Yesterday, I had a big breakfast complete with 3 cups of coffee and walked out the door to donate blood. Things are going great - they remind me no strenuous activities and drink plenty of fluids for the rest of the day. "Fine - yep - I know the routine." I stop at the office for an hours worth of work and then off to the driving range to try out my new driver! Toward the end of my session, I was feeling really whooped and can't hit a club with a whole lot of accuracy. I drive back home and I noticed that I was breathing heavier and sweating more than usual today even though the temp was only about 25*C.

After getting home, I felt the urge to urinate and did so - problem was the colour. It wasn't a light yellow, heck it was even a dark yellow it was RED! That has never happened before! (I had blueberries the night before for a snack!) Oh Oh... I'm in trouble, even though I thought I had taken enough liquids today I immediately grabbed a 1-litre jug and begin hydrating. I was feeling OK, just a bit tired. Then about 10:30 in the evening while checking my e-mail, I get these sudden cramps. Generalized at first but then they get severe, in my appendix area but since I had my appendix out 30 yrs ago, I knew that wasn't it.

I drink some more! but by this time the pain and cramping is excruciating. I hop into a hot tub of water and that helps soothe the muscle cramps but not eliminate them. Then came the floods of nausea and my trips to the bathroom include vomiting. Then the cold sweats come on. I am not a happy camper!!! It wasn't until about 4 am where I finally fell asleep more so from exhaustion than anything else.

Well, I just spent the whole day rehydrating and babying myself. No harsh foods - just bread and water as my system was still pretty sensitive. Then I had a real meal for supper. I am a bit concerned because tomorrow I have a golf tournament and have a history of leg cramps so I plan on pre-hydrating prior to going out to the course and drinking lots of water and some Gatorade. Usually a golf tournament has the requisite social alcoholic intake but tomorrow I am going to swear off the drinks.

Moral of the story - dehydration can hit you anytime, even after relatively innocent activities. I'm guessing but the fact that I had donated blood, my body was trying to replace the lost fluids and I obviously hadn't had enough water to drink yesterday. Add coffee for breakfast (a known diuretic) and a bit of physical activity I was setting myself up for a problem.

Given that the cramps came after you rehydrated, do you think they might have been caused by electrolyte depletion rather than dehydration?

Coffee would help you hydrate. It's maybe not as good for you as pure water, but it shouldn't be part of the problem. I'd guess donating blood was the key factor.

My wild guess "diagnosis" would be some sort of gastrointestinal bug rather than just dehydration. Your symptoms seem to match that and you indicated your cramps were mainly in your gut, not your large muscles. The cold sweats suggest a fever, which also fit a GI bug. Dehydration could could be a contributing factor, if not the primary cause. Excessive water intake, alone, can cause vomiting, but usually not diarrhea. It would be a good idea to see your doctor for a real opinion.

Red urine, excruciating pain/cramping?

You should have gone to the hospital.

I agree with all above. I have had many heat injuries and Red urine is obviously blood. If you had said brown, microbrew ale, coffee/cola color then you could be looking at probably kidney issues, but RED is blood.

Blood in urine is not a usual symptom of dehydration though you mention some other issues that certainly fit the type. Maybe, big maybe, the twisting you did while practicing your golf swing did something internal in that area. Vigorous sex or a trauma to the groin could also cause blood in your urine.

Have you donated blood before? If so, any problems with those donations?

Pete

Thanks for all the comments guys. The red urine was one time only. The samples before and after were light yellow. No pain while urinating as one might suspect if it was a bladder infection. I actually attributed the red colour more to the fact that I had blueberries the night before rather than another specific issue. I continued on with my plans today and had no problems whatsoever - I made extra sure of hydrating myself. No other health problems, no drugs, no previous issues with donating blood (42 donations to date), etc. However, I am not 100% convinced that it was a simply case of dehydration either as I did not experience a headache as normally would be the case. If this was a related to a gastronomical bug, it was in and out and through with me really quick because I am feeling fine.

You hadn't eaten a lot of beetroot had you?

Really sounds like electrolyte depletion. So long as, after rehydrating & eating, the cramps are gone, you sound like you're OK.
The colored urine, I am with the OP on; this may have been from the food, as it only occured once. Although, I am not a doctor, so, who knows.

The reason I asked is that I had a similar situation with blood in my urine one time and believe there were some similarities to your situation. Several years ago during one of my trips to Ecuador we were traveling in a very hot area of the country. I tend to dehydrate very easily and on this occasion I was dehydrated, additionally we were traveling on some very rough roads being jostled around quite a bit. Later when we made a pit stop, I noticed a fair amount of blood in my urine. I did my best to rehydrate and noticed no future blood in my urine, despite additional travel on rough roads. I think the combination of dehydration and minor physical damage to my kidneys led to the bleeding. Perhaps your situation of being dehydrated and then physical activity was the cause of your temporary bleeding. The other signs sound to me to more like signs and symptoms of early/mild shock (most likely - mild hypovolemic shock) than an intestinal bug.

Pete

Another urine discoloration possibility: rhabdomyolysis with myoglobinuria. Muscle tissue destruction with excretion of muscle-iron moleculesin the urine. Dehydration plus exercise may cause this, and it in turn may cause kidney damage. Recently saw such in an aging jock who took a spinning class-resulting in incapacitating thigh cramps, discolored urine, and hospitalization for aggressive rehydration and monitoring of kidney function. happy ending, by the way. hydrate or die, and some of the deaths are prolonged, messy ones.

Red urine is not always blood.

Red or pink urine
Despite its alarming appearance, red urine isn't necessarily serious. Causes include:

* Blood. The presence of red blood cells is the main reason urine turns red. Usually, bleeding isn't severe and occurs without other signs or symptoms. Factors that can cause urinary blood, known medically as hematuria, range from strenuous exercise, urinary tract infections and an enlarged prostate to kidney or bladder stones, kidney disease, and, occasionally, kidney cancer or bladder cancer.
* Foods. Beets, blackberries and mom's rhubarb pie can turn urine red or pink.
* Medications. Certain laxatives — Ex-lax is an example — can cause red urine. Prescription drugs that have the same effect include antipsychotics such as chlorpromazine (Thorazine) and thioridazine and the anesthetic propofol (Diprivan).
* Toxins. Chronic lead or mercury poisoning can cause urine to turn red. This may be the result of high levels of excreted porphyrins, the same pigments that discolor the urine of people who have porphyria.

I agree with Mike. However if I can throw in one possibilty - They use anticoagulation catheters to take blood. If that particular catheter had excessive amounts of this, it could have "thinned his blood" on top of being dehydrated- on top of extra exersion ect... just a thought.

When I used to do chart reviews, I was always struck by how many patients were quite dehydrated when they finally arrived at the hospital.

But, for day to day living, research has determined that it's probably wisest to drink when your thirsty, and not ingest copious amounts "just to be sure".

However, while vigorously exercising (especially in the heat) dehydration can occur very quickly, so it is prudent to ingest water at regular intervals (i.e. sip the camelbak).

This forum has hashed and rehashed electrolyte replacement to death, but it does bear repeating how important it is to hydrate.

I get chills when I read the stories of desert travelers dying from dehydration/heat stroke with water still in their canteens.

As Doug says, store water in your stomach!