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>> I am 17 years old now.
I like to draw, do some music and play games with my friends at late night.
I've been a patient at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for about three years now.
I have thalassemia in which I have to have blood transfusions every two to three weeks.
So it was a regular old day.
I went for my blood transfusion and they take like urine tests and everything at CHOP.
Then I went for the urine test and after I came back home, they were like, okay, we found some blood in your urine.
Don't be concerned.
It's not much, it's a microscopic amount of it, but you should definitely check it out
with the doctor and we got to contact with Dr.
Tasian and then he said like, oh yeah, you do have a kidney stone.
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>> When I saw Aman he had a single stone in his left kidney that was a fair size.
One may not know they have stones in the kidney, even a very large stone, but the times where it
comes to light is where that stone for many different reasons may move, it may grow and cause changes.
And some of those symptoms that you typically see, it could be anything from blood in the
urine to pain, to nausea/vomiting, to fever.
>> I got to know, like it takes at least six months for a kidney stone to form and mine was pretty big at the time.
>> At CHOP, we really believe in shared, decision-making where I, as a
urologist can present those options and then work with the patient and their family and their caregivers to
decide about the surgery that works best for them.
So my job is to facilitate that decision-making, but not necessarily to make the decision for them.
And I think that's really important to step back and really include patients and their families in that process.
>> Dr. Tasian did explain to me about all the options of the label for the surgery.
>> I presented shockwave lithotripsy, ureteroscopy, and percutaneous
nephrolithotomy, going from least to most invasive.
>> What I chose was ureteroscopy, which was pretty good option for me at the size of my kidney stone.
>> And I fully supported his decision.
If it was a procedure that I didn't think could clear the stone, I would have told him that.
But I did think that ureteroscopy was a very effective and good choice for the type of stone he had.
And that's a minimally invasive procedure that does not involve any incisions.
So ureteroscopy, as with all procedures that are used for stones, is done under general
anesthesia, and it uses a very small scope.
In this case, a ureteroscope that can go directly into the ureter, and you're able to visualize those stones
or a single stone directly using the video monitor.
And then, with a laser, break that stone up into various small particles that can be removed.
After ureteroscopy, often to relieve the obstruction from a stone that may be stuck in the ureter, a
urethral stent is placed and a urethral stent is a thin plastic tube that goes from the kidney to the
bladder that allows the urine to drain around the tube.
It allows the swelling and the inflammation that is a result of both the stone, as
well as the procedure itself, to subside.
And during that time, while the body's healing, the urine to pass unimpeded into the bladder.
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>> I had like no tension going in, cause I knew there was going to do it.
They were the best doctor all.
Parents were pretty happy with the results, as they know, like, it's out, everything's done no more kidney stone.
It may depend on your pain tolerance for the recovery because it kind of does hurt
a bit, because they did put a stent in you.
A week or two, you'll recover like just fine.
And you wouldn't even know like it was there before.
>> The patient experience in medicine in general is critical.
My overarching purpose of my career and that of the Pediatric Kidney Stone Center is to be able to generate
knowledge about why stones are forming earlier in life.
And then to take that knowledge to develop new therapeutics that could be used to treat
children/adolescents, as well as adults to prevent stones from being a problem over the lifetime.
At the individual level, in the clinic or in the operating room, I'm working to improve the life of that child.
>> Being here at CHOP and seeing all these people, all this amazing people doing their jobs
and everything being friendly, encouraged me to go work at CHOP and that will make me feel happy.
Whatever I do in the future, I would not stop drawing.
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