Rhabdomyolysis Support Group
Rhabdomyolysis is the breakdown of skeletal muscle due to injury. The result of this process is renal failure due to accumulation of muscle breakdown products in the bloodstream, which are injurous to the kidney. Treatment is with intravenous fluids, and dialysis if necessary. The main therapeutic measure is hyperhydration (by administering intravenous fluids), and if...
I just returned from a 20 mile hbackpacking/camping trip in Utah on Monday night. It was by far the hardest I had ever pushed my body in my life. I was really feeling it and the altitude/low temps at 8-9k feet didn't help. When I returned home I felt ok, pretty sore in the legs but nothing crazy. Tuesday my legs hurt a little more but thought nothing of it. Decided to do an upper body workout with many sets of pull ups, dips, curls, and weighted rows. I went to work on Wed and could hardly walk, my legs were aching so bad I was forced to take baby steps around the shop to get around. Late that night I went to the bathroom and my urine was very dark, like the coca cola color everyone describes. I was a bit freaked out since I had never seen this before or heard of Rhabdo. I drank 3 pints of water as I did some research and decided it was in my best interest to go to the emergency room.
When I arrived, I gave a urine sample which had a slight dark tint to it but many shades lighter than the coca cola urinated 2 hours prior. My urine test came back positive for blood, which I assume was really the myoglobin. Ck test was only 177 which is in the normal range. I was given 2 bags of IV fluid. After 6 hours my urine was tested again, which came back positive for blood again, but they discharged me anyway and told me to rest and drink plenty of pedialyte/fluids. Blood was never tested again before being discharged.
It is now Thursday and I have been drinking plenty of fluids and urine has been clear all day. So I am wondering how could my CK levels be so low just 2 hours after having the very dark urine that is the main indication that damage to my kidney could be happening. Do you all think I was properly treated or released too early? Like I said, this is the first I have ever heard of Rhabo and want to make sure I am not still at risk of some form of kidney damage. Also my BUN Creatinine ratio was a little high ( 26.67 ). The doc said I may have been a little dehydrated. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Haven't been to this forum for awhile, I'm wondering how you're feeling a month later?
Your situation has answered a question I've had about my own. Sorry if this is long :), here's my story as briefly as I can tell it.
My rhabdo started in early August after I'd been doing an insane amount of heavy yard work. A couple of nights later, my lower back was in such excruciating pain I could barely get off the bed or walk. My urine was dark brown. I was so freaked out I considered going to the ER, but was so exhausted I decided to just drink a ton of water and go to a nearby urgent care clinic in the morning.
The next morning, all the oral hydration had made my urine clear again, but by this time I had of course googled myself into a certainty that I had this scary condition I had never heard of. Scrawled the word "rhabdomyolysis" on a piece of paper and hobbled to the clinic (I'm in NYC, we have to walk :).)
The doc who say me dismissed my fear that I had rhabdo. A routine urine and blood panel were both normal. I went home, trying to feel reassured but feeling like total crap.
A week of misery followed: exhaustion, pain, low grade fever, chills/sweats. By this time, I'd discovered info that said a CK test was the standard if diagnosis and I had never been given one. I was really scared that I had put myself and my kidneys in danger by never getting a proper diagnosis and IV fluids and wanted to make sure my CK levels had gone down safely with home care. Went back to the clinic and this time a different doc took it very seriously, said he thought it was clear that I had suffered rhabdo and that a CK test would now reveal safe levels a week later. I got one, and yes, the levels were very low.
It's now been a little over three months. Recovery has been incredibly slow and frustrating, as anyone with rhabdo has experienced. There are okay days of improvement, then the payback for trying to do even a little normal activity is to be knocked out with fatigue and pain and needing days of rest again. Yesterday was so bad for me, a feeling of "rhabdo flu" as a friend in a support group calls it, I went to the clinic again to find out my CK level. My hope was that if it was low, it would reassure me that sometimes rhabdo makes you feel MISERABLE even when the level is normal. And yes, my level was low, so I'm a combo of relieved (it's not a recurrence and I don't have to go to a hospital) and bummed (recovery remains just means a hard, mysterious road).
Long story short: because I never got a CK test at the initial onset of excruciating pain and dark brown urine, I will never know if it was EVER high. So... it may be possible that there are people like you, and maybe me, whose rhabdo does not raise the CK level as high as others, just as there are others who never have any dark urine at all but have high CK.
I think we should all just let our symptoms be the yardstick of how serious our rhabdo is. The cliche of "listen to your body" is our only guideline for recovery, and this great forum will show you how wildly varied people's experiences are.
Try to keep drinking twice your body weight in water every day, and getting as much sleep as possible. It's a long, frustrating road, but most people seem to feel pretty functional at the six month mark. If you still feel like you have questions, there are two FB support groups you could join that are fantastic and very active.
I wish you the best, and hope all that helps!