Q: We are indians working in the UAE. My husband has been diagonsed with kidney stones in the left kidney. The doctor has told us the lithotripsy will not be helpful at all. He has asked us to get in for PCNL. The doctor conducted all the test, and we were asked to get in for Lithotripsy, when we were sent to the other hospital, the doctor went through all our reports and told us that we will have to get rid of this stones by PCNL. Here in this country we do not want to take a risk of doing it. The doctor also said if the stone does not move or grows, my husband will have no proble, at the same time they have inserted a stent, I would like to know when the stent could be removed, the doctor also told us that we could try one or two shots of lithotripsy, he said if the stone has broken we are lucky otherwise to discontinue with the treatment, my problem is: we can not come down right now as we have no holidays,secondly the doctor says the kidney is functioning well, the size of the stone is 1. & 1.2 cm in the same kidney,my husband gets pain in the right kidney where as the stone is in the left kidney, the pain is very acute and subsides once the pain killer is taken, the first time this pain accompanied by vomitting came about five months ago, and then recently that is last week but no vomitting, my husband is obese he drinks nearly 3 litres of water everyday. Could you please advise me.

A:If your stones are in calyces, then do not worry. If there is no hydronephrosis, again, dont worry.if there is no hydronephrosis, dont get PCNL done. lower calyceal stones are bad for ESWL. Specially if the pain is ; on the other side, it means your stones are not symptomatic. I suggest to hold on and just get periodic ultrasound. if hydronephrosis developes later , that will be the time for intervention. Otherwise show any urologist here whenever you come.