did drink the mixture. I felt no adversion taste-wise because I'm used to this mix anyways and like it.

However, I did experience within about 20 minutes a burning in my left kidney. I was so afraid that pain would start again. The burning lasted about the 2 hours until bedtime and as a precautionary, I took 2 over-the-counter pain tablets.

My feeling is that because of the jaggedness of the stones I was trying to pass, that perhaps the acidity of the lemons may have just caused a bit of the burning. I'm sure there was tenderness (or more) where these stones had been stuck and trying to pass through as some report blood in their urine. It was not bad by any means.

My feeling is that this concoction WILL work "IF" you can actually swallow and keep ANYTHING down at the time you are agonizing and writhing in pain and so nauseated.

Do not wait until you get there (again). I say 'again' for kidney stones usually reappear every few years (OH GOODY!)

I plan on drinking this mixture every month to try to ward off another attack!

I also recommend that anyone prone to these stones revamp their diet. I had totally changed the way I was eating back in October to try to alleviate health problems down the road, but evidently eating too much spinach (my favorite in salads) is not great either.

I also love coffee but had obediently cut back to a cup and a half daily but unbeknownst to me, mistakening thought 4 cups of tea a day was fine. Evidently not, according to yesterday's research. I also cut out desserts except for my 3 pieces of very dark chocolates which I daily consumed.

Seems too little, too late. Also I hardly ever eat red meat (at least not more than once a week and the portion is small).

Evidently these stones were years in the making. I have also been a very heavy milk drinker since childhood and even though I had cut back to 0% fat and to only 3 cups a day, I may cut this back to one a day and supplement with calcium pills since I am 56 now and need calcium.

I also noted that Magnesium is very important.

I will most likely continue drinking at least half my water allotment from distilled water. Seems that the minerals in tap water are not good for those prone to kidney stones. However, I feel we do need minerals to an extent, so will do a half and half and try to keep my intake to 64 to 72 oz. daily.

I do not like extremes of any kind and am leary of believing everything published.

I am pulling lists of foods to cut down on but I plan to make a little schedule for the lemon juice and olive oil.

I heard that over in the 'old country' (Italy) that this is a 'tried and true' remedy. So this is not really anything 'new'.

By the way, I feel just fine this morning! The only thing is that it may take a few more days to get my strength back from this ordeal because it felt as if a bulldozer kept running over me.

I am buying decaf coffee beans today also.

If you feel an attack coming on, I highly advise the drinking of the lemon juice with the olive oil RIGHT AWAY. Why wait? I will never wait until I get that nausea and CAN'T keep anything down again.

Better yet, do it monthly.