You know the feeling, the awful feeling. You have another UTI. Urinary Tract Infection. As we age, we are more susceptible to urinary tract infections, especially after menopause. For anyone that has a hysterectomy, menopause may have come early, maybe in your thirties or forties. It’s not as common, but men can also get UTIs. A urinary tract infection is one of the top five most common infections.
Identifying a UTI
Once you have had one it’s easy to identify your next one. The signs of a UTI may vary by person. They include, but you may not necessarily have all of them: pain or burning feeling when you urinate, a burning feeling even when you aren’t urinating, and an urgency to go. With the urgency, if you ignore it you may not make it to the bathroom in time and when you arrive, you may be annoyed because only a little dribble will come out. It’s very frustrating, especially at night-time when you are trying to sleep. Other symptoms
You should not need to go to emergency with a UTI. To confirm your UTI you will need to have a urinalysis through a lab. This will require your doctor, or the one on call, if this strikes on a weekend, to order a urinalysis. The urinalysis might also be cultured.
Basically, when you are given your special cup to urinate in, you will be given a disinfected wipe to clean yourself first. After cleaning the area, you should urinate in the toilet first to get your stream of urine flowing. Stop, put the cup underneath you, and catch the remaining urine. You do not need a lot of urine to have a test. Since there is an urgency to go mixed in with UTIs it may be hard to accumulate a large amount at one sitting. For this reason, you should not, if at all possible, urinate before you leave your house to go to the lab. I have found that a half-inch in the cup is plenty.
Relieving your symptoms quickly
Once your urinalysis is done, very likely the same day, your doctor will order an antibiotic for you. When you start your antibiotic, it may take a few days for your antibiotic to take effect. For this very reason, as soon as you know you have a UTI, you should go buy AZO or a similar product, if you do not already have it in your house. I don’t mean once you have your lab results, I mean as soon as you are stressing over that burning feeling.
AZO will not cure your UTI. It is an over the counter product made to make the few days before your antibiotic kicks in, tolerable. AZO will turn your urine bright orange/red, which can stain your underwear. I suggest wearing a mini pad until your urine turns back to normal. To make your life easier I have links to many of the products that I use at the bottom of this blog post. This post contains affiliate links, which means I receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, if you make a purchase using this link.
If AZO hasn’t quite started working, I will use a wet washcloth or a small bag of ice with a washcloth over it. I put it in my underwear overnight for relief from the burning.
Three to five days later
After you have started your antibiotic, your urine specimen culture results should be available several days later. A typical antibiotic is used for five to seven days. The culture result may show that your antibiotic wasn’t meant to treat the organism found in your culture. Your doctor will advise you to go back to the pharmacy for another antibiotic, that is meant to get rid of the actual infection you have. Your number of days on antibiotics could end up being ten days or more.
If you tend to get the same type of UTI your doctor may always get the antibiotic correct. But, if you are like me, the infection changes regularly and I tend to start one antibiotic and end with another.
Antibiotic warnings
There is the possibility that eventually with too much use antibiotics will no longer work for you. Fortunately, there are a lot of antibiotic choices for a doctor to work with to help cure your UTI. But have you looked at the warnings, possible side-effects with antibiotics? May cause dizziness. They may cause constipation. The worst I have seen is it can cause serious/permanent tendon damage. It is important for your infection to be cured, but you must also contact your doctor if you have dangerous side-effects. Be sure to read all the warnings that come with your prescription.
Prevention ideas
I have been given many ideas on how to keep UTIs from coming back. Sometimes it seems they don’t work, but the possibility that they might, make them worth trying. Cranberry juice may be helpful, but once you have a UTI you should stop drinking it for a week or two because the acid in it is bad for a UTI. I have been taking Cranberry pills for years. (Link below) The pill I take says to only take one a day. Per my doctor, I need to take two a day. And once again if I get a UTI I need to stop taking them.
In addition to stopping anything Cranberry while you have a UTI, you should also stop eating anything else that is acidic. Be sure that you follow your doctor’s recommendations, not necessarily mine since I am not a doctor. Even though I am following my doctor’s instructions, your doctor may have a different opinion on what is best for you.
Water should always be an important part of your day for your general health. It is also helpful in preventing UTIs so drink up. It is recommended that you have six to eight glasses a day. You should urinate before and after sex. Wear cotton underwear or at least underwear with a cotton panel. Be sure you wipe yourself from front to back when you do use the toilet. Try to avoid going longer than 2 to 3 hours without urinating, except at night when you are sleeping. And don’t wear tight clothing.
Vitamin C (75 mg a day) may be helpful. Probiotics (lactobacilli) taken on a daily basis can help. I use Women’s Femdophilus. (Link below) Also D Mannose supplement. (Link below) It is used to flush out impurities. In postmenopausal women, vaginal cream should help (Estrogen.) Everything listed except for Estrogen, are over the counter products.
Kidney infection
It is possible for your UTI to go farther than your urethra or bladder. If it makes it up to your kidneys, it becomes a serious problem. Your symptoms with a kidney infection can include side or lower back pain, dizziness, high fever, nausea, and vomiting. For this reason, do not sit back and hope that your UTI goes away on its own. Call your doctor and get the process going.
I hope that this information has been helpful to you. Keep in mind, I am not a medical professional. However, I speak from experience. Unfortunately, I have lots of it in this area.
