Now I think I know why I was in so much pain. I think a stone was stuck at the beginning of my urethra and was somehow tethered by the string. Makes sense. As soon as I got home yesterday, I passed a small stone. The doc took a traditional x-ray and said they all saw one 3mm stone left in my kidney. Well, here's why doctors should never rely on traditional x-rays to see how many stones a cystinuric has:



I passed 7 stones this morning! The biggest one is at least 3mm - maybe 4. It didn't hurt, but now that burning feeling in my urethra is totally gone. Go figure. Here is a close-up of the cystine stones:



They are a little darker than normal because they have been soaking in that pyridium dye all this time. The stones were in a Ziploc baggie on top of a tissue. I might take them out later to get a clearer picture. I just didn't want to lose any.