I wrote a health blog post in October 2021 called the scariest day of my life. That day I woke up and went to the bathroom, as you do, but I was having issues urinating. I stood up and looked in the toilet and it was nothing but blood. I went to the ER and they did a CT scan and told me it’s possible I have bladder cancer. They didn’t know why I was urinating blood. I was told to see my regular doctor and a urologist. My doctor gave the referral and I saw a urologist who said I had an enlarged prostate. He gave me Flomax and suddenly I was able to urinate easier, and he ran a camera into my bladder and I could see the inside of my bladder and it didn’t look like there were any issues. They didn’t know why that happened to me.

This week on Wednesday June 18th, 2025 I woke up and everything was normal, but then later in the afternoon I went to the bathroom and I was standing up, but I wasn’t looking in the toilet. I went to flush and saw all of the water was red. I tried going again later, but it was difficult to get anything out, but there was some blood dripping out. The doctor called and told me it sounds like I’m passing a kidney stone. They told me I had stones at one point, so I guess they assumed that’s what was happening. She told me to go to the emergency room immediately, and so I did.

We went to the emergency room at around 6:30pm and they asked for a urine sample. I went to the bathroom and it was a struggle, but I managed to fill the cup with blood. It was so dark that it looked more like a paint sample.

They brought me to a room to find out why I was there, then they did a CT scan, and then they took blood and after several hours they brought me back there to the desk where they look at your insurance information and wait for the doctor. There weren’t any beds, so I saw the doctor while sitting in the chair and he told me there were blood clots in my bladder, so no stones. I told him I couldn’t urinate easily, because pissing out blood clots hurts like hell, so he said we can irrigate your bladder, and so they did that.

Finally around 11:30pm they brought me to one of the beds and told me to remove all of my clothes and put the gown on and they set me up on the bed to get ready for hell lol. It was not pleasant at all. They had to insert a catheter and oh my freaking God, that was so painful. At first he started putting it in, but then took it out because he said it was too big, so then he put a smaller one in there. Holy fucking Shit! That fucking hurt going in, but once it was in, I was fine. They had 2 huge bags of what I can only assume was gallons of saline water. It wasn’t the normal IV bag you see, these bags were huge. You see the tube of saline going in and then there was another tube with blood going out. That took about 2 hours. Then he took the catheter out and it still hurt for several minutes after he pulled it out.

I was told I had a UTI and that could be the cause. I was told the last time I had a UTI before I urinated blood, but not much was done for me, and then I urinated blood, but this time they gave me an IV with an antibiotic and they prescribed an antibiotic to take twice a day for 7 days.

Ok, so I came home and had the urge to urinate, and not thinking anything would happen, I stood in front of the toilet and let the gates open, and I screamed bloody murder because it felt like my dick was on fire. 3 or 4 blood clots immediately shot out like a rocket and some blood and urine came out and I clenched so fast to stop the flow and that hurt too, but even more.

The guy who inserted the catheter told me I will be in pain for the next 4 days, but I didn’t understand until I came home and went to urinate like nothing had just happened. The next day was hell every time I had to urinate, then the next day, and today is day 3 and it still stings a little, but it is getting easier. I didn’t realize this would be the result of having a catheter. Even though I hate that I’m going through this now, I don’t regret having them irrigate my bladder because I would’ve had to suffer from pushing out all of the blood clots on my own at home like the last time.

I am seeing my doctor on Monday morning and then she’ll put in a referral for the urologist and they’ll probably go in with a camera again like the last time to see what is going on. Was it just a result of a UTI that I had no idea I had, or is it something worse? I was told by the nurse who inserted the catheter that this is typically happening because a patient has bladder cancer, so even though I don’t want to accept that it might be cancer, I’m not ruling anything out. I won’t have a choice but to accept whatever the outcome is when they examine my bladder.

This whole thing really sucks. I don’t know why this is happening. I just turned 55 years old. This getting old bullshit is pissing me off lol. I don’t want to do it anymore. Is there a way I can go backward?

Update: I saw my doctor and she gave me a referral for the urologist who is so busy that I have to wait 4 weeks to see them. My doctor told me that she isn’t convinced I have a UTI. I actually took all of the antibiotics that they gave me and a few days after I finished it all started again. I was urinating blood for another 24 hours. I told my doctor and she said I think you are passing kidney stones. I’m better now, and she told me she tried to reroute my referral to expedite the appointment and the referral department told me to call the urologist and they told me no, they can’t expedite or reroute my appointment. My appointment is still the same and I just have to wait and there’s just no getting around it. So I guess we will see what happens in August.