Hello all: Here's what's going in with me. I'm a 49-year-old male, relatively healthy (though on lisinopril for high blood pressure and statins to control cholesterol for over two years) male. Several weeks ago, I began feeling a nagging pain in my right flank -- nothing unbearable, more irritating than anything. At times, like today, the discomfort moved to my pupr right quadrant, below my ribcage. Also, a lot of stomach gurgling.
A week or so after this started, I went to see my primary care physician -- I should point out that I'm pretty good about keeping up with my health and have a complete physical every February. He examined me and did an in-house dipstick urinalysis, which showed the presence of occult blood (+1). He send my sample out and it came back the same, while everything else was within range, including red blood cells, which I still don't quite understand -- wouldn't the presence of blood also make for a positive RBC? With these results, he said that the urinalysis was "non-conclusive."
Anyway, he doesn't think it's anything viral or bacterial (the urine test showed no signs of infection) and his preliminary diagnosis was kidney stones..but he also brought up the (remote possibility) of kidney cancer, due to the presence of hematuria and my right-side flank pain. He referred me to a urologist and I will likely see him next week.
So, of course, with all this time to poke around the internet, I've convinced myself that the latter is the more likely diagnosis. I keep waiting for the intense pain and other symptoms of a passing kidney stone..everyone I know who has had one seems to have a similar experience, and it's not the experience I'm having. Everything online seems to say the same thing: hematuria coupled with abdominal/flank pain can be renal cancer. It seems all of the other causes of hematuria (infections, kidney stones, etc.) are not likely because of my symptoms and the results of my urinalysis.
And I also keep seeing that once renal cancer symptoms begin, you're likely a bit far along in the process. It seems the ones that are caught early are the ones that are caught by accident, when you're asymptomatic. One thing I'm "hopeful" about is this: I believe I may have the early stages of gout, which can lead to kidney stones. But again, it seems unlikely, since I'm not having the typical kidney stone symptoms.
If that is the diagnosis, could it be happening this quickly? Would anything have showed up in my blood work last February? It seems so out of nowhere. I'm just really worried and am likely making myself sick over this -- I haven't been sleeping, or staying asleep, over the last few days thinking about this. And it actually seems like the pain is getting a bit worse. Can anyone weigh in with any advice or a personal experience? Thanks in advance!