Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

to think that drinking water never cures damn UTIs

40 replies

chaya5738 · 06/01/2011 21:24

I don't know how many times I have been told this when I have had a urinary tract infection - just drink lots of water and cranberry juice and it will go away. Well in my experience it doesn't go away! Grrrrrrr

After three days of pissing glass I finally convinced the doctor to give me antibiotics today. Kept getting told that the infection was mild and just to drink lots of water. Woke up this morning with extreme back pain, fever, and nausea. I can't help but think if they'd just given me antibiotics earlier it wouldn't have got so bad.

And this has happened before. About ten years ago I got sick over the weekend so called the doctor (different one this time) and they just said to drink lots of water. I ended up in hospital.

Has anyone actually cured their UTI by drinking lots of water? Please give me faith in this medical advice.

OP posts:

Original poster

chaya5738 · 06/01/2011 21:59

Eeeeeew, 'pus cells'. The nurse said I had leucocytes but I had no idea that meant I had pus up where I wee.

OP posts:

BertieBotts · 06/01/2011 22:01

There are two kinds - one which is caused by bruising from sex, and will go away by itself, the other is bacterial and won't. I have had the bruising one before so when I got one just before christmas, I drank lots of water thinking that would flush it out and it would go away, but it didn't. I think I'd had it over a week and I decided I would try one more attempt to get rid of it without ABs before new year because I wanted to be able to drink () I followed the water guidelines from this site (Supposedly based on department of health recommendations, but not matching to what is on the NHS site now) which didn't work, and then I started worrying about water intoxication... so I bought 8 cartons of cranberry juice and some of those sachet things which claimed to clear it up in 48 hours, and it did. At 10am on new year's eve

lindsell · 06/01/2011 22:07

my dsis had huge probs with recurrent uti to extent she couldn't eat/drink loads of things as then she was in real agony. However hers is more or less cured now by only ever drinking bottled water, if she drinks tap water it makes it worse again but drinking lots of bottled water seems to have worked really well for her. Cranberry juice can actually aggravate it if you drink too much apparently.

Original poster

chaya5738 · 06/01/2011 22:08

Oooh, I am using those sachets as well - do they really work?

Btw, do any of you nurses or doctors on here know whether it makes a difference which part of your pee stream you take the sample from. The first sample I gave I used the beginning of the wee but for the second sample I remembered that you are supposed to give samples from the middle of the wee. I was wondering if that was why the first sample was inconclusive despite being in so much pain and the second one was positive for 'pus cells.'

OP posts:

warthog · 06/01/2011 22:13

i've just waited out a uti before. but it can damage kidneys so i wouldn't do that regularly. certainly had back pain and in retrospect should have gone to docs but was weekend and had to work.

sorry for you - they are awful.

BertieBotts · 06/01/2011 22:18

Well they worked for me they taste vile though. I diluted them in a lot less water than they recommended and they were easier to take. I think you have to take the whole pack as directed for it to be effective - in the past my mum got me some and said you had to sip it, and you only had to take it until the symptoms went away, and it didn't work at all.

Original poster

chaya5738 · 06/01/2011 22:21

They do taste vile, don't they? I just gulped down one now (on your inspiration) whilst holding my nose.

Thanks everyone for the tips and comfort. Am off to bed so I can get better quickly!

OP posts:

elephantine · 06/01/2011 22:28

When giving a sample: clean area, wee into bowl, stop, wee into sample pot, stop, empty rest of bladder into bowl. Hence the term mid stream urine!

LilBB · 06/01/2011 22:31

I get mild utis every now and again. Those sachets, water and cranberry juice for me. The sachets are rank though so I drink them with a straw. I suppose it all depends on the severity of the infection.

WilfShelf · 06/01/2011 22:37

Can I just add the fantastic tip my GP gave me - as I am prone to horrific, quick and bloody UTIs that send me into a gibbering wreck within hours (which only ABs will stop btw)... but I now get SO many fewer following his advice.
Mine are almost always after sex. He told me to drink a pint of water immediately after doing the deed, and another pint an hour after that. And then wee. Every time. Even if you're knocked out after the earth moving etc etc.. You have to be disciplined about it but it is a fabulous find for me...

It has made a massive difference to my life: I was beginning to fear sex, which is never good. DH pleased too...

ilythia · 06/01/2011 22:42

When I was at uni 300 miles from where DH (dp then obv) was at uni I used to see him once a month, and always come hom with a uti that would clear after a week or so. The GP called it 'honeymoon cystitis' and refused to give me AB's

Water/cranberry juice helps in that it makes it less painful to wee while it clears up so it can seem like it cures it as it feels better than then goes away. If it is more serious then AB@s need to be used.

Icoulddoitbetter · 06/01/2011 22:44

I used to get UTI's all the time after sex, defintely some problem with my ex! My GP used to give me a repeat prescription of ABX (actually they are antibacterials rather than ABX) to take after sex as a prophylaxis and it seemed to work (and clearly our sex life was pretty non-existent!). Since I've been with DH I've hardly had any thank god, as they are awful.

I'm a HCP and alot of my patients are older so are really prone to UTI's, but I can confidently state that 10 cups of tea a day seems as good as 10 glasses of water in keeping the UTI's at bay. Fluid is really important but it doesn't have to be the trusty old H2O.

SoMuchToBits · 06/01/2011 22:48

Agree with Icoulddoit that any fluid is fine for prophylaxis, not just water.

ProfessorLaytonIsMyLoveSlave · 06/01/2011 22:51

Any time I've waited and drunk lots on medical advice the infection has gone to my kidneys. Now I go to the doctor at the first twinge and remind them of that and they prescribe me the antibiotics straight away (I rarely get them now, though, since I have started weeing immediately after sex (well, make it to the bathroom first, but nearly immediately). It doesn't enhance the post-coital glow but I virtually never get a UTI except when pregnant now.

Geistesabwesenheit · 06/01/2011 23:14

Weeing after sex helps and so do cranberry tablets. The Holland and Barrett ones are shite, but the Seven Seas seem to work ok so far.

Flip

1 2

Swipe left for the next trending thread