Had kidney stones twice, neither resulted in surgery (fortunately). Second time I literally crawled into the Minot emergency room and the nurse asks what's wrong. In a weepy, child-like voice I murmured maybe my appendix burst? Maybe Lucifer himself had invaded my bowels? What else could cause such pain?. Upon her request I point to the source of the overwhelming discomfort (my lower abdomen). She giggles and educates me that my appendix is in a different location. Further, statistically unlikely that I've had a rendezvous with the evil, red fellow. She explains I have a kidney stone (s) and they'll get me fixed up. A CAT scan confirms her on-the-fly diagnosis, but not before a needle loaded with something put me in la-la land. The same nurse told me she had three children and one kidney stone. She'd have three more kids before enduring another stone. My self-esteem was repaired for a short spell. I whizzed out that little rock a few days later, but not before damn near passing out and forgetting who and where I was for a few minutes.
The ER doctor was old-school, told me to start drinking 4-8 ounces of orange juice, grape juice or any other fruit juice with higher acidic content every day. This would help break down and flush certain chemicals known to accumulate in the kidneys (most notably calcium). That was 10+ years ago and I've not had the problem since.