UTI help

[neetling]

I am finishing my 5 day dose of abx (sulfamethoxazole - TMP) for a UTI. Tonight is my last dose. I don't feel like it's gone though. It no longer burns, but my bladder feels heavy and I still need to go more than usual.

Does anyone have any natural thing I could do to help finish flushing it out? I don't really want to have to pay to go to the doctor again and do another round of abx.

But UTI's suck, so I will if I have to. This couldn't be a worst month for extra doctor bills though. Ugh.

[~Em~]

I usually flush mone out with tons of water...not enough to make yourself sick, but a LOT of water. Cranberry capsules are good too - they don't have added sugar and the unsweetened cranberry juice can be hard to drink.

If you are drinking any other fruit juice, soda, caffeine (in any form, including excedrin, etc), spicy food, or tart drinks (even with no sugar - like lemonade crystal lite and such), then STOP! Switch to water only for another 4 or 5 days and make sure you get plenty of it. Double up on the cranberry capsules - they are cheap and OTC.

Your bladder may be, for lack of a better word, bruised from all the muscle strain and inflammation. Drinking just water and avoiding other irritants will help it recover. You can use the otc AZO also, but it does not CURE, it only relieves symtoms. Other than that an anti-inflam. like advil/aleve might give you some relief also.

(((Hugs)))

[mellowjello]

Cranberry D-Mannose has helped me. Also probiotics help a lot, even though they act in the gut it somehow helps my urinary tract.

[EnchantedMamma]

Traditional Medicinals has a tea, Cranaid I think.

It has cranberry and Uva Ursi (an antiseptic, I think) and some other things.

That sometimes helps me with the mildest of UTIs.

Continue to drink water afterwards and expect to feel 'off' while your bladder recovers. I had a string of infections and it took months before things were 'normal' again.

I now know that I need to stay very hydrated. My bladder got very irritated and the lining actually needed to grow back. Keeping urine dilute actually reduced the number of times you will likely need to pee.

I still keep hydrated to this day and find it keeps my bladder happy

I think marshmallow something-or-other tea is a soother, too. (The root, not the white puff of sugar!)

[allnaturalmom]

Look into d-mannose (powder), parsley tea (easy to make yourself), and good probiotics (we use Natren). Did they do a culture/sensitivity test to make sure you have the correct abx?
gl
hth

[neetling]

It finally cleared 2 days after I finished my abx, though my bladder still feels tender.

I ordered some d-mannose and it will be here tomorrow (from Amazon, same brand at my HFS was $11 more expensive - yikes). I'll probably use some after being intimate or when I feel like I might be getting one.

I also picked up some more probiotics. I give them to the kids, but usually forget to take them myself.

I only get a couple a year, but they suck.

Thanks for the help.

[ameliabedelia]

Marshmallow herb tea is very soothing and can help repair the inflammation.

I would definitely take cranberry extract. You could also eat cranberries or drink cranberry juice. That would help as well. I would probably try to do that on a regular basis as a preventative.

[chattyprincess]

This might sound silly but I am always shocked at the amount of women I know that don't do these things for prevention...
Always pee after sex...always. It flushes anything in that area out and helps keep it clean.
Wear panties with white cotton "crotches" (better yet all cotton panties)
wipe from front to back to avoid dragging the bad bacteria into your urinary tract.
for a while after I would have an infection I would drink 1 shot glass of real (not from concentrate, nothing but cranberry) cranberry juice in the am and drink tons of water.
eta. whenever I eat a ton of sugar I tend to feel funky in the bladder area so now i am really careful to drink a ton of water whenever eat lots of sugar.

[neetling]

Originally Posted by chattyprincess

This might sound silly but I am always shocked at the amount of women I know that don't do these things for prevention...
Always pee after sex...always. It flushes anything in that area out and helps keep it clean.
Wear panties with white cotton "crotches" (better yet all cotton panties)
wipe from front to back to avoid dragging the bad bacteria into your urinary tract.
for a while after I would have an infection I would drink 1 shot glass of real (not from concentrate, nothing but cranberry) cranberry juice in the am and drink tons of water.
eta. whenever I eat a ton of sugar I tend to feel funky in the bladder area so now i am really careful to drink a ton of water whenever eat lots of sugar.

I do everything except the regular cranberry (I don't like the juice, I will look into the supplements) I still get one or 2 a year, I have since I had our first child.