blood clots in urine

Hi everyone
I am a newbie so please forgive all the questions I will likely have. For the past 7-8 weeks, I have been experiencing gross hematuria (boy is that ever well named) whenever I urinate. For the past 3 weeks it has been accompanied by large blood clots. It is abit scary looking and sometimes makes passing urine really tough. It doesn't hurt or burn or any of the other usual symptoms of a UTI. I have hypertension, thyroid disease, Afib, and diet controlled diabetes, an some sort of autoimmune disease - five doctors five different diagnoses. It has been frustrating .

I finally made an appointment with a Urologist tomorrow and wondered if anyone can tell me what to expect. Is it just peeing in a cup? Does he/she just review your history? Is there a physical part to the exam? Will it hurt?
I've put off going to the Urologist mainly for silly reasons - but the thought of what they might do is overwhelming. (Still thinking of cancelling the darn thing) Would really appreciate any experiences that may help.

thank you!!!

andey

Hi Andey. I, too, just saw your post. I started with a urologist a year ago after a routine urine test done as part of my annual physical revealed microscopic levels of blood in my urine. My primary care physician had me take a CT scan, which revealed a possible cancerous lesion on my right kidney. I was referred to a urologist at Stanford University. He reviewed the CT scan and said the lesion was quite small at about 1.5 mm. He suggested monitoring it to see if it changes because he was not convinced it was malignant. I was assured that even if it turned out to be cancer, it was very slow growing and posed no risk of spreading to other areas.

I had a repeat Ct scan in July and an ultrasound in November. The CT revealed virtually no chage and the ultrasound didn't even see the lesion, so I'm scheduled for another CT in late April.

The initial appointment with the urologist basically involved reviewing the CT scan , asking questions and feeling around my kidneys. No peeing in a cup or anything like that. In fact, he said that blood in the urine can come from any number of sources, most of which are benign conditions.

Treatment, in the event of cancer can be either surgical or non-invasive. Surgery is either a partial or full removal of the kidney. Non-invasive can be either cryoablation (freezing the cancerous cells) of radio frequency ablation (cooking the bad cells). Stanford is one of the pioneers in the field. However, my urologist doesn't want to do anything until he's convinced it is malignant. He doesn't want to reduce kidney function unnecessarily. He did, however, say that if it bothered me psychologically to potentially have cancerous cells in me, he would perform one of the above procedures to put my fears to rest. I figure why have surgery today if you can safely out it off to the future.

Interestingly enough, I was recently back at my primary care doctor's office for this year's physical and the blood in my urine is completely gone. So, I'm taking that as a sign that the lesion is benign, but we'll see for sure in April/May.

Gunner, how's your dad?