You can't ignore a kidney stone.

I've suffered from them in the past, the pain is amongst the worst known. About the only thing you can do at home is take demerol, but it may not be strong enough. Intra-muscular demerol is usually used at hospitals. They'll probably do an IVP to see where the stone is, and estimate the chances of it passing by itself. If they think there's a good chance of that they'll put you on pain relievers (STRONG) and a LOT of water for several days to see what happens. If it doesn't pass they'll want to take further steps. Note that if the pain stops but a stone doesn't come out, that's a bad thing because the pain is worst when the stone is moving down the ureter. No pain = not moving = not good. They may want to do lithotrypsy, i.e. breaking the stone by ultrasound. That may work depending on what kind of stone it is, and how fat you are (fat insulates against the ultrasound). An alternate method is to insert a "double J" tube (via the penis) all the way into your kidney. This gives an alternate route for the kidney to drain to the bladder, and the shape of the tube is that the stone can't block it. Then they'll give you allopurinal or something else to dissolve the stone. Takes about 6 weeks to 3 months, then they have to remove the double J. As a last resort, they may go in and get the stone. This is done with a device about the diameter of a pencil and 3 feet long, with a little basket hook at the end (think of a medical version of one of those pick up tools you can use to retrieve dropped nuts and bolts when you work on your car). It's inserted through the one available opening (grin) and manipulated into place with the aid of ultrasound and/or X-rays. If they want to do this, make SURE it's done under general anesthetic, and if they suggest using demerol and valium start screaming and don't stop until they agree to the general. By the way, I speak from personal experience with all of these techniques. I have stones fairly often because most of my colon was removed many years ago for cancer, thus overloading the kidneys with certain waste products. However, for the past 6 or 7 years they have always passed by themselves, and there's almost no pain. My guess is that the sensitive surface of my ureters is now mostly scar tissue. Passed one the size of a peanut (NOT in the shell, thank God), so if it came out anything should. Somersault