Pink urine! You can imagine my shock. What could it be? I exercise more than 1½ hours a day. Could it be myoglobin? I put beets in my daily osterizer “shake”: could the color be from the anthocyanins from beets?

I took a urine specimen to the lab, and the color turned out to be from Hemoglobin, the most likely cause all along. There were lots of red blood cells in my urine and the test strip was strongly positive for Hemoglobin. I called a urologist, who said I needed a Urine culture for infection, and a “CT Urogram”, to check for cancer, kidney stones and other problems.

You should always check with your doctor with Hematuria, and I am no exception. My Urology appointment was in 1 week. I got a urine culture, Cell cytology (for cancer), a CT Urogram, and a urine culture before the visit. I wanted to save time by scheduling a Cystoscopy at the time of the first visit, but couldn’t arrange it.

I went for the appointment. They took a blood pressure, but didn’t check my urine, which I thought was negligent. I had been regularly checking my urine for blood by a test strip, and it was negative. The appointment lasted only minutes. My old urologist always checked my urine on every visit, regardless of whether it was a regular check or to consult for a problem. If I were a Urologist, you can be sure I would have my microscope ready, have the nurse collect the urine, spin it down, and put the sediment under the microscope for me to check.

When I was in medical practice as an allergist, I would have my nurse check any sputum the patient produced smeared on a slide, stained and dried. Microscopic examination of urine and sputum takes only seconds and yields lots of information. In my opinion, 50 years of Insurance surveillance and governmental regulations, including restrictions on lab work done in the doctor’s office and Hippa privacy laws, have handicapped Doctors and are partly responsible for the costly, dysfunctional system that is modern medicine.

Sorry for the Sermons. Visible blood in the urine-Gross Hematuria- requires that you see your Doctor and find the cause of that blood. Please see the 2 appended Mayo Clinic articles for more detail.

–Dr. C.