To ask you what your best cystitis treatments are. DYING!

[Jennyjenjenjen]

Ugh. Woke up at 5 with that burning feeling. Have been up since. Am drinking loads of water. But still feel so terrible.

Any tips? Please!

Thank you

Over the counter sachets first, that should help it within a few hours

I'd self medicate with the antibiotics too, although appreciate in a minority!

My old GP told me that he thought counter cystitis treatment was rubbish and actually everyone with a suspected infection should get get AB's just in case. This was when I was sat in front of him in absolute agony with a kidney infection, a kidney infection that had started as a bog standard UTI that I had attempted to treat myself with over the counter stuff.

I think with water works its always best to see your GP, a suspected UTI is classed as an emergency that has to be seen on the same day when you ring into the surgery. Id definely go to out of hours if I was you OP.

No idea if this has been said already but as well as all the remedies, if the burn is awful, take a jug of cold (ish) water to the toilet and, erm, tip it over you as you wee! Really does help! I'm a seasoned cystitis sufferer

Blimey Judgey that's a very different response to what you get round here!

Yours sounds miles better

Surfbored I've sat in the bath before now, when it gets that I'm reduced to sitting on the toilet crying, while mildly disgusting there's not much pee actually coming out and it really helps.

Pissing acid is just no fun at all is it.

Oh BTW the OOC stuff isn't supposed to treat the infection, it's supposed to suppress the symptoms, while your body fights the infection.

It's only supposed to stop the burn, it's not supposed to treat the actual cause. So it's not "rubbish", surely, it does what it says on the tin?

Paracetemol, lots of orange juice, water, weeing, sitting in a bath and if it doesn't ease up in a day the docs for antibiotics. It took me years to realise I could take painkillers for it!!!

Forgot to say...I also use preventative measures. Mainly keep myself hydrated on a daily basis and go to the wee before and after sex, as it is usually intercourse bruising that causes it for me.

PilchardP you are right, what a bastard! Our lovely GP always makes sure I have a supply of Trimethoprim to take on holday in case cystitis strikes while abroad. That has stopped a couple of holidays being ruined.

GP and ABs.

However, I drink cranberry juice by the big cartonful if I suspect I might be getting a UTI and it does seem to help. Once you have that much itching/pain, see a doctor.

Am surprised by the drink OJ advice. Almost guaranteed to start cystitis for me!

Cranberry juice but it HAS to be Ocean Spray as it's the only one with a high enough percentage of actual juice. Anything that says it is a cranberry juice drink is not worth it as it's actually got hardly any juice in it.
Also I now always keep the boots sachets in the cupboard.

For goodness sake op dont leave this until Monday to sort out.

Get on the phone to your out of hours gp service. Say you have symptoms of a uti. They will see you. Take a urine sample. You will be given antibiotics. Take the full course. Think about prevention. In my experience, staying hydrated and washing/ weeing before and after sex are the most effective strategies.

I would avoid orange juice / citrus / caffeine also

Definitely don't drink orange juice it will make the acid worse!
I know what you mean about hardly anything coming out - The 'pushing' feeling is just horrible, like you just have to keep doing it.
Nurofen is good and I must confess I've been known to take cocodamol for the pain until I could get some antibiotics .

Hope you feel better soon xxx

Just drinking lots of water, avoiding fruit juice, sitting doing nothing, no tight trousers, cotton knickers, a hot water bottle over your tummy.

Slightly off the OP but I used to have cystitis every 5 minutes. I took the OTC sachets at the first hint of burn and usually that would help, but the times where it went to my kidneys I ended up in hospital. Those times were much fewer and the OTC normally worked - I keep one in my bag at all times. Weirdly I had a camera stuck in my bladder to check for cancer and just having a bendy stick shoved in there seems to have cured me for life!

Many doctors are reluctant to prescribe ABs for conditions that may respond just as well to other treatments. This isn't just because they are soulless hell-wraiths who enjoy watching you suffer, but because overprescribing ABs leads to resistant strains of bacteria, which can obviously be deadly. OTOH - there is a risk of the infection spreading to your kidneys. Try the bicarb solution (to reduce the acidity of your wee, making it less painful), bearberry tea (brilliant natural antimicrobial) and loads and loads of liquids until you're pissing like a racehorse. If it doesn't shift within 24 hours, if you have a fever, back pain or are passing blood, get yourself to a doc right away.

I've always been given antibiotics for uti with dipped urine showing traces of blood even though there was nothing evident to me. I definitely wouldn't be waiting until I could see that I was peeing blood

A salt water bath!! Pour table salt into a hot bath no soap I swear by them when I have cystitis !

I don't tend to go to the doc unless it's been a long time and it's not going away and / or blood and / or the OTC stuff is not strong enough to stop it hurting.

My parents are doctors and I'm well aware of the importance of taking full courses of ADs when prescribed and don't go to the doc unless I deem it really necessary which due to my upbringing means that translates to the last time I went the doc looking at my notes and saying "oh, you don't come, do you".

So on that basis when I do deem it necessary to go to the doc and he looks at me and when I explain it's been going on X long and it's incredibly painful and the OTC stuff isn't touching it in terms of symptom relief, and he looks at me with disdain and says "we don't like to prescribe antibiotics for this type of thing, go away it will get better in a few days" I feel fully entitled to say actually he was being a total bastard.

Btw the best way to take the sachets is to pour the contents in to a plastic water bottle, add water and replace the lid and then shake

It actually makes the sachet disintegrate properly and you don't get that horrible powery last mouthful that makes me gag

YY or I always top up the end rather than drinking that last bit to dissolve a bit more and repeat etc til it's all gone.

i had that cystitis feeling last weekend. it wasn't too bad so i took some otc sachets. by wednesday night i was burning up and had terrible backache so i'm now on abx for a kidney infection.

i will never hang around again as i feel like i've been run over by a bus and mauled by a tiger whilst being burnt alive on top of a block of ice.

day 3 of abx and i feel worse so please get yourself checked and nip it in the bud asap.

My kidney infection was the illest I've ever felt. I was in hospital for almost a week on a drip and off work for another 3 weeks. I lost half a stone in weight that first week. So don't mess with UTI's is always my take on it.