Confused and frustrated!

[jackie30]

Hello guys - I've posted in the past about my recurrent UTI symptoms. I've been trying to watch my diet, but it gets really hard sometimes. This morning, I drank about 1/2 cup of orange juice, and within an hour, I was in excrutiating pain. It got worse until I was sitting on the toilet crying - I felt as if my insides were falling out and the pain was intolerable - I just felt this immense pressure in my bladder and the urge to push. Could this be from the small amount of orange juice I drank or could it be yet another UTI?

I've pretty much had UTI's all of my life (about 2 per year), but for the past year, my symptoms have gotten worse. It seems I have a UTI at least 2-3 times per month! I have gone to 2 doctors and they just keep prescribing antibiotics. The antibiotics make me better, but when I stop taking them the pain and burning eventually come back. To make a long story short, I've been treating myself when I get the pain by taking an antibiotic, drinking tons of water, taking TUMS and pyridium. This seems to help at the time, but the pain, pressure and burning always return. I am at my wits end with this and I just dont know what to do!

[ICNDonna]

It could very easily have been the orange juice. If you don't feel better by tomorrow, it would be a good idea to be checked to be certain you don't have an infection working.

Donna

[jjt001]

Have you had cultures coming back from your samples indicating infection? Have you been diagnosed with IC? Your symptoms sound very much like mine and I've recently been diagnosed with IC (my doctor diagnoses by symptoms, he has a lot of IC patients and said my symptoms were pretty "classic"). I too felt better with antibiotics, but it always came back (I have leukocytes in my urine pretty consistently, but nothing has ever cultured). And yes, 1/2 cup of orange juice could do it to me, though it doesn't always -- it kind of depends on how my bladder's doing in general before I have something like that (I don't anymore!). I also drink a TON of water when I'm flaring, and am, unfortunately, taking pyridium on most days while I'm getting ready to start a trial with elavil. Also, heat really helps -- the "bed buddy" is the greatest becasuse you can get it right where you need the heat to go (thanks to whoever suggested that on this site), also the medical student at my doctor's office suggested hot baths because, as she said, the water can go places no heating pad can, and I've found that really helps. Cold also helps when I have lots of burning, I find some days one works better than the other, I don't know why.

I'm so sorry you're feeling bad -- I've had a good couple of days but before that I'd been flaring badly for a couple of weeks and am trying hard to watch my diet and keep drinking the water. Good luck in finding out what's wrong and getting some relief. I'm sure that lots of people here will have great suggestions.

[jackie30]

Thanks - I have not had my urine cultured yet, but I am making an appointment ASAP with a doctor. I just need to get to the bottom of this once and for all - I've been putting it off for so long now, thinking it will all go away and I'll be back to normal, but this is driving me insane. I do feel better this morning (slept with a thermacare heating pad on my bell all night) and took another antibiotic this morning (only thing that makes me feel better right now). I hope to get some answers soon - thanks for listening. xoxoxoxoxoxo

[vm]

Definitely get cultured. You want to make sure it is an actual infection when you are treated with antibiotics and not just a flare. Plus, if it IS a UTI you want to make sure they are giving you the correct antibiotic for that strain of infection. Otherwise it will never really get rid of it.