I had 2 procedures done, one called laser lithotripsy, where a laser is used to pulverize the kidney stones, but the urologist wasn't able to use the laser to reach the largest kidney stone, so he used another procedure called shockwave lithotripsy, which administers focused ultrasonic shock waves to break up the kidney stones. It was still very painful passing the broken pieces of the kidney stones, so painful that I almost couldn't stand up. After the procedure, I also had a 10" long stent installed between the kidney and the bladder, and a catheter between the bladder and the tip of the urethra. The catheter was removed the next day, but the stent remained in place for two weeks.@Starman77 - Great to hear that you recovered and got to enjoy the outdoors once again. I've never had kidney stones but from what I've heard they are quite painful to endure. I've heard that there's a procedure whereby the doctor is able to pulverize the stones to make passing them much easier..