someone put UTI infected urine in my drink

[Jackmannii]

Soundtrack for this thread.

@Lynn Bodoni

I, for one, am gonna pass on most of the OP’s stuff, though.

Definitely pass on anything that can’t be laundered or microwaved.

[Cheshire_Human]

It’s better to be pissed off than pissed on… or in.

[reno876]

@WhyNot

I see what you did there.

Pretty much, except that it’s more like, “keep them on your skin and you won’t get sick, but if they get inside a cut or inside your bladder, you’re going to regret it.” The vast majority of UTI’s are caused by e.coli. Some are caused by staph or strep. There are a few weird exceptions, but they’re generally only seen in immunocompromised patients, like people with AIDS or on chemotherapy.
Sounds like it could have been a pain killer or something to soothe spasms or an irritated urethra, not an antibiotic. Or your mom misunderstood the directions. A doctor prescribing an antibiotic like that should be taken up before his licensing board.

That being said, in my experience, most doctors do NOT order a culture for a UTI. They have their nurse perform a urine dipstick test, maybe, which just tells them that there are some nitrites and white blood cells in there and an infection is likely. Matched with symptoms, and they diagnose a UTI without much more specificity than that and Bactrim’s your uncle. Only if Bactrim doesn’t work, repeatedly, and you throw a temper tantrum in their office and threaten to switch doctors do they deign to do a culture. Maybe.

If the urine test didn’t involve wiping with special wipes beforehand and spreading the labia with one hand while peeing a little and then peeing in the cup (a “clean catch” test) then it wasn’t sent for a culture, just a dipstick.

reno876, it sounds like you have a pretty stressful job. I can relate - I’m a home health nurse, and sometimes it really seems like the patients are out to make my life a living hell. Mostly it’s because they’re sick and frustrated and depressed and lonely, but let’s face it, some people are just assholes. Still, even if she was nasty enough to put some of her urine in your drink, you can’t catch her UTI by drinking it. It just doesn’t work that way.

Also, just because the hospital did a blood test and told you that you have an infection, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the infection is IN the blood. It probably isn’t, or you wouldn’t be feeling well enough to come home and do internet research. Blood infections (septicemia*) hit really hard and fast, and people often die within hours without treatment. So if you’re not dead, you probably don’t have that. Rather, they probably found extra white blood cells in your blood. When you have an infection somewhere in your body, your body makes extra white blood cells to fight the infection. If we take some blood and count the white blood cells, a higher then normal number tells us you probably have an infection somewhere. But it doesn’t tell us where in your body, or what kind of infection, or the best way to treat it, which is why they wanted to do some more tests.

Anyhow, yes, if you’re not feeling well, you should go back to the hospital, a doctor or an urgent care clinic.

Hope you feel better soon. And try to find a different caregiver for your patient. Life is too short to work with hateful people, and there’s no shortage of clients in home health care!

*There’s another kind of “blood infection” called bacteremia, and that just means there’s a small amount of bacteria in your blood and it’s not worth worrying about - like when you squeeze a pimple and some of the pimple bacteria gets into your blood. Your body will find those bacteria and kill them without any help, most of the time.

Thank you for your help everyone. After taking especially you Whynot. It is very stressful and we are related. After taking the amoxicillon for twice a day since posting, I am feeling better, not up to par yet but it’s working. In the meantime she is in the hospital for extreme UTI. While I would have been her sitter, I can’t because I’m sick so she hurt her own self.

Yes, it was the timing. I did not and would not have thought such a crazy thing if not for this happening every time I’m to go on vacation. and the drink was pink lemonade so I thought maybe I would not have tasted it. I know this woman pretty well and I can understand she will be lonely the week I am gone but this? From now on she will not have access to my food or drink.

I am sorry if this question was inappropriate for this forum. I was desparate for answers and the ER doctor would not answer my questions to my satisfaction. I am requesting my medical records and pursuing this further with another Dr. when I get back from my vacation.

Again thank you.

Oh yes, as someone pointed out, I spoke with someone of some medical knowledge and they assured me that if it were true what the ER doctor said I would be quite dead right now. Incompetance

[kayaker]

@reno876

Incompetance

Incompetence.

“Before you accuse me, take a look at yourself.”

[WhyNot]

@reno876

Oh yes, as someone pointed out, I spoke with someone of some medical knowledge and they assured me that if it were true what the ER doctor said I would be quite dead right now. Incompetance

I think it’s probably pretty likely that you didn’t understand what he said. I wish more doctors and nurses were better at explaining stuff, and had the time to make sure their patients really understood them. It’s something I pride myself on as a nurse, but I’m not under the kind of pressure they’re under in the ER, either.

[typoink]

I really, really want to see the recipe for a pink lemonade that would easily mask infected urine.

[kayaker]

@typoink

I really, really want to see the recipe for a pink lemonade that would easily mask infected urine.

Added pulp.

[WhyNot]

@typoink

I really, really want to see the recipe for a pink lemonade that would easily mask infected urine.

Wouldn’t take much. Urine, especially if it’s dilute because she’s been pushing fluids to help flush out a UTI (as she should have been) doesn’t taste like much. A little like salty beer. Any cloudiness would be masked by the cloudiness of the lemonade.

