I’m not asking for medical advice, but yesterday I got kicked in the stomach really hard, and now my urine’s dark orange and I’m wondering if this is bad?
Ok, not really. What’s going on is I have strep throat. I went to the doctor a couple days ago, and she prescribed penicillin (amoxycillin*), and said “now you only have to take them twice a day, instead of the four times you used to”. Hey, great, I thought in a slow, foggy way. It turns out they’re not more concentrated, just twice as big, about the size of a baby carrot. Well, almost. Just the thing for a sore throat.
When I’ve taken penicillin previously, I’ve noticed this darkening, so I’m not concerned about it. I thought it was the bacteria dying and making their way out, especially since it’s only dark early on in the treatment. Now, since taking a double strength pill made it twice as dark, I’m not so sure.
So what is it that makes it dark? Am I literally pissing away half my antibiotics or is it some metabolism product, or is it the dead bacteria, all dropping their little beers and keeling over? I was going to cut the pills in half, and take the two halves an hour or two apart in case it was the antibiotics going in the toilet, but they’re too big to fit in my wifes pill cutter.
*She said penicillin, but wrote amoxycillin. I’ve had both previously, but don’t quite understand the difference. Is amoxicilin related to penicillin, or a form of penicillin, or a penicillin molecule bonded to a molecule of orange food coloring, or what?
Apologies. I should have worded my post more clearly. I meant it to be in support of engineer_comp_geek’s post, but on reading it, I see that I did not in any way say that.
The obvious answer is to make a call to your doctor’s office and ask. Shouldn’t cost you anything and any competent doctor would be glad for you to do so. You can also ask your pharmacist. They are generally very, very knowledgable about the expected side effects of the medicines they dispense.
If you only take antibiotics when you’re ill, and when you’re ill you generally get dehydrated, and when you’re dehydrated your urine color concentrates from pale yellow to orangey… well, it might not be the antibiotics.
I second or third the notion that you ask your doctor, but it probably wouldn’t kill you to drink more clear fluids while you’re ill, just in case.
Once my med student girlfriend has to take something for a urinary tract infection. She came rushing from the bathroom saying I had to see what color the meds had made her urine. It was bright orange, and I mean orange, not any color I’ve ever seen elsewhere, no matter how dehydrated I’d been.
Probably a phenazopyridine medication; it’s also available OTC in the US as UriStat and probably under other brand names. (It relieves the pain with urination and the constant feeling of “urgency” in having to urinate; it does not in any way treat the infection itself. See your doctor very promptly if you think you have a UTI, etc., etc.) And from experience, I can affirm that you tend to pee an obnoxiously bright fluorescent orange. Not only will this show you exactly where you haven’t scrubbed the toilet properly, as it dyes any previously-invisible-to-the-eye organic material the same color, but it is also adviseable to not wear any light-colored undies that you care to keep, as you’ll almost invariably get a dyed-in drip mark or two while taking the medication.
Back to the topic - try drinking more fluids to see if that helps, but calling your doctor is also a very good idea.
Anyone who has spent a long night in too many bottles has also seen the bright orange urine. When you finally pee at 5PM the NEXT day, it’s often that color! Even after drinking a good gallon of water!
Vitamins can also add a nice flouresence to the mix. If I’ve been drinking, I’ve been known to pop a multi-vitamin before going to bed, and if I was a wee bit distracted from remembering that I took it the night before, that first pee of the day can be quite alarming!
I’d give your doctor a call though, doesn’t hurt.
Or as my mother would say, “take an aspirin, you’ll be fine!” (J/K)
Actually, I was wondering if it meant that the amoxicillin was water soluble, and going in the toilet. I hadn’t considered the dehydration possiblity, but that seems pretty likely, now that I think about it. Thanks for all the answers, everyone.
A followup question on penicillin: When I was a kid, it was always just “penicillin”, not some specific type. Has it always been amoxicillin, and it’s just that now I actually see the prescription so I know it’s amoxicillin?
I’ll ask next time I need to get a prescription, but I’m not going to call just because I’m wondering. I’m afraid she’ll say “I’m here for medical advice. For things you’re just wondering about, you should ask a message board. This phone call is closed.”
(J/K)