thick urine

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Specializes in General Surgery & Open Heart Teams; NICU.

I know this may sound strange. I work in Oncology, and we have this young lady that is rejecting her donated kidney. She is receiving dialysis M, W, F, but is still able to urinate a small amount.

Well, tonight, she didn't call me after she voided. And when I was doing my I/O, I was going to empty her hat. Her urine was slightly orange in color and had thickend almost like jello with liquid on top. She states she voided the 1 hour prior and when asked about the descritpion she states it was like water.

I'm a new nurse and I put the hat with the urine to the side and got the experienced nurse to look and tell me what they thought. None of them had seen that before. The charge nurse told me to keep it in the hat until either the MD or an experienced dailysis nurse can tell us what to do.

My question is what would cause her urine to thicken like that.

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Specializes in hemo and peritoneal dialysis.

my guess is she thought it was water because that's what it felt like and perhaps looked like to her.

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

Could it be that she is passing so much protein in her urine that it congealed, like gelatin would?

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Specializes in Psych/Rehab/Family practice/Oncology.

Oh lord, I have seen some awful urine in my career, some so thick you could spoon it! Also though, I have seen lady partsl secretions/mucous expelled and sitting on the urine.

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I saw thick urine YEARS ago and was told that it was due to a breakdown of fat/kidneys that are going bad.

Haven't seen this since.:twocents:

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