Sunday, Bloody Sunday...

Warning: this one may be gross.

This past Sunday, I got up, took care of my morning routine, had breakfast, and then headed out to run a ton of errands. I noticed that my lower abdomen was kind of achy in a not-too-bad-but-annoying-nonetheless menstrual crampy way, but I decided to ignore it and go on about my business. At my first stop, I went to the bathroom and noted that my pee looked oddly orange, but aside from the mental note, I didn't think much of it. I figured I was dehydrated or had eaten something strange that had colored my urine. (Kind of like what happens when you eat a lot of beets.)

All day, the crampiness continued and every time I peed, I noticed that it was still oddly colored. By the end of the day, I was starting to think it might be something to be concerned about.

Around 5pm, I finally headed home. At home, I peed in the "pee hat" I had leftover from my 24 hour pee test. (I think I blogged about the pee test, but I can't really remember.) If I didn't blog about it, here's the synopsis: the doctors ordered me to catch all of my pee for a 24 hour period so they could check it for protein and other schtuff. They gave me a "pee hat" which fits on the toilet and catches everything. Then I poured it into a big jug.

Looking in the pee hat, I was completely alarmed. The pee was reddish orange and clearly full of blood. (This hadn't been as apparent earlier in the day due to the dilution of the bloody pee in the toilet water.) I went and got Geekboy and told him that something bad was happening and I needed to get in touch with the doctor.

I called the doctor line and the doctor called me back. I explained what was going on and he suggested that I might have a urinary tract infection, but he wanted me to go to the hospital to be checked out so they would know for sure.

I told Geekboy to grab his computer because we were going for a ride. (He's much better off when he's got geeky entertainment.) I grabbed a big mug of water and we were out the door. I figured I should hydrate so I could pee when we got to the hospital.

At the medical complex where I'm being seen, they have a 24 hour pregnancy triage and assessment center. The nurses checked me in to an examining room and had me pee in a cup. It was pink - there was still obviously a decent amount of blood present, but it was nothing compared to what I'd discovered in the pee hat at home.

Then, while waiting to be seen in the patient room, I found that I had to pee every 5-10 minutes. I think it was a combination of being nervous and having consumed the giant mug of water on the way to the hospital. After a few more pees, the nurse arrived with a different cup for me to pee in. I produced the sample and it was as clear as tap water. For some reason, they decided to check for the presence of bacteria under a microscope on the clear pee sample (rather than the bloody one).

After about an hour, the doctor came in and told me that the sample was clean. She then conducted a quick pelvic exam (the first Geekboy had ever attended) and told me that my cervix looked a little tender and the q-tip swab she did produced a little bit of blood. She theorized that the blood in the urine was actually coming from my vaginal opening, rather than through my urethra. I questioned this theory a bit, but in the end, didn't want to get into a pointless argument with her. However, I'm 95% sure the blood was in my urine and not coming from somewhere else and mixing with the urine.

They sent us home. That evening, I had another slightly off-color pee (in the hat), but by morning, my pee was back to normal and the lower abdominal cramping was gone. I've been watching very carefully and I'm now on my third day of normal pee. I'm baffled by what happened, but I guess that if it's cleared up and the baby is fine, there's not much to worry about.

This is the type of thing where you begin to believe it's all in your head, but Geekboy has confirmed for me that it did, in fact, happen.