Kidney Stones, Blood Calcium, and Systemic Disease

First time poster. Been a lurker here for awhile. This is a great site. I've never worried about my health until this year. I'm a 40 year old male. It hit me a little past my 40th bday, when I had a recurrent cough that was in all likelihood related to reflux. My mother passed in her late 40s. Despite her telling her drs something was wrong with her, they did not find her colon cancer for a long time, and she passed at 47.

My cough got the dr to put me on flonase and prilosec in case it was allergies or reflux. As time passed, I started seeing blood in my mucus, and I was sure I had lung cancer (quit smoking 3 years ago). My doc said it was probably nothing--so I went to a lung dr. He said I was ok, too because of my age--but he finally did a chest CT. It came back ok mostly--but it found I had very mild gynecomastia (not visible--but small lump inside my chest) on one side and mild aortic calcification. The blood in sputum was probably nasal bleeding going back down my throat caused by allergies and/or flonaise drying me up. Stressful experience, but no cancer. I started a statin for my cholesterol and changed my diet to much more healthy.

Although male breast cancer is rare, I still had concerns about chest lump. Had a mammogram and ulltrasound that said my chest lump was BI-RADS 3 PROBABLY benign (followup to be in 6 months). I was hoping for a 100% result, but I was mostly ok with that. Time passed...and I was hoping to put all those worries to rest...until

A month ago, I started having urinary retention/voiding issues. It was very, very stressful. Urologist didn't know what was going on and put me on Rapaflo and said come back in a month. My urgency subsided thank goodness. Then I passed a little blood, and doc had me come back in. Cystoscopy (camera in the bladder) showed no bladder cancer but some small stone fragments. Suspecting stone(s), he sent me away, and within 2 weeks, I did pass a 4 mm stone. I had some minor pain during that experience--but nothing major or like I've heard about. I was happy to have this behind me..or so I thought...until today. After crashing last night (without going to the bathroom first) and dreaming I needed to go--I woke up and had problems emptying again.

I had a recent metabolic workup, and I had 10.2 serum calcium--which is almost out of the reference range. My last one a few months ago was 9.6. I read about hypercalcemia (high calcium), and it's bad news. Basically 90% of cases of it related to EITHER hyperparathyroidism or malignancy. The fact that I may be having more than 1 stone--and that elevated calcium make me worried.

On the malignancy side, there are metastatic bone things--and l think I'm ok there because my other bloodwork is ok--my alkaline phosphatase is not elevated (actually been low for awhile). Other malignancy can be from myeloma or lymphoma (scares me). I have been itchy all over lately (mildly), which is a symptom of lymphoma--but I have dry skin, so could be that or allergy to the cat we got a year ago--so who knows. My skin was so bad that at one point a few months ago, my feet were scaly (also symtomatic of lymphoma except the scaling resolved) although I still itch. The other condition could be parahyperthyroidism--which is benign--but damages your body over time and can only be resolved by surgery (expensive surgery). It is usually found in people with elevated calcium but not over 12 (and people with kidney stones among other conditions I have like aortic calcification, itching, and even reflux).

Finally, I found out in reading and talking to my doctor that calcium in your blood can be impacted by the amount of albumen in your system--and docs often adjust your calcium score based on it. My "corrected" score would be 9.8--which is more in range--but that does not change the fact I really had a stone (and stone fragments in my bladder)--and that I may be having another. Next step is to get imaging done and maybe more bloodwork (to check for hyperparathyroidism--Doc wanted a CT, but I talked him down to an ultrasound--because I already had that chest CT this year..that's a lot of radiation. It's pretty bad I let anxiety lead me into that last CT, and now I probably need another one.

Trying to stay positive, but this year has been tough, and I feel anxious, powerless, and mentally exhausted. The anxiety and depression weigh on me--and I know my mood is a burden on my family. :weep: