Red Urine and mysterious purple stains on the toilet

I take Lialda and also have occasional red tinted urine and purple stains on the toilet. The urine color is slightly reddish brown, similar to iced tea. Reported it to my GI and internist, but since I have no kidney pain they seem unconcerned. Internist sent a sample cup home with me to try to catch it next time it happens, but I've been unsuccessful so far because it happens randomly and infrequently.

Thanks for the tips. I'm not sure porphyria would be my problem since I don't have acute abdominal pain, just regular UC-related discomfort. But I'm always on the lookout for an explanation for the mysterious red urine problem.
I'm on tenoretic for plain old high blood pressure since age 30 which runs in the family - even though I've always been fairly thin & a nonsmoker. Attempts to reduce dosage have not been successful.

fruitgirl said...

Colicky said...
Fruitgirl

it would be a pretty neat trick if you could produce the same type of stain with your "enema poops." Frankly, I can't see how that would possible, so I am certainly not arguing that point.

I think it would be and even "neater trick" if you possibly knew what the stains in my toilet looked like.

Again, it's not my urine causing the stains. The only toilet in my house with stains is the one in which I poop. I pee all the time in one of the other toilets, but have only pooped on it maybe 2-3 times, and it has zero stains. Pretty open and shut case that the stain-causing agent is in my poop.

Fruitgirl,

I was trying to be funny, I only meant that the stains in the photo that I posted were clearly not made by poop, or if they were I would like to see how that person sat on the toilet to yield such result. The point that I was trying to make is that in some cases porphyrin levels can get high enough so that they can be seen in the stool and may leave a purple residue behind, often noticed under the toilet seat. Detecting how vivid porphyrins show up in the feces is actually a method used in the diagnostic process to differentiate specific types of porphyria. Basically, I am saying that this might add an extra element of confusion if someone was using an enema and encountered stains under their toilet seat. The voided enema may have clearly caused the stains under the seat to be left behind. That has happened to me when I had to use an enema, particularly during a bad UC flare up. That didn't necessarily mean I had porphyria, it just meant the enema made a mess. However, if I happen to be pooping out porphyrins and had not recently used an enema, then the stains left behind (in the toilet or under the seat) by the porphyrins in my poop look different and are certainly distinguishable from what might be left behind after using an enema. If you think it's that clear, then you're probably right it's open and shut case.

Colicky, the last poster said he can't work out how to send you a private message, so I won't try until I have more time.

You make a lot of sense.

This morning I noticed that my urine was deep reddish brown, the colour of redbush tea without milk, and it stained the toilet heavily the same colour. It also had a unique smell to it. I was ill for a few days until a couple of days ago, so haven't been eating much. I have felt very stressed and lots of physical symptoms, insomnia, aching, trembling, sweating, fast heartbeat.

For many years I have noticed that my urine is sometimes dark reddish brown especially in the morning when I have been ill most of the night.

I have had a lot of problems with superventricular tachycardia, and have to take beta blockers for that.

I have had two very bad episodes lasting months/years of severe stomach pain, the first episode started a year after menarche (oestrogen?), after dieting, and was under a lot of stress. The second episode started after a pregnancy, got worse in the second pregnancy and unbearable after that birth, and I had lost a couple of stones, about 28 pounds.

I got intense skin itching with nothing visible, it felt almost like electrical tingling in the nerves, which kept me awake. I have found using progesterone cream helps that a lot, so it might be oestrogen related. The itching was particularly bad during pregnancy.

I reacted badly to prescribed Z sleeping tablets, which are newer than and related to benzodiazepines. One of the symptoms was my whole digestive system virtually stopping, nothing coming out the other end and being violently sick if I ate or drank anything at all, and intense nausea all the time. I haven't taken any for a few years and I still get these symptoms slightly, though I do tend to self-medicate with Epsom salts when I feel queasy.

I have often suspected these symptoms could be porphyria, but getting a doctor to test for it is probably impossible, even if you pay, though I believe in the UK there are private GP's who will do this sort of thing?

I am not sure how a diagnosis would be useful to me, apart from definitely knowing to avoid triggers, which is inconvenient unless necessary. As long as I remember to take my beta blockers, my superventricular tachycardia is just about under control, touch wood as you never know until you get another very scary attack and the last one lasted for two days, stopped and then started again, and I did wonder if it was caused or triggered by using a vitamin B12 patch. The stomach pains I take Epsom salts and psyllium for, which seems to work ok, though I still get them a lot but less excruciatingly.

I resigned myself to leaving a question mark over porphyria, as I will probably never get a diagnosis. Obviously being able to avoid definite triggers would help prevent attacks of SVT.

Post Edited (Hedera) : 11/26/2014 7:34:14 AM (GMT-7)

Hi all I just want some folks who use mesalamine enemas to know that if you use a bleach based toilet cleaner, even if you flush after cleaning, next time you pee you might see dark red or brown pee. This just happened to me and I was immediately frantic until I googled and found this article. You might want to try this at home. If you look closely your pee comes out clear but the instant it lands in the toilet (with bleach residue) it turns red.

http://journals.lww.com/jpgn/Fulltext/2013/05000/A_Curious_Case_of_Red_Brown_Urine_in_a_Child.30.aspx

This reaction may also be responsible for the mysterious dark rings some folks find.

So glad I found this, I was freaking out and ready to call my MD.