Blood in urine continues...could use some advice about possible causes

[TxBABY]

Hi. I thank all of you who responded to my post regarding the blood in my urine last Friday. As you remember I did end up getting put on an antibiotic but this was without running a culture on my urine as it was Saturday and the on call OB felt better to be safe than sorry. Well I did not see anymore blood after the last episode late Friday evening....until last night. After 5 days on the antibiotic, I again had blood in my urine last night.

I went in to OB today and we discussed what could be going on. They checked my urine in the office and NO blood found. They sent it off for a 48 hour culture so I won't know until Monday. He did a vaginal exam and found no changes there so blood is definitely coming from urninary tract, not coming out vaginally so we are relieved about that. He is pretty confident I am not experiencing kidney stones because of the lack of pain, and he said he would be surprised if there is any bacteria in my urine since the office culture came back negative for blood. SO, that leaves us with only a few other reasons for random blood in urine. The ones that are the most common causes are:

1. Trauma (and he said that possibly the weight of the pregnancy on bladder could cause trauma like problems to bladder)
2. Tumors/Cancer

Well I have not had any trauma other than this heavy belly, so now I am worried sick about tumor or something!

This is what I really need to know from someone...has ANYONE else ever had blood in their urine and the doctor say that the weight of the pregnancy on the bladder could be causing some trauma to the bladder and causing the random bleeding. The baby has definitely dropped and I am feeling tremendous pressure on my bladder. Is this possible?

Any advice or opinions would be appreciated. OB said he wants to get me delivered and recovered (C-section is 4 weeks away) and see if bleeding continues. If so, he will refer me to a Urologist.

Thanks for reading,
Cindy

[babyluv]

Hey you ole infertility buddy! Disclaimer, this is "not" official medical advice.......

First of all, congrats. Great news about the baby on the way!!!.
If you are seeing contantly red urine and the urine in the office came back negative for blood (under a microscope) you could have red urine from medication (e.g.- vitamins, or rifampin- a TB drug you are likely NOT on!!or others), foods such as beets, ----or, you have a by-product of muscle breakdown called myoglobin in there. If that is the case, the "dipstick" should be positive for blood but the microscopic exam (not likely something they would do in the ofice) would be negative for actual red blood cells.

When you pee'd in the OB's office, was the urine red in the cup ? If it WAS, then the above should be the case. If it was clear urine, but you have had blood or red urine intermittantly, that can sometimes be just hereditary (something called IgA nephropathy), or i think it seems like it COULD plausibly be from the baby irritating the bladder.

A urine culture would have been nice casue that is one of the most common causes of true blood in the urine, but since they gave you antibiotics, if they did a culture 5 days into the treatment, it might not be accurate.......you may be getting better but your bladder is still irritated and the pressure makes the bleeding come and go.

I agree, with no pain, stones seem unlikely.

hope this helps. I would put bladder cancer far down on the list, so try not to worry..........

reply if i confused you more than helped. i have forgotten all my writing skills since high school...........

babyluv

[babyluv]

Cindy- by the way, your ds is gorgeous!! (like you don't know that, huh?)

babyluv

forgot to say we have natural #3 on the way in 2005, who knew after years of IVF we could do it on our own???

[TxBABY]

Hey you, and THANKS for the reponse. I really appreciate the advice. And as always it is nice to hear from an old pal. Gosh it has been a while since we cycled on the IUI boards together. Congratulations on YOUR pregnancy and what a nice natural miracle!

As for us, DH and I are through after this baby. We are tying the tubes. Seems crazy since 5 years of unprotected sex didn't produce any pregnancies, but we figure we better not chance that I may be one of those pre menapausal 40 somethings that finally ends of pg on her own .

We are truly blessed with our miracle IUI babies and feel as though we have pushed mother nature as far as we would like too at this point. Thanks for the nice comment about Cooper. He is precious and gosh that avatar is so old. I really need to update it! When are you due and do you know what you are having? We are having another boy and couldn't be happier.

As for the blood in the urine. My urine looks GREAT all the time...it is just the times last Friday and Wednesday night that I had the blood visible in it. I drink so much water that my urine is really clear and looks great. The office culture showed nothing so they did send it off for microscopic cultures and to test for things that could indicate kidney stones, but I really don't think that is the case. I am just hoping the culture comes back with some bacteria, if not, guess we just have to see if the blood continues and hope if it does it ends with the pregnancy. Either way, I am pretty sure I will see a Urologist just to be safe once we have the baby and I have recovered. Of course if the blood continues on and off or gets worse we will be seeing one sooner. I just really don't think it was a UTI either as I had no pain when I urinated and I have had UTI's and let me tell you that by the time I saw blood in the urine....WOW it HURT like hell to pee.

I will keep you posted. Thanks again so much for the advice and hope to keep track of you. Are you over on the due date boards?

Cindy

[babyluv]

Yes, I would be one of those premenopausal (37) year olds with a surprise, but we are happy about it.........it took about 8 weeks for the shock to wear off and I still don't believe it most days.....

Ok, that all sounds good and intermittant blood with no other symptoms (fever/ flankpain) is less worrisome to me.

One visit to a urologist somewhere along the way seems to be the prudent thing.

Cooper is just darling. Send me an updated pic if you get a chance and I will send you one of us......

exgardener@yahoo.com

Good luck on the big day! I will check in on you too!

babyluv
"Buy Two, Get One Free"