kidney stones

[bonaventure]

Having just suffered from a kidney stone wonder if someone could possibly point me to a web site reference for JAA medical requirements on the issue. Testing suspenssion of licence etc. Thanks in advance.

[Circuit Basher]

From JAR FCL 3 (http://www.jaa.nl/section1/jars/43/52/435247/435247.pdf), I found the following (you don't say whether you re Class 1 or 2 and your profile doesn't give any clues): Class 1:
(c) Applicants presenting with urinary calculi shall be assessed as unfit (see paragraph 2 Appendix 6 to Subpart B).

Class 2:
(c) Applicants presenting with urinary calculi shall be assessed as unfit (see paragraph 2 Appendix 6 to Subpart C).

Appendix 6 to Subparts B & C:
An asymptomatic calculus or a history of renal colic requires investigation. While awaiting assessment or treatment, the AMS may consider recertification with a multi-pilot limitation (Class 1 ‘OML’) or safety pilot limitation (Class 2 ‘OSL’). After successful treatment unrestricted certification may be considered by the AMS. For residual calculi, the AMS may consider recertification with a multi-pilot limitation (Class 1 ‘OML’), safety pilot limitation (Class 2 ‘OSL’), or unrestricted Class 2 recertification.

[bonaventure]

Circuit Basher,
many thanks for the info. Exactly what I required. Hope you never go down the route wouldn't wish it on anyone. Ciao.

[Circuit Basher]

Bonaventure - no problems. Re-reading my post, realised that in my haste to give the facts, I failed to offer any TLC / empathy, such as 'ouch' and 'hope it gets better soon!'. Have you got to the stage of bullseyes on urinals yet??!! ;)

Good luck and hope this doesn't affect your flying too badly.

[df1]

I had "suspected" kidney stones and on quizzing my AME he said its a definite no-no for flying. I had to go through a lengthy procedure to prove that I didn't the blighters!

You can treat em though??:confused:

[AerBabe]

They can be treated, yes. 20 years ago it involved making an incision pretty much from the belly button to the middle of the back. These days ultrasound is used!

[mad_jock]

A m8 of mine had them and it wasn't pretty.

Morphine was given no arguments.

The doctors told him all sorts of fancy stuff. The Nurse told him to go out and drink 10 pints of lager.

So we spent a fun night in the pub with a tea strainer so he could catch them on the way out.

After much screaming and swearing the stones appeared after 9 pints.

He hasn't eaten cheese since.

MJ

[df1]

mad_jock,

was the screaming and swearing because of the nine pints or the pain?? :mad:

[mad_jock]

I think it was all to do with passing things which looked like a small metorites (looked about twice the size of your japs eye).

And of course once he had started he couldn't stop.

He also had to have a fiber optic thing up to have a look for damage. He wasn't a happy chap for days afterwards. His girl friend didn't help by sexually harassing/ exposing herself to him all the time.

Bouncers came running into the toilet thinking someone was being stabbed.

MJ

[PilotsPal]

On my first attack two years ago I almost screamed Whipps Cross A&E to the ground - I too was hastily shot up with the big painkiller but it took damn near an hour to work. The pain cannot be described - it is sheer agony. I was happily informed by the senior nurse on duty that it genuinely is worse than childbirth. I spent most of the day in and out of x-ray as they tracked the progress of the two rocks out of the kidney and was kept in overnight till they were sure they were well on the move.

My stones took several days to pass through - think of peeing glass and you get the idea.

I didn't know it at the time but there can be a family tendency to them (one of my grandparents was a complete martyr to them).

[Onan the Clumsy]

I hear in the US that having kidney stones will void your medical. I was told the reasoning was that if they start to move when you're flying, you'll crash the airplane just to stop the pain. :uhoh:

I was at a function once with this bloke I know and we were both urinating in this big thing that looked like a feed trough. A big long thing set at waist high (I HOPE it was the toilet :confused: ) when all of a sudden, he reached his hand in and wiped it down the porcelein. I was a little surprised at this and my consternation grew as he waved his extended finger in my face. "Look." he cried, "I've finally passed it" and there was a little dot of something on the end of his finger.

I can only assume it was only a part of a stone though as it was less than 1 mm wide and wouldn't pose any problems for MY equipment at least ;)

[strake]

Onan,

Without wishing to comment on the size of your manhood, it isn't the last bit that hurts. The stones trip from bladder to bog is merely a guessing game as to when it might drop out. It's the trip from the kidney to the bladder that produces the pitiful screaming.
BTW 1mm is pretty large....most of the little b*****ds are less than that size.
I have had one removed by surgery...no cutting involved so you work out how it was done....!:oh:
The other was dealt with by Lithotripsy...even more fun.
If anyone is suffering and wants the facts feel free to e-mail me.

Strake

[Onan the Clumsy]

I have had one removed by surgery...no cutting involved so you work out how it was done David Copperfield?

No wait...you dont mean... :confused: :hmm: :bored: :uhoh: :eek: :ooh: :ouch: :{


My sympathies.

[mad_jock]

Did they give you a general?

All Cammy got was some Tamzipan.

He though that his old chap was going to pop through and go internal.

What do they do with Lithotripsy?

MJ

[strake]

For the first op, ie to remove the stone, I was mercifully well out of it but, believe me, I was p****g razor blades for a few days in hospital. What I did not realise at the time was that they left a stent inside between my kidney and bladder to help healing. They took that out a month later with a "local" anaesthetic. I can't begin to tell you the sheer horror and embarassment of that procedeure. Suffice to say, my dignity rose up, said "see ya pal" and jumped out the window!

Lithotripsy is altogether more acceptable. It is really a very powerfull sonar that , because your body is mainly water, can be focussed on the stone/s. A normal treatment is about One Thousand "strikes" which, if successful, break the stone up into very small pieces (gravel) which can be passed supposedly without pain. It took about a month for all the pieces to pass which gave moderate pain controlled by Volterol rather than Morphine which I had the first time. I quite liked the Morphine....you meet some quite nice pixies on the ceiling of ER.....
The Litho treatment is not terribly painful as such but more tiring. It's like someone has placed a flat piece of metal over your kidney and hits it with a mallet for thirty minutes. When you get home and take a leak for the first time, it is pretty godawful but it definitely looks worse than it feels.