Struggling with kidney stones - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

Sarah Calderon is adjusting to a new lunchtime routine.

"I have my vegan cheese that has protein in it," she said.

Instead of a menu of options, she's now ruled by a list of restrictions; foods she can't have anymore, because of her body's tendency to make those small, but painful kidney stones.

This one was too big for Calderon to pass, so she had to have it surgically removed at Shawnee Mission Medical Center.

But she says things got really bad last week when doctors had to remove a stent they were using to keep her passages open, because it developed a blockage.

"He pulled the stent and it felt like I had five kids, because what he didn't know is there were five calcified kidney stones stuck to the stent," Calderon said.

And she says that essentially opened the flood gates. By her count, she says she passed 63 stones over the next three days in the hospital.

"It's just one after another, after another, after another, and I was just holding on to my hospital chair like 'oh my gosh,'" she said.

It's hard to say if some were broken pieces, or separate stones each, but the effect was obvious.

"There's nothing that compares to this, absolutely nothing, this is the most painful thing," Calderon said.

So she's switched to an all-vegan diet to keep from developing calcium deposits, hoping that will be enough and she won't lose a kidney, and she's warning others.

"Everyone get checked up, a lot of people have kidney stones that don't even realize they have it," she said.

While holding on to her proof, a reminder of just how bad it can get.

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