Anyone who advocates for “Intelligent Design” CLEARLY has never had a sex-induced UTI. (Or a casually mangled ulnar nerve, or a ruptured appendix, but I digress.)
Okay, Urinary Tract, here’s the deal: mremilyforce had to go abroad for important stuff for nine frickin’ months, starting Sunday. This meant (among other things) Hot Goodbye Sex on Saturday. Yes, it’s true; we’ve moved here recently and aren’t quite sure where all the bathroom and medicine cabinet stuff got packed… yes, it’s true; we should have foreseen the need for lube supplies. But dammit, we thought the hotness of Hot Goodbye Sex would, you know, cover it. We admit it: we were wrong. My hoo-ha’s abilities to grease itself have never quite been the same since chemo lo these ten years ago. We do own lube! Good stuff, too! We just don’t know where it is right now.
Why, O why, is it necessary to retroactively herald that incidental lack of lube by bringin’ on a UTI? Couldn’t I have just had some road rash or something? maybe a hickey?
We are MARRIED.mremilyforce has no bacteria that are fundamentally foreign to me and/or my tender bits. His funky bacteria are, yunnow, my funky bacteria. Gettin’ it on in a more-than-perhaps-entirely-averagely-enthusiastic way should NOT necessarily be grounds for BURNING HORRIFIC PAIN.
If a UTI is indeed cosmically necessary, could you AT LEAST arrange for the insurance-sponsored NP I call to know whether or not the test they’re gonna make me show up for in person WILL OR WILL NOT be compromised by the analgesics I’m taking? Is or is not AZO Standard a test-fucker-upper? If the NP in question never had to know before now, is it really SO MUCH TO ASK that she look it up in the six hours between when I call and leave a polite message and when I call and demand to speak to someone, anyone, please god HELP ME NOW?
Oh hon! Read Dr. Gillespie’s book about cystitis. One quick tip - drink a BIG honkin glass of water before you get nekkies so that you pee right afterwards.
Oh yeah, honkin’ do NOT even cover it… I drank two liters, carbonated ‘n’ straight, and I did all the goodgirl getting up to pee a few times in the night and all too, to beat… I know I’m susceptible, fukitalldammitohellgoddamnitfuck.
But THANK YOU for the sympathy! Here’s hoping you don’t have to get it in return from me, anytime at all.
I have an actual doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon. I just wish my doc’s nurse had been able to give me a straight answer at ANY TIME today: phenazopyridine hcl DOES or DOES NOT fuck up the tests you are about to give me before I get meds? Really, just that one factoid would have made me much, much happier. As it is, I still don’t know, and am just hoping it will be OK.
Sorry it won’t help now but stash a few antibiotic pills away for next time; possibly a couple of pyridium also. A good doc or NP should do this for you on request, over the phone. Silly to make you come in or take any tests, IMHO, with the history you give.
It’s good practical advice to fluid-up but somehow it strikes me that a full bladder might diminish the rest of the activities.
I’m susceptible to UTI’s too. I keep an extra 10 days worth of antibiotics and some AZO phenazopyridine in the medicine cabinet, and my GP is on speed dial. I have to start antibiotics ASAP when I feel or notice anything slightly wrong or else it goes from bad to “get me to an ER now” in about 45 minutes. Always be a good girl and pee after sex.
Decent advice, Chief P: the last time this happened, in TWO THOUSAND FREAKIN’ TWO, I did in fact save up. Unfortunately, between then and now I lost the mofos. (grouse grouse not bitter atall grouse bitch moan grouse)
And yes! ding ding ding! you are correct… fluiding up is practical but not at all sexy. Fortunately, mremilyforce is a practical kind of guy. Unfortunately, practical didn’t cut it this time… yes, those are moistnesses in the corners of my eyes… well, yeah, I am a total sap, but THIS TIME it’s because I am in fucking PAIN. RAWR ROAR RAMPAGE CHOMP MAIM TROMPLE STOMP*{Mommy mommy mommy! that mean lady bear is making everybody so unhappy!!}*
interface2x, if I had any pills, I’d be happy to have you shoot 'em down my throat… ladyfoxfyre, GOD I’m so sorry; I … er, feel for you. So to speak. And, I am ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS a good post-sex pisser (having had a few early examples set for me by unwilling college roommates); this time it just wasn’t enough. I should have seen it coming but I didn’t.
