UTI tips?

[PeterPan]

And if anybody is like dude, just go to the doctor and get the abx already, well it's that I've already been on them 3 times in the last year and 4 times in the last year and a half. If I can beat this without, I'd much rather. If I can't, I can't. It was a good move getting the test strips, so at least I have a way to track what's happening and see what direction it's going and correlate it to symptoms.

[Serenade]

17 hours ago, PeterPan said:

My googlefu is saying leukocytes with no nitrites is interstitial cystitis. I have no clue what it is. Off to research. 

Now I'm interested to hear if the UC doc found the same thing on you and what he said to do...

 

It was not bad.  The best part was I hardly had to wait to get in, because I filled out the paperwork and signed in online. While I was waiting, one of the associates came out and asked if I'd like to go ahead and take the pee test, which, of course,  I did.  This urgent care test goes ahead and. runs a bunch of tests on the urine while you wait, but then they send it off for further analysis. The things that I had that had abnormal results were: blood in urine, leukocyte esterase, and protein.  The doctor mostly asked me questions, and then felt and poked around on my middle a bit.  Nothing invasive, thank goodness. And that was mostly it, besides the ever present discussion of my blood pressure, which I guess I need to do something about. The med I was prescribed is nitrofurantoin mono-mcr, 100 mg capsules taken twice a day for 10 days.  I thought that I already felt better after 1 capsule, but that may have been wishful thinking. ? I'm definitely better this morning though (after 2 capsules), but still have some pressure pain at the end when I pee.

I hope you're feeling better soon, too.

 

[Serenade]

11 hours ago, PeterPan said:

Did you end up going? I think I'm going tomorrow if I feel like I do now. I can't put my finger on it, but I don't like how I feel. I'm a tad nauseous and have the pelvic pain. Nothing I'm doing seems to be touching it, and that's enough cranberry juice and d-mannose to raise elephants.

 

It really sounds like you have/had symptoms similar to mine.  I hope you can beat it without going to the doc, but if it lingers more than another day or so, maybe go to the doc.  The misery is just not worth it.

I think I'm going to go on a preventative regimen once this is over.  Supposedly cranberry is better for preventing UTIs than for curing them, so I'm going to take some of those cranberry capsules.  I'm really paranoid about getting another, lol.

[Serenade]

16 hours ago, sassenach said:

If you don't have nitrites, that means there is not a gram-negative bacterial infection. What that doesn't mean is that there is no infection. UTIs can be caused by other bacteria, which would not give a positive nitrite result. Leukocytes are white blood cells. Their presence indicates some kind of infection or inflammation.

D-mannose is only effective on E-coli, which is a gram-negative bacteria. I don't think cranberry or D-mannose will help with your treatment.

There is no way to distinguish between a urinary tract infection and a kidney infection using a urinalysis test. Kidney infections usually start as UTIs that move up the ureters and spread the infection to the kidney. From there the next level of spreading is into the blood stream. 

Treatment for kidney infections is the same as for UTI unless the infection has advanced to the point of needing IV antibiotics. If caught early, the treatment is a round of antibiotics (they should do a 3-day culture to ensure you are on the right antibiotic for the bacteria.

Cystitis is an inflammation of the bladder. It can be caused by bacteria (ie: UTI) or have other causes. The only way to know if it's bacterial or not is to do a urine culture. It's irresponsible for AZO to intimate that cystitis= not a UTI. Cystitis is a symptom of a UTI and not all UTI's will be positive for nitrites.

 

Thanks for this info! I'm learning a lot on this thread!

To the OP, I did not test positive for nitrites, but still have a UTI.

[Serenade]

16 hours ago, Mainer said:

I had a bad UTI a couple years ago. I dealt with it for too long, like 4 days, before I finally gave up and went to urgent care. I was in and out in 15 minutes. You just pee in a cup, doc comes back in a couple minutes, done. 

I don't like antibiotics, either, but urinary infections seem really hard to beat without them. 

 

I wish I had gone in earlier, but since I had not had one before, I hoped I could beat it.  It seemed like I was, but then it came back. 

From what I've read,  it is perhaps more effective to try to prevent a future infection than to beat a current one with self treatment.

I also read somewhere online that there is research being done on a new treatment for UTIs, that doesn't involve antibiotics at all, but instead does something that prevents the bacteria from clinging to the bladder walls.  If I find it again, I will post it here.

[PeterPan]

2 hours ago, Serenade said:

 

Thanks for this info! I'm learning a lot on this thread!

To the OP, I did not test positive for nitrites, but still have a UTI.

Yeah I'm on an errand now but will probably go when I get done. I'm done with this, whatever it is. That's interesting that you're noticing improvement so quickly . I've probably been fighting this for a while now, so feeling better would be nice.

[PeterPan]

Chilling at UC. 

[PeterPan]

23 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

I have a theory that a lot of these “I cured my own UTI” could sometimes be people dealing with an irritated urethra. The symptoms are similar and without seeing your doctor there’s no way to know. A UTI is actually handled quickly, and relatively cheaply at any urgent care place. You really want to take care of it before it travels upstream to your kidneys. 

