Also, if this is your first . . . be vigilant in straining when you take a leak and try to catch that sucker. Take it to a urologist and have it tested to find out what kind of stone it is. They can also do things like urine collection tests and blood tests to help determine if it's diet related. The huge mistake I made with my first was just going to my GP and he was less than thorough with the whole process. He said it was calcium oxalate, but just said "yeah, well . . . drink a lot of water from now on and you should be fine."

With the second one, I got the full-blown workup done and the urologist gave me a ton of info. I was eating a metric crapload of stuff I should have been avoiding (almonds, chocolate protein powder, spinach, other high oxalate foods). They also gave me the information on the citrate intake.