Having a kidney stone might stay silent for a long time, until you get a painful attack. The typical attack usually starts with severe pain in your back under the ribs which moves down to the groin.
Sometimes, you might have the urge to urinate, and may see some blood in the urine. In severe attacks you can have nausea and vomiting.

If the stone is less than 5 mm, it can pass easily in the urine. In general, if you have a stone inside the kidney and is not causing any pain or blockage, we leave it alone, but we should do periodic ultrasound.

On the other hand, bigger stone over 1 cm, especially in the ureter, can block the urine flow which is a very dangerous complication and will require an urgent surgery to remove it.

Video shot by Galia Helbaoui and edited by Amer Helbaoui