Anna Kendrick had a rough end to her January. She tweeted last week that she had just been hospitalized for kidney stones. Kidney stones are bits of minerals and salt that form into hard ‘stones’ inside the kidneys and work their way out in what I’ve been told is a pain on par with childbirth. What was noteworthy about Anna’s medical condition was not that she got kidney stones, 1 in 10 people will in their lifetime, but that she took the time to thank the doctors and nurses who treated her. And Anna articulated a very common problem, especially among women, that we ignore pain.
On Friday, Anna tweeted the following thread:
So, I need to give a shout out to the Atlanta doctors and nurses who helped me through my first experience with kidney stones when I was at my most vulnerable and terrified. Especially the truly wonderful ladies: Renee, Sandra, Muriel, Beverly, Ashley, Nina, Callie, and…
— Anna Kendrick (@AnnaKendrick47) February 1, 2019
…the young woman whose name started with “L”?? I can’t remember… in fairness, you were one of the people giving me the heavy shit right before I went under… but you laughed at my tired ass “If I die, clear my search history” joke and I appreciate that.
— Anna Kendrick (@AnnaKendrick47) February 1, 2019
I was worried that my pain would turn out to be “nothing serious” or something that I should have been able to fight through. I’m so grateful to these women. Even if we only interacted for a moment, know that the attention and kindness you give your patients is so appreciated.🧡
— Anna Kendrick (@AnnaKendrick47) February 1, 2019
This was very sweet of Anna. My pediatrician said after Jimmy Kimmel publicly thanked his son’s medical team it was appreciated because nurses and other medical staff deserve the same amount of credit as doctors. Anna wants to acknowledge how they made her feel comfortable and heard. And that’s what got to me the most about her tweets. I can’t count the times I’ve denied myself medical attention because I was so worried I would upset the medical personal if it wasn’t something serious. Like, I don’t deserve to be there unless I’m holding a severed limb in my hand. If we should err on the side of caution for anything, it should be our health.
Anna is set to star opposite Toni Collette in a Sci Fi thriller called Stowaway. The story is not entirely unique – a mission to Mars experiences life threatening problems – but it pits Toni and Anna against each other and that intrigues me. I’ll bet they play off each other really well. Then again, I thought Anna and Blake Lively played beautifully off each other in A Simple Favor but it wasn’t enough to save the film.
Photo credit: WENN Photos and Twitter
I really think Anna is great (and hilarious). Its nice she thanked everyone in this way and brought attention to how people think a medical professionals time and attention is somehow more important than our own. I also thought the same about ‘not bothering’ GPs, nurses etc until I had a disabled son, now they earn their money!
Kidney stones ARE terrifying. You pretty much just jump to “oh god, am I dying” if they’re bad enough.
I had a big one a week after giving birth—it was more painful. And to Hecate’s point, when I went to the ER, the smug dude doing the ultrasound told me it was probably gas (and then screwed up and missed it on the ultrasound). Came back to the ER a few days later again in searing pain, only then did they find it and take me straight to the OR for a stent.
So, what’s with this new thing where every statement needs to start with the word “so”?! It’s actually sooooo annoying.
So, I have never had a kidney stone but have a close friend with chronic kidney stones and I hate it for her. It’s extremely painful. I hope I never have one!
So, I know what she means about how women are urged to swallow pain. How many times have women heard “oh you shouldn’t be in pain”, when you clearly ARE in pain?! For example my ovulation is debilitatingly painful every other month. I was told that I “shouldn’t” be in that much pain that often. Well guess what, doc? I AM in that much pain!
So…
“So” is the new “listen”, apparently.
Poor Anna. I’ve had them twice. One of those times the stone was so big I needed surgery to remove it. The pain was so bad that if I’d had a knife in my hand, I’d have done away with myself. After the second incident, they did a 24-hour urinalysis (you collect a day’s pee in a special container and it’s sent for testing) and determined that it happened because I wasn’t drinking enough water!! So yeah, I repeat, poor Anna!
Kidney stones are no parade down Main Street. I thought I might be having appendicitis, which is the only reason I went to the doctor. But I worried it was going to be nothing and that I’d be wasting their time. Last December, I let what I thought was just a bad sinus infection go until I literally couldn’t get out of bed one morning. Turns out I had pneumonia. I tend to wait until I can’t stand it anymore, because I’m “the mom” and feel like my household would fall apart if I wasn’t here to orchestrate everything.