**I’m not at all saying that the OP couldn’t have gotten something put into her drink. **I’ve definitely read reports of patients contaminating caregivers food or drink. Old ladies who are scared of being left alone might resort to extreme lengths to keep their trusted caregivers nearby. Most of the time they’ll try to slip in some of their medications, not urine, but it’s not impossible. It’s one of the reasons we’re taught never to bring our own food or drink into patients’ rooms.

What *is *impossible, or as close to impossible as matters, is getting a UTI from drinking urine from a person with a UTI. I don’t care if you chugged a Big Gulp of straight UTI tainted urine, you’re not going to get a UTI from it. (You might get a sick belly, like food poisoning, but not a UTI.)

[outlierrn]

@kayaker

Added pulp.

I don’t like pits in my juice.

Where I work urine culture and sensitivity is a routine test.

OP, I’m guessing that the ER doc was trying to say that your urine test was negative, ruling out a bladder or kidney infection, but that your blood test was positive for some non-specific inflammatory markers such as an elevated white blood cell count, or an elevated CRP that could indicate an infection somewhere else in your body. Since diagnosing a blood infection requires blood cultures to be placed in an incubator for a couple of days I doubt he was suggesting you have a ‘blood infection.’

[reno876]

@WhyNot

Wouldn’t take much. Urine, especially if it’s dilute because she’s been pushing fluids to help flush out a UTI (as she should have been) doesn’t taste like much. A little like salty beer. Any cloudiness would be masked by the cloudiness of the lemonade.

**I’m not at all saying that the OP couldn’t have gotten something put into her drink. **I’ve definitely read reports of patients contaminating caregivers food or drink. Old ladies who are scared of being left alone might resort to extreme lengths to keep their trusted caregivers nearby. Most of the time they’ll try to slip in some of their medications, not urine, but it’s not impossible. It’s one of the reasons we’re taught never to bring our own food or drink into patients’ rooms.

What *is *impossible, or as close to impossible as matters, is getting a UTI from drinking urine from a person with a UTI. I don’t care if you chugged a Big Gulp of straight UTI tainted urine, you’re not going to get a UTI from it. (You might get a sick belly, like food poisoning, but not a UTI.)

UPDATE

I went to see her in the hospital. I looked her right in the eyes and simply said Isn’t it funny that I got so sick with UTI syptoms but they said I did not have a UTI, but maybe something worse and wanted to hospitalize me at the same time you have such a terrible infection? She would not look me in the eyes. She looked away and said 3 times…I don’t want you to ever thinkthat I don’t love you. I did not ask her anything else about it. I can’t prove it anyway.

I felt such pity for her as no one is up there with her. The rest of the family has abandoned her long ago. I wept when I left her there.

It is clear to me that she did something to me even if it wasn’t putting her urine in my drink. Why would she look away from me like that? I really do think this woman does love me-it’s just so sad. I was only going to be gone for a week and come back to my mundane existance of being her care taker/slave.
Moral of story- beware if someone like this loves you so much they will not let you go…even for a week.

This has left me bewildered. I wonder now if I will be able to enjoy the vacation I have spent years saving up for and have paid in full. I wonder if when I get back and get a full physical what they may find.

I am drinking plenty of water and cranberry juice along with the amoxicillon and am feeling little by little better physically but this has really done a number on me. My trust levels have gone down considerably.

[dropzone]

@WhyNot

Wouldn’t take much. Urine, especially if it’s dilute because she’s been pushing fluids to help flush out a UTI (as she should have been) doesn’t taste like much. A little like salty beer.

I don’t want to know how you know this. :eek:

Between the sugar and the citric acid, can any pathogens survive in lemonade?

And reno876, if Auntie tries to make you sick before you go out of town, maybe it’s time she went to The Home. She isn’t safe anymore.

[Autolycus]

@reno876

I have a malicious old woman who I take care of. I strongly suspect she put some of her UTI infected urine in my drink while I was distracted and I drank it. That very night after she had access to my drink, I had all the classic syptoms of a UTI. I went to the emergency room because of the pain. They insist I do not have a kidney or bladder infection, but say they found evidence of infection in my body found in my blood tests. They wanted to admit me into the hospital. I refused to be admitted.

When I got home, I scoured the internet to try to find out about blood infections and was terrified to find out having a blood infection means sepsis and is very deadly.

Well if that don’t take the piss!

[foolsguinea]

Sugar and citric acid? Yeah, pretty much anything that can survive a stomach is going to survive that.

[foolsguinea]

Pink lemonade? Yeah, acids and sweets can exacerbate UTI symptoms. It doesn’t cause it, it just worsens the symptoms.

Should You Avoid Certain Foods With a UTI? | Livestrong.com

[Mangetout]

@reno876

UPDATE..

Did you read any of the responses in the thread? You didn’t catch a UTI by drinking UTI-infected urine, because that’s pretty much impossible.

[Sister_Vigilante]

Just to add, apparently UTIs can cause odd behavior in the elderly. Even if she did do something, the UTI might have been the reason. Cite.

Also, my boss went through this recently with her mother. The woman was acting like she was out of her mind (throwing things, screaming, attacking people); at the ER the doctor walked in and immediately said, “urinary tract infection. She looks like she has one, she smells like she has one.” Once they got her medicated she turned back into her sweet little old self.