One Sunday morning, while he was out of town, Dave began experiencing extreme pain in the lower right side of his abdomen. He became increasingly concerned when he began to feel nauseated and the constant pain continued throughout the day. He eventually went to a local emergency department.

The emergency department staff confirmed via CT scan that Dave’s pain was caused by a large kidney stone. Kidney stones are usually formed inside the kidney, but they are sometimes found in the bladder or ureter, the tube that leads from the kidney to the bladder. Dave’s kidney stone was located in the ureter, just outside of his right kidney. The intense pain associated with kidney stones usually occurs during the period of time that the stone is being slowly moved along the ureter between the kidney and the bladder. Dave was given medication to manage the pain and referred back to his hometown to see a specialist.

Upon return home, Dave sought the services of Dr. Azeem Haleem, a urologist at Valley West Community Hospital. Hoping the stone would pass on its own, Dr. Haleem suggested that Dave wait a couple of days. But when the stone would not pass due to its size and irregular shape, Dr. Haleem then suggested scheduling a procedure at Valley West Hospital to break up the stone.

Dr. Haleem explained to Dave about the lithotripsy procedure. Performed under general anesthesia in the OR, powerful sound waves are directed at the stone for about 30 minutes in order to break the stone into pieces so they can be passed.

Dave’s procedure at Valley West went very smoothly. Dr. Haleem explained that there could be some bruising on the side the procedure was done, but Dave did not have any bruising at all. Within 48 hours of the outpatient procedure, Dave passed the smaller shattered pieces of stone without much pain. Dave has not had any recurrences of kidney stones for two years.

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