Urinanalysis

[stacey79]

Unfortunately I have a UTI right now even though I am on a low dose Bactrim all the time to prevent them. Bummer.

But, I decided before calling the uro that I would buy an OTC urinanalysis, which I did. Actually I bought two brands (that's a long story). Both said that the best results come with the first void in the morning or after holding urine in the bladder for four hours. I did as long as I could at two hours, but that was all I could even come close to making it.

However, I realized that the test in the uro's office may work similarly. I've had quite a few times when I went in and no infection showed up, but an infection did show up with they had it cultured. Yesterday when I went to the uro, I again tried to hold it for a couple of hours. Usually I even go before I leave home because I'm not feeling well and know it takes me 20 minutes to get to my uro's office and sometimes can take up to about 30 minutes before I get to go. Since I can always go enough for a sample, I never thought about this, but now it makes sense. I should have thought about this before because I know I've found when taking Pyridium that if I don't hold it too long, my urine is barely orange.

Anyway, I just wanted to share this in case anyone else has had trouble getting diagnosed. We all know UTIs make everything so much worse. Having to wait even a couple of days for a culture to come back can be horrible when the uro won't give you any antibiotics to start with.

[ICLori]

Wow this is really great information, thank you! I had no idea it made a difference. Weird.

My last urinalysis, recently, when my symptoms were worse than usual, showed some bacteria and some white blood cells but nothing else, and it wasn't high enough to treat...just some sort of low-level UTI that was making my symptoms worse but not bad enough to treat.

I almost always show some low-level UTI thing going on. It's pretty constant with me.

Maybe if I could hold my urine longer, they'd actually treat it instead of just letting it simmer in my bladder.

Blessings, Lori

[stacey79]

Hi, Lori. I'm glad I could help. I don't know for sure that this makes a difference, but I think it might - at least for me. You might even ask your uro about it. Sometimes I think they can forget how frequently we empty our bladders, especially when we're not feeling well. I try to make myself hold it for an hour at my worst times and even that can be hard!

Ahh, the joys of IC... :)

[vm]

I'm the same way - I have had the in office dipsticks some back negative, but the cultures do show infection. Now when I go in to have my urine tested I always tell them that the dipstick doesn't always catch my UTIs and that I have to have a culture done for sure.