darkwater

Hi, Erin. Yes, I do have recurrent urinary tract infections. Before I was diagnosed with lupus, I had only had one uti in my life, at least that I was aware of. That one was weird too, none of the expected symptoms or warnings, just went to the bathroom and out came a stream of blood. Don't know what I was given then, it was five years ago. But as for my recent infections, I have had about seven in the past year. The two drugs I have taken are Levaquin and Cipro. Each one seemed to do the trick each time, except the very last time I had one a couple of months ago, that one seemed very stubborn. I had just had a pretty bad one the end of April, went to the doctor and got Cipro for that, the symptoms went away, but I wasn't checked to make sure the white blood cells in my urine were gone, so maybe they were not. Anyway, only three weeks after that one, I got the telltale urgency and frequency and pressure feeling and knew that it was back, that is, if it had ever been gone. I called the doctor back to get them to phone me over a prescription, and the nurse looked at my chart and said, why miss, we already phoned one in for you a couple of weeks ago, didn't you go get it? Of course I had. So, after I explained that this was a whole separate incident, she told me that for such a stubborn case, I needed to see a doctor and get urinalysis. I did that and this time I was given Levaquin, which I know did the trick, since I went back for a follow-up and the wbc count in my urine was back within normal range.

I think my ridiculous rate of urinary tract infections is due to several factors: 1) the lupus, or more accurately, the increased suscepibility to infections because of taking prednisone (the infections are worse and you get more of them); 2) my new birth control method, which is now a diapragm (I am still crying over losing my beautiful NuvaRing:sniff, which presses against the urethra, which means when you have it in, your bladder can't empty completely as it should, which means old urine that could be full of bacteria gets to hang out in your bladder longer and cause trouble; and 3) increased sexual activity (since new year's, I have been in my first sexual relationship for some time), since sex tends to push bacteria up into the female urinary tract, where before, that was not even a factor for me.

My new approach to getting this under control is just simple common sense stuff. I am always extra careful never to wipe up in the direction of my urethra when I go to the bathroom. I drink tons of water daily, and urinate a lot to keep the bacteria flushed out of my bladder. This is VERY important. Concentrated urine is a breeding ground for bacteria. You can tell if your urine is too concentrated by its color. The lab people at my doctor told me that it should be a pale golden yellow color, not the dark yellow or browish stuff that a lot of people who are drinking too little fluids often have. I always go before and after sex. The experts recommend that people with these kinds of problems don't wait until the urge presents itself before you go to the bathroom. They recommend that whenever you are conveniently near a bathroom, go in order to keep your bladder as empty of urine as possible.

I have been reading around on the internet, and there have been at least of couple of reputable studies done on women with frequent uti's using cranberry juice. You probably have heard that cranberry juice has been shown to keep bacteria from being able to adhere to the bladder wall and therefore makes it hard for them to establish an infection. So, according to the guidelines used in one of the studies, women who drank a large glass of cranberry juice daily had greatly reduced rates of urinary tract infections. So, I have begun to drink large glass of cranberry juice every day. The best results were with 16 oz, but I know I don't get exactly that much, but close. So far, so good, but I have only been using it on a daily basis since July, we will see. And don't get the weak cranberry juice cocktail. They seem to think that you must have at least 27% cranberry juice in it to be effective. I know that certain brands have the percentage on the label, and one brand has the endorsement of the major kidney foundation in the country right on the label. I tend to buy the 100% juice instead of the cocktail, although it is mixed with other juices besides cranberry (100% cranberry juice is too bitter to drink), I know I am getting at least the minumum I need to be effective.

Hope you have better luck at getting your rate of infections down. They are no fun and leave you miserable.