I’ve had three. My last one I had two rounds of pain from the peristalsis while driving between two courthouses I had to be at. Not fun.
WORSE THAN CHILDBIRTH
Chronic kidney stone maker here. I make rare types of “infectious” stones for some reason that aren’t common. Anyways I have them so bad I’ve had to surgeries to remove them and also 2 kidney stents put in. You think the pain ends after getting stone removed but no, surprise bitch when you get out of bed with a kidney stent! You end up hurting in pain for a solid week before you get put under again to remove the damn stent. Its fkn hell! I’ve had 5 kids and the pain from a stone is worse than childbirth lol. And yes the nurses need a shoutout because they do most of the work. I was puking bile all over myself when I walked into ER and they were amazing with care.
yes! same here. !! the stents are horrific. they told me after they put the first one in that i’d be okay to go back to work.. i could barely drive, sit up walk without being in mind numbing pain. the pain was so bad . the second time i got a stone.. i knew i had to have surgery . I have small ureters so i will never be able to pass even the smallest of stones.. so i remember begging the urologist to not put a stent in me. I woke up and knew i had one.. . A MONTH WITH a stent in was no picnic.. and all the while they couldn’t understand why i was in pain.. telling me it shouldn’t hurt that much . This coming from the same urologist who pulled his own stent out after 8 hours because of the pain and he expected me to keep mine in for a Month!
I dealt with a group of them from April of 2017 to january 2019 had 3 separate surgeries really they are no joke and they F***ing hurt
My husband is an Army Ranger, paratrooper, combat veteran and all around bad@ss who had to be DRAGGED to the doctor when he needed hernia surgery. He had kidney stones about 10 years ago. When I asked if I should call an ambulance and he said yes, I legit thought he was having a stroke. The pain is real.
I have a condition where my body can’t properly process calcium, so my default is to form stones. YAY! It first reared its head when I was 14 – I almost missed too much of my freshman year to move on. I had a dozen surgeries in my teens, incfuding reconstructive surgery because the kidney stones did so much damage. And was on very heavy painkillers, because the pain is awful. My very first stone my nurse said to me “I’ve had three kids and one kidney stone, I’d rather have another kid.” Scared the crap out of 14-year-old me! Now I’ve altered my diet (low sodium, high calcium) and way upped my water intake. I still get stones, and I always will. But now they’re often small enough to pass on their own. Still, the pain is unbearable without narcotic pankillers. Without it, I’d be couch-ridden, sometimes for weeks. But then you get the drugs taking over your brain and the intense fear of addiction. YAY!
Anyway, thanks for the opportunity to vent about my weird ass body 😀 go Anna. Love that she’s talking about it, since younger women are not common kidney stone patients.
I’ve had 6, the last one was 2cm so I had to have surgery. Those of you who deal with stones probably already know this, but ask your doctor about Tamsulosin. It dilates your urethra so you can pass smaller stones. It’s already saved me from three stones instead of me ending up in the emergency room. Of course, I find it hilarious that I’m taking the same drug that my dad takes for prostate issues, but there you go.
I’ve had kidney stones twice and they’re terrible. I thought I was dying. At least with childbirth you can get an epidural and you get to take home a baby! No contest, kidney stones were WAY worse than childbirth.
I got kidney stones in college and barely dragged myself to the student health center. After articulating my pain as best I could and them checking my blood pressure, which was dangerously low, they called an ambulance immediately.
My only regret is not having a friend drive me because damn ambulance trips are expensive.
I had gallstones and that was horrible enough – I can’t imagine having kidney stones!
I had a kidney stone and I truly thought I was dying, it was so agonizing. I had my husband drive me to the ER and he was so scared because I was doubled over, crying and wailing, that he called the ambulance and had them meet us on the way and take me the rest of the way because we both thought I was dying. They found it on a CT scan I think it was, gave me morphine and honestly the morphine helped but it took the pain down from a 9 to like a 4 or 5. If I had a chronic kidney issue I’d WANT to be addicted to painkillers so I never had to deal with that agony again.
I’ve delivered a 10 lbs child and had one less than 1 cm kidney stone. I’d rather give birth again.