Kidney stones have been discussed many times here... Have you tried the search function of this site?
Not an AME, but I might wind up having some skin in this particular game. As I understand it you'll have to convince the FAA that you have no stones that are in danger of passing, thus incapacitating you with unbearable pain in the middle of a flight. How you go about doing that is not entirely clear to me. A very good idea would be to E-mail Dr. Bruce Chien, easily one of the best AME's I know. His contact information can be found in this site, many many airmen have found his services to be quite valuable.
Good luck.
"How you do that" is having the results of an IVP handy.
IVP's are no fun!
If you've had one due to kidney stones, a copy of the report is all I needed. I didn't have to go get another one.
So, if they find stones on an xray, are you done flying till they pass naturally? And could that mean if they never pass, this could ground you for life? Seems like a crappy way to be grounded for an indefinite length of time. Is there any way to force the stones out?
I will say, I can't imagine having a kidney stone in flight and having to concentrate to put the plane back on the ground...would I do it...I hope so...but the one I had was damned painful.
The odds of it coming on as suddenly incapacitating pain while you're in flight are about the same odds as winning the Powerball lottery.
Jeff
The American Medical Association researched this back in 1986 and couldn't find any episode of kidney stones causing sudden incapacitation in flight resulting an in incident or accident. They searched records back to 1946. There was one accident where kidney stones may have contributed, but there was evidence the pilot was experiencing pain before the flight and shouldn't have departed based on this. I've searched the records and haven't found another accident since 1986. The AMA gave recommendations to the FAA (I had a link, but lost it). The FAA "sort of" follows these recommendations, but does it through the SI process rather than a much more efficient process where the AME could issue based on information from the urologist. Was a rumor this might change later this year, but I don't know if there will be follow-through on that.
Especially if you've had stones before, you know the symptoms and would self ground if you thought there could be a problem coming up. Thousands (probably tens of thousands) of pilots have experienced their first stone after already having had a medical certificate, and planes are not falling from the sky because of this. The odds of it coming on as suddenly incapacitating pain while you're in flight are about the same odds as winning the Powerball lottery.
Jeff
You know, you're right...thinking back, it came one over a few hours...
I guess there's a confirmation bias at work...you remember the most intense part of it very clearly and unless you really think about it, you don't remember the less-intense lead up.
The first time you really don't know what's happening.
The first time you really don't know what's happening.
Yet someone wins the powerball every month or so!
I lucked out. ****ed blood for a few days. Had some back pain. Doc saw it on CT. Popped some advil and drank some beer and tons of water and tried to stay active. Passed it while out to lunch downtown a week or so later. Next CT clear.
True...but in those hours of discomfort before it became really painful, I am pretty sure I wouldn't have launched in a SEL by myself.
Funny, my urologist's nurse suggested I drink lots of beer, too.
I sure wouldn't have. No way.
I live in fear of kidney stones and have fashioned much of my lifestyle around their avoidance (vegetarian diet, lots of exercise, lots of liquids, stay trim etc…). Don't know that it'll help much. But their incidence has a genetic component and it runs strongly in my family, just like all that other bad ****. Why couldn't we get the Force or something?