Blood in urine (hematuria)

Just received the results on my latest urine test. It was the second time in June that my sample came back with elevated red and white blood cells. When I was in the ER on June 7th for atrial fibrillation, I was also passing blood in my urine. I have to assume that was the reason for the first urine test.

This isn’t the first time this has occurred. I think it was back in 2018 when this also occurred. I happened on the weekend, but was still evident on Monday. I went into the clinic and they sent me to the ER at the Seattle VA Medical Center. I had a CT scan that showed an enlarged prostate. That resulted in a prescription for benign prostatic hyperplasia and a referral to the Urology clinic, which resulted in a cystoscopy (urinary tract scope procedure).

That cystoscopy certainly wasn’t fun. It definitely wasn’t like a colonoscopy where they knock you out with Demerol. You’re fully awake during a cystoscopy. You’re lying on your back on a table with a urology resident and the attending. There are two or three nurses to help with the procedure. The scope is similar to the one used in a colonoscopy, except this one is small enough to be threaded up the urinary tract. It has a fiber optic strand that’s connected to a screen to see what’s going on, a means to cause water to irrigate the tract and bladder, the ability to take tissue samples for biopsy, and the ability to treat conditions that could be causing the bleeding. When the scope is removed, all the extra water pushed in during the procedure comes flooding out. The nurses are ready with towels to soak up the water.

I have to assume when I go see my primary care doctor this Wednesday she’ll send in a consult to Urology. Hopefully, they will schedule me for at least a cystoscopy. Maybe, I’ll also get to have a CT scan. Supposedly, there is a CT at the new Everett VA clinic, or that sign on the door is only there in anticipation of installation. You can never be sure what medical care you’re going to get from the VA. Being 100% disabled ensures that whatever medical care I need will be free. I had a previous primary care who kept putting off my deteriorating kidneys until they got bad enough in her view for a referral to the Nephrology clinic at the VA medical center. Strangely, she didn’t have any problem with sending me down to Orthopedics for cortisone injections in my arthritic knees.

I can only hope that whatever is going on down in my urinary tract is something that isn’t too serious.