Mrs. Homie had a routine physical last week. A urinalysis revealed protein in the urine. She was sent home with a hat to collect a day’s worth of pee to bring back to the lab for further testing.
What types of gruesome and dread diseases should we be prepared for? Or is this one of those things, like anemia, that could cause problems down the road, but for now we’ll just “watch closely”?
This symptom is called proteinuria. It’s normally associated with kidney issues (ranging from benign to serious). But if you read the link you’ll see it can also be a symptom of everything from dehydration to ebola.
Best wishes for a mild diagnosis and speedy recovery.
Rather than going into the gruesome & dread diseases, I’ll offer a ray of hope: every urinalysis I’ve had in the past twenty years has turned up protein in my urine, and I ain’t dead yet. In fact, my kidneys seem to be among my healthier parts.
Ditto to having had a benign diagnosis after having this symptom. I did ALL those annoying tests, and the proclamation was “There’s nothing wrong with you. You excrete extra protein when you’re on your feet a lot.” So should I try to stay off my feet? “Oh, no. Not at all. Perfectly harmless. Just forget we ever mentioned it.”
There seems to be a lot of us about, and there was I thinking I was so special. Rats!
I’d sound one note to be aware of, which may or may not be relevant. If you and Mrs. H. ever plan to have children and this turns out to be a long term thing for her, be prepared at least for every single visit to the medical bods to require a conversation on this subject. I’ve had very high proteinuria without discernible cause since aged 9. Unfortunately I also have intermittent high blood presssure (not believed connected in any way). Those are the two textbook indicators of pre-eclampsia so throughout my pregnancy every hospital visit began with a shocked “oh noes!!! you’re dangerously ill” from the medical technician, followed by my same rehearsed explanation " yes, I have high protein. Actually yes, I do occasionally have high blood pressure too. No in this particular case it’s not evidence of an infection, or pre-eclampsia. Actually I’m perfectly well".
Very clearly YMMV.
I’ve been peeing high protein for a couple of years now. In my case it’s FSGS or focal sectional glomulerosclerosis, which means that some of the glomerules in my kidneys that filter the blood are hardened by scar tissue, so that a lot of protein gets filtered into the urine.
At the moment, no one has given me any kind of prognosis, good or bad, and the only treatment option I’ve been given is “lose weight and lower your blood pressure”. In the end, if the number of glomerules crippled by the scar tissue gets too high, we’re talking kidney failure and dialysis and/or transplant. But that is, hopefully, decades in the future.
However, just because that’s my proteinuria story doesn’t mean it’s Mrs. Homie’s, okay?
Don’t worry about it.
It’s a general “uh-oh, check the kidney” thing, but, in isolation, with no symptoms and normal blood results, is not terribly significant and pretty common.
I would expect your doc to do some simple urine tests and blood tests and possibly arrange an ultrasound scan of the kidneys. If that’s all OK, I’d be pretty reassured that there was nothing major going on.
If Mrs Homie is pregnant, has high blood pressure, diabetes or any history of kidney problems there might be more going on. Otherwise, try to keep calm and not worry about big scary what-ifs that are probably what-aren’ts.
No, no, no, and no.
And FTR, Mrs. Homie won’t be getting pregnant. I’ve had a vasectomy.
Well, she could get pregnant, in spite of my vasectomy, but that’s a road I’d rather not go down…
A hat?
One other thing no one has mentioned yet, is that if your wife eats a high protein diet, this is bound to happen as well. A strict Atkins induction phase diet regime results in passing protein without a doubt. The more someone “Watches her carbs” the more likely she is to pass protein.
In the nursing home where I work (and in all of the health-care settings where I’ve worked), this gizmo is colloquially called a “hat.”