Pissing blood!!!

[embolicintent]

Hematuria is serious!

I saw your post and wanted to offer the same advice as the others. You NEED to see a physician. I am a senior medical student and have done a lot of work in urology and I can tell you that blood in the urine is very serious! A lot of people walking around actually have tiny amounts of blood in their urine, but it is too small to be seen. This is almost always harmless. However, when you can actually see blood in your urine, it is concerning. There are a number of fairly benign things that can cause it such as kidney stones, certain medications, infection...etc. What really concerns me is the sudden onset that you described. The one thing that absolutely must be ruled out is kidney or bladder cancer. I do not want to scare you, but I do want you to know that this needs to be evaluated. Chances are that it is nothing bad, but you must get it checked out. The very worst thing that you can do is assume that it is nothing and will get better. If it is something serious, then time is critical so please go see a physician. Again I am not a physician yet and I offer this advice only to try to help. If I can help please do not hesitate to e-mail me at [email protected]

 

[DanielBishop]

Okay, and what if everything is back to normal?

Only twice I urinated with this colour and consistency.... then the next day it was fine. Everything back to normal.

I feel fine.... no pain, no illness....

I'm still paying extra attention, but do you think I really NEED to see a doctor? It's quite possible that it wasn't blood at all, but just a very dark colour from dehydration. I don't know why I became dehydrated all of a sudden, but it might have been that I wasn't drinking enough water.... I usually drink a lot of water so I don't know what VERY dark urine looks like. I'm starting to think it was indeed that, and not blood.

In a little over a month, I'll be going home to Australia and I'll have a thorough check-up there (where I actually have medical insurance)....

 

[embolicintent]

Well man, if it was me I would go to the ER of a large public hospital where they can not refuse individuals without insurance. A very simple urine dipstick test will be done to see if indeed there is blood in the urine. You may very well be correct that it was due to dehydration, but I am guessing that you are probably a fairly young and healthy individual. Therefore, the chances of you getting severly dehydrated like that without running a marathon are slim. Also, dehydration causes the urine to turn dark yellow to orange. Certain senna based laxatives and rhubarb can also darken urine. Another possibility is a liver or gallbladder problem which would cause dark urine because of excess bilirubin. With this, you would likely have other signs such as jaundice (yellow coloration of the skin) and icterus (yellow eyeballs). You would also have very light clay colored stools. If the urine was green or blue, then I would tend to think that you ingested some food or medication with artificial coloring in it. That being said, in my experience, dark urine = blood until proven otherwise. Anything that damages the kidneys can cause blood in the urine. Bright red blood would be expected with trauma such as being punched in the kidneys. Darker blood is more worrisome. Another real possibility is that you could have had a renal cyst (which lots of people have) that ruptured. That is not anything to worry about. The things that I would consider most likely are cyst, infection, stone, and less likely some form of growth. As I said before, it will probably be nothing serious, but if it is and you wait then you may miss any opportunity for treatment and that is a risk that is just not worth taking. In the long run, it will be a few hours out of your life waiting in an ER, a urine sample, and possibly another radiologic test such as an IVP or CT scan. There are some bad things out there and worst case scenario, waiting as little as a month could cost you your life. I would advise you to see a doctor within the next couple of days. I have seen a lot of apparently young healthy people die because of similar things and I would not advise waiting. If you go and it turns out completely normal, then you can come on here and call me a big SOB, I wont mind.

 

[woje3]

i'd get it checked out to be sure, but i would bet that it's dehydration. I had the same thing happen after spending 10 days in cancun on spring break...came back and i was all messed up from dehydration. From drinking tons of liquor, eating like shit and not drinking a lot of water. things were fine after a few days, but i did go to the doctor to make sure nothing was seriously wrong....

 

[DanielBishop]

Even if they couldn't refuse me because I don't have medical insurance, it would be really expensive.... I really don't have any money to spare at the moment.

The possibilities you mentioned.... are they still possibilities if it's gone back to normal? It's been normal colour for a while now.... so are those things still as likely?

And I don't drink alcohol, or caffeine....

I just really don't want to go to a doctor.

 

[embolicintent]

Well I still highly recommend that you see a physician, but one other alternative would be to test the urine yourself. You can get a urine test from a drugstore. I checked and found them at drugstore.com for $20.00. They are simple to use. The name is Hemastix. You could also use Multistix which is an expanded test that tests for multiple things in the urine like protein and ketones. Some people also use these tests to see if they are burning fat while dieting by looking for fat breakdown products (ketones) in the urine. These tests will at least tell you if there is blood in your urine. As I said before it takes a LOT of blood in the urine to actually be seen. This test is extremely sensitive and reliable and can pick up very tiny amounts of blood that you can't see. Remember though, cancers in the kidney and bladder are notorious for bleeding intermitently and the test could be negative even if something is present. Having said that, if this test is negative then you can feel a lot better about delaying the doctor visit for a month. I wish you the very best of luck. If I can help please drop me a line.

 

[Gembat]

Your medical answers

Cut and paste this link, it will tell you everything you want to know about blood in urine.

http://www.emedicine.com/aaem/topic50.htm

-gymbat

 

[Gembat]

This link will answer your questions

http://www.emedicine.com/aaem/topic50.htm

Should tell you everything you need to know.

Gymbat-