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Discussion

Blue Urine

I'm a hospice RN and last night I received a call from the patients daughter stating her mom had blue urine, and to prove her point she sent me a video of it, and it looks like blue kool-aid. Has anyone ever seen blue urine and if so what would be the cause if this. Obviously with her being a hospice patient we are not seeking treatment or doing any testing. She is not taking any medication or eating anything that would cause this. I have never seen anything like this before and was curious if anyone else has seen this? Can't wait to hear what you all have to say.

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    • Featured Replies

    The only time I have ever seen it is when a patient got methelyne blue. However I googled blue urine and there are a bunch of different causes including drug byproducts from certain drugs like phenergan.

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    Yeah I also googled what could be potential cause urine turned blue. Most answers related to foods or medicines dyed. But you were saying she doesn't eat as much or taking any medications right? Bizarre!

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    Have seen it a couple of times (teal, electric blues) inpost op breast cancer patients. Our unit didn't routinely handle these cases but we wound up with a one due to bed shortages. We called the Women's Unit and they told us not to panic!

    So like others have said, what has she been treated for?

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    The only time I've ever seen it is in a post-op pt after they use dye.

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    I've never seen bright blue but I have seen ink colored. What about that?

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    the link given by a previous commenter mentioned that tryptophan, building up in the body, could cause blue urine- particularly if one were constipated... often it seems that hospice patients do suffer of constipation at times.... is she eating lots of turkey?

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    One of my LTC residents has dark blue urine. The first time I saw it I thought to myself "WHOA?!" then I thought "OMG, how cool!". I am a nerd like that.

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    Does the patient have a catheter?

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    My son had green poop once when he was 2, but I've never seen blue urine.

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    • Experts

    Is this lady being tube-fed? In the old days, to assess for aspiration tube-feed formula would have methylene blue mixed in. I haven't seen it used in tube-feeds for many years. I have had blue urine after a laparoscopic procedure where the surgeon thought he'd nicked my bladder. Methylene blue was instilled through a Foley so he could look for leaks. (Thank God he was wrong... but the blue pee was a bit disconcerting!)

    Propofol may cause green urine, but this hospice patient wouldn't be getting propofol.

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