recurring UTIs

[indysteel]

A friend had reccurrent bladder infections and her doctor advised her to not go to the toilet too often, instead train your bladder go be able to get full before you need to go.

And then give it a "good flush".

may be another approach.

Interesting. I've heard that advice with respect to an overactive bladder and to nocturia (nighttime urination) but that's a different problem from recurring UTIs. If you suffer from recurring UTIs, you should urinate when you feel the urge; it's not good to hold it. No if you feel a constant urge to urinate and/or feel the urge but don't have much volume or a strong stream, those are possible signs of infection.

[ZenSojourner]

Interesting. I've heard that advice with respect to an overactive bladder and to nocturia (nighttime urination) but that's a different problem from recurring UTIs. If you suffer from recurring UTIs, you should urinate when you feel the urge; it's not good to hold it. No if you feel a constant urge to urinate and/or feel the urge but don't have much volume or a strong stream, those are possible signs of infection.

In point of fact apparently what set off my round of continual bladder infections was summer camp when I was 9 or 10. I was used to outhouses - I had relatives who still didn't have indoor plumbing, after all - but THOSE outhouses were CLEAN. These stank of pine cleaner all the time, and since they had little kids "cleaning" them (it was part of camp chores) who were grossed out by the whole experience, they weren't really clean, and they were full of spiders (when you're 3' tall and weigh maybe 40 lbs you're not going to be going after the spider webs over your head).

They also had a habit of dumping lime down the holes, which they THOUGHT would cut down on smells, but what it REALLY did was stop the normal composting process dead in its tracks, thereby increasing manifold the smell generating potential of the contents.

End result being - frantic efforts to avoid having to go in there = urinary retention = bladder infection = frantic efforts to avoid going in there even more = more urinary retention = another bladder infection = entry into the fellowship of continual UTIs.

So no, that sounds like extraordinarily bad advice to me too.

Doctors aren't always as sharp as we would hope. They can have the same kinds of funny ideas other people have, that aren't so funny in real life. When my sister, who is gay, came down with a serious precancerous condition that required immediate full hysterectomy before it blossomed into full cancer, her doc actually had the balls to tell her it was because she'd never had sex with a man.

I guess the man hadn't heard about HPV and its link to Cervical cancer, which you get via intercourse with a man.

[msincredible]

When my sister, who is gay, came down with a serious precancerous condition that required immediate full hysterectomy before it blossomed into full cancer, her doc actually had the balls to tell her it was because she'd never had sex with a man.

I hope she found a new doctor!

[ZenSojourner]

My sister unfortunately has Borderline Personality Disorder, which means she sees everything in black and white, love/hate, good/bad, etc etc etc. And she switches at the drop of a hat.

So when she likes you you're Indiana Jones, the Dalai Lama, and Stephen Hawkings all rolled into one.

When she DOESN'T like you, you're a kitten torturing devil

At the time (don't know how she feels now as she hasn't spoken to me since I stopped her from bullying my father into giving her all his money) she was convinced this guy was The Only Doctor Who Ever Cared About Her and Saved Her Life Because Nobody Else Ever Cared About Her EVER.

So no complaint was filed. At least he wasn't actually her doctor, he was just the one that got assigned by the hospital to do the surgery.

[fidlfreek]

Ok I'm not sure this will help (and I've posted this multiple times on TE already) but it might solve some of the general irritation. I had a revolving door of yeast infections - like 6 a year - and tests never showed any reason. After a doc suggested I move to free and clear (and biodegradable) laundry detergent my yeast infections have become something that happens only if I take antibiotics. The new detergent halted it in its tracks. YEAH!

So, if you're trying to cut down on irritation (which is maybe partially caused by a chamois, which you wash in detergent) eliminating the dies/perfumes/mcnasties might just help. Ya never know, but it definitely has changed my life.

[indysteel]

My sister unfortunately has Borderline Personality Disorder, which means she sees everything in black and white, love/hate, good/bad, etc etc etc. And she switches at the drop of a hat.

So when she likes you you're Indiana Jones, the Dalai Lama, and Stephen Hawkings all rolled into one.

When she DOESN'T like you, you're a kitten torturing devil

At the time (don't know how she feels now as she hasn't spoken to me since I stopped her from bullying my father into giving her all his money) she was convinced this guy was The Only Doctor Who Ever Cared About Her and Saved Her Life Because Nobody Else Ever Cared About Her EVER.

So no complaint was filed. At least he wasn't actually her doctor, he was just the one that got assigned by the hospital to do the surgery.

Ha! My sister has BPD, too. All that sounds WAY too familiar. What "fun" Borderlines are! I don't have a relationship with my sis either--by choice. As sad as this sounds, it was one of the best decisions I ever made.

Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread. Back to UTIs now....

[badger]

I'm really surprised that nobody here has mentioned D-Mannose.

For a time, I used to get UTI even if I just thought about it. It was both painful and frustrating. I tried nearly everything to keep it at bay, from homeopathy to cranberry, to unfortunately when it got bad, antibiotics (which sucked because then it usually meant I got an yeast infection afterwards). I even got the procedure to widen my urethra which was more painful than it was effective. Along the way, I found out about D-mannose.

It's a type of sugar, and say what you will, it works immensely well. Cranberry works, but if you're full-blown into an infection, it doesn't work so well. D-mannose does. The only drawback is that it's not cheap. The cheapest I found was on iherb.com.

Until you can get your bladder/urethra to settle down, you can take d-mannose every day and then you can have some before a workout if you know that's a trigger.

Good luck!