Pyridium (phenazopyridine) should not interfere with the tests (urinalysis, microscopic exam) needed to diagnose a UTI. Back when I worked in the clinical lab, I dealt with many a sample that came to me bright orange, and was able to work around it. It does interfere with one or two of the test pads on a urinalysis dipstick (I forget now which one), but it isn’t a deal breaker. The NP probably couldn’t tell you because she didn’t know.
Oh, I know the pain. I’m really susceptible too, so I have this whole elaborate thing I do --these days I shower as well as pee, and take cranberry pills for a day. That works pretty well.
Anyway much sympathy --stupid bacteria already. Why oh why must there be UTIs?
I have to revise my statement regarding phenazopyridine: it can interfere with the urine dipstick part of the test, if it is taken a bit before the urine sample is submitted. However, it does not interfere with the microscopic exam, and your MD should be able to diagnose a UTI based on symptoms. The urinalysis provides backup and confirmation.
All I have to say is OG BLESS whoever invented phenazopyridine! I’m impressed with your ability to even care if it screwed up the test. If I need it, I’m taking it NOW!
I totally sympathize – that burning hurts! I’ll pass along the advice my OB-GYN gave me many years ago, and which has never, ever failed to work. Next time you feel the very first faint tingle, hie thee to the kitchen pantry and take out the box of baking soda. Read the box directions for diluting it in water and drinking it for use as an antacid. Like magic, within 5 to 10 minutes the burning will completely disappear. And if you still have burning now, even after seeing your doctor and starting antibiotics, it’s not too late for baking soda to relieve the pain. [
Wow, Shayna, I think you may have solved a mystery for me. (And I will totally file that away for future use.)
Because I couldn’t get an answer from my doctor’s office re phenazopyridine (which I had already taken when I called them), I delayed making an appointment until a day later than I’d wanted. But overnight, the symptoms DISAPPEARED – with no further ingestion of phenazopyridine. This had *never *happened to me and I had never heard of it happening. I marveled over the uncanny power of Pitting – OMG the Pit kills bacteria! Who knew?? Or maybe it was the healing empathetic vibrations from Dopers (thank you, alla y’all).
I canceled the appointment, partly because I felt “cured” and partly because I needed to take the dog to the vet, but have been crossing my fingers, since it seemed so unlikely I was in lasting spontaneous remission. For insurance, since that special burning in my lady parts started, I’ve been drinking lots and lots of seltzer water (our household’s preferred variety of H20).
Could it be that several liters of mildly alkaline seltzer water did what a little bit of baking soda would have done? If so, does this mean I’m not cured, but only soothed?
In any case –
Granted, maybe it’s an obscure detail she didn’t know off the top of her head, but isn’t that the sort of thing that an NP would know how to find out? Isn’t that exactly the sort of question you want an NP to be able to answer over the phone, thus preventing a useless trip to the doctor? [remembers this is the Pit] Useless cunt.
It’s not “acid” urine that makes it painful, it’s the inflammation of the bladder and urethra, caused by the infection and your body’s response to it, that makes it painful. As a matter of fact, if you give bacteria a chance to do their thing, they’ll eventually raise the pH of the urine with their metabolic products (breaking down urea to make ammonia), making it more alkaline.
Don’t do this if it means you stop taking the pills when you feel better and stash the last few away for next time. Antibiotics are prescribed as a 4-day course, or 7-day, or whatever, for a reason: that’s how long it takes, on average, with that drug, to kill all the bacteria. Stopping before you’ve taken them all is a recipe for antibiotic resistance, and I definitely recommend following your doctor’s instructions and taking all the medication.
