Enlarged Kidneys? Anyone else?

jilrsch46

I went to the ER recently with bad back pain... I was scared that it was early back labor. They did an ultrasound and realized that I have enlarged kidney's due to pregnancy. I had never heard of this before... anyone else diagnosed with this. Baby's kidney's are fine.... it is just mine that are enlarged.

Mustang Sally

YES.  First of all, it's completely normal for your kidneys to be slightly enlarged during pregnancy (hydronephrosis of pregnancy).  I suppose that if they become very enlarged it could be painful.

That said, I too went to the ER with extreme pain in October, like I'm going to die or at the very least lose the baby pain.  They determined that my right kidney was mostly blocked, probably from a stone (although they couldn't see one on ultrasound and couldn't do a CT scan due to baby).  I ended up with a procedure to place a stent in the ureter between my kidney and bladder to open it up, reduce the swelling in the kidney, and hopefully pass the stone(s).  That urologist said I would just have to keep the stent in there until the baby was born, but long story short the stent was agony and I got a second opinion from a kidney stone specialist.  He took out the stent, did another procedure to remove the stone, and I've seen him for ultrasounds of my kidneys once a month since.  He always says they are larger than "normal" but are completely normal for pregnancy.

I hope your pain goes away and that it's not a stone.  Good luck!   

chlsymarie

Uh, I feel your pain, sister! Literally! I was in labor and delivery for abdomen/side/back pain a little over a month ago and this is what was wrong with me, too. It was excruciating. After 6 hours of pain I still thought I could sleep it off.  I woke up every 20 minutes crying in pain and called my doc as soon as his office opened in the morning then headed to the hospital.  Baby was doing absolutely perfect in there while I was on all fours crying.  They put me on an iv and told me to just push those fluids down.  I make sure to chug-a-lug water ALL day long now and I haven't had another problem with it. Sorry you had to go through this, too! It sure doesn't feel good!