Well I'm done. I'm a champion pee-er, and apparently at this point the leukocytes are gone, go figure. So yesterday strong, this morning less, and today enough less that the nurse practitioner guy didn't want to do an antibiotic. They're still culturing it to make sure they don't miss anything, which seems the safest route. I'm still not exactly comfortable, and I don't know what that means. So the guy NP thought I was crazy for being there (didn't say so, but still), and I'm like but I had *2* tests showing it and still have pain. So he asked about yeast infections (I don't think so??) and said to keep drinking water.

Maybe that means the garlic is working? The cranberry juice wasn't doing it. Or maybe it needed time or something. I started the garlic yesterday after someone here said it. I have no clue. All I know is I went in and they sent me home, sigh. So I'm gonna lay low and keep doing what I was doing in the hope that it's working. I have to go buy more garlic.

Meanwhile, we dropped the paperwork off for the GP stuff. The woman does more gyn stuff but took over a full load and is adding people slowly. The guy is probably more general, graduated with honors, and can get people in sooner. Since winter is coming and since keeping my asthma under control is my big concern, not a hole down there, I just said fine go with the guy. I have no clue. Can't be much worse than having zero doc I guess. They said it would be 2-3 months to get added with the woman, which puts me already into flu season. 

[Serenade]

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

Well I'm done. I'm a champion pee-er, and apparently at this point the leukocytes are gone, go figure. So yesterday strong, this morning less, and today enough less that the nurse practitioner guy didn't want to do an antibiotic. They're still culturing it to make sure they don't miss anything, which seems the safest route. I'm still not exactly comfortable, and I don't know what that means. So the guy NP thought I was crazy for being there (didn't say so, but still), and I'm like but I had *2* tests showing it and still have pain. So he asked about yeast infections (I don't think so??) and said to keep drinking water.

Maybe that means the garlic is working? The cranberry juice wasn't doing it. Or maybe it needed time or something. I started the garlic yesterday after someone here said it. I have no clue. All I know is I went in and they sent me home, sigh. So I'm gonna lay low and keep doing what I was doing in the hope that it's working. I have to go buy more garlic.

Meanwhile, we dropped the paperwork off for the GP stuff. The woman does more gyn stuff but took over a full load and is adding people slowly. The guy is probably more general, graduated with honors, and can get people in sooner. Since winter is coming and since keeping my asthma under control is my big concern, not a hole down there, I just said fine go with the guy. I have no clue. Can't be much worse than having zero doc I guess. They said it would be 2-3 months to get added with the woman, which puts me already into flu season. 

 

Well, I hope you feel better soon.  It would be great if you could cure it on your own.  But it's not great if you are in a lot of pain still.  ? 

[PeterPan]

8 minutes ago, Serenade said:

 

Well, I hope you feel better soon.  It would be great if you could cure it on your own.  But it's not great if you are in a lot of pain still.  ? 

I think maybe the pain is going down. It's more like a 2/10 now, where earlier it was a 4/10 and yesterday it was more like 8/10, childbirth range. 

[gstharr]

No tips on cure. But, you will be surprised about the number of seniors on cruise ships who get it.  Wonder why?

[Angie in VA]

Late to this thread but echoing praises of D-mannose. I will NEVER be w/o that stuff! I have some in my purse, in my car and I need to put it in the hub's car too. I might leave some at work too. I was at work one morning and all of a sudden felt an urgency to go to the bathroom, but nothing would come out. I'd had no issues earlier at home. It hit fast. I had to wait several hours to get to the vitamin store to buy some D-mannose, but it kicked in fast. If I'd had some at work, it would have zapped it much sooner. 

Yes to garlic too, but it is a blood thinner, so beware of that. 

[Serenade]

13 hours ago, PeterPan said:

I think maybe the pain is going down. It's more like a 2/10 now, where earlier it was a 4/10 and yesterday it was more like 8/10, childbirth range. 

 

I hope you feel even better today.

[PeterPan]

29 minutes ago, Serenade said:

 

I hope you feel even better today.

Thanks, I do! I woke up at a 1, and now I'm doing to 1/2, just twinges. My energy is returning. I went to the store and bought garlic and lemons (to juice, cleans the liver) and salad stuff, and my mind is whirring with ways I can collaborate with this new doc I'm (hopefully) getting on with to maybe have some preventative care. I think I just wasn't ready for it before, and maybe now I am. So that's a good thing. Now that my son has the autism scholarship and access to the services he needs and I have the resources to make happen the rest, we can really get back to taking care of me. I just let it go.

But yes, I'm visibly on the mend, and I hope you are too! 

[Serenade]

54 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Thanks, I do! I woke up at a 1, and now I'm doing to 1/2, just twinges. My energy is returning. I went to the store and bought garlic and lemons (to juice, cleans the liver) and salad stuff, and my mind is whirring with ways I can collaborate with this new doc I'm (hopefully) getting on with to maybe have some preventative care. I think I just wasn't ready for it before, and maybe now I am. So that's a good thing. Now that my son has the autism scholarship and access to the services he needs and I have the resources to make happen the rest, we can really get back to taking care of me. I just let it go.

But yes, I'm visibly on the mend, and I hope you are too! 

 

Glad you are feeling better. I am too, although I'm impatient, and the antibiotics didn't work quite as quickly as I hoped. Still some pressure when I pee, but otherwise I feel good. Although the antibiotics are messing with my gut a little bit.  I've been eating probiotic yogurt, so hopefully that will keep any stomach/intestinal issues in check.