To second guess my midwife? (Pee stick related)

[Munchkins1316]

I have had a couple of uti's develop during this pregnancy that have been quite nasty. One of which was diagnosed at a gp appointment...hours after my midwife checked my wee and said it was fine.

I've been having similar symptoms again accompanied with bad pain across my lower back so I popped in to see a midwife at the hospital after giving them a call last night.

She did a similar wee test which I noticed looked like the one at the gps where I had an infection. However she didn't mention anything. I asked a second midwife if I had an infection.

She said 'let me check' but didn't actually look at the dip stick and left the room.

I was told to take paracetamol for the pain and if was probably Braxton hicks (24 weeks pregnant).

I'm still in a lot of pain, wee burning and I'm not sure what to do. When the midwife left the room I took a picture of the stick and bottle so I could ask someone else!

Hopefully I've included the pictures in this post (first time) and you can tell me whether I'm being paranoid or should probably go to the gp again.

Thank you all.

My GP was not a happy lady.

She did a test there again in the surgery and it came back the same as above except I do have a bit of blood in now.

I showed her the picture I took on the phone and she was very confused as to why with that reading and these symptoms they just said I was fine.

I've been put on antibiotics as she thinks it's a full blown kidney infection Feeches!

I've been asleep since 3pm and have only just woken up, really glad I went again as I feel really quite poorly now.

I saw this earlier. I hope you feel better soon. Please submit a complaint because clearly this was missed. Human error happens but I but of extra training wouldn't go amiss so hopefully the human error rate is reduced.

I'm a midwife. Your photos definitly show an infection. I'm glad you've seen your gP now and got treatment but that midwife should never have left things. Uti left untreated can send you into labour. Id be tempted to ring the hospital and ask to speak to the community midwife manager and tell her what's happened.

I am a bit upset that it could have been left to get worse but I am terrible at complaining about anything.

The first midwife looked at the stick and didn't say anything. The second midwife I asked who popped in said she would check but didn't actually look at the stick.

Saying that I probably will call up when I feel better, hopefully it will save some other woman an extra trip to the GP (or an undiagnosed infection)

I really thought I was going in to labour yesterday, I had no idea kidney infections were so bloody painful!

I hope you're feeling better soon. Kidney infections are horrible but I felt a lot better within a few hours of treatment.

If you find it hard to say it try writing a letter. You should definitely alert those in charge of what happened because these midwives could make the same mistake again but the result could be premature labour. Also, sometimes, as painful as it is, you have to learn from your mistakes. If no one highlights when mistakes happen you end up with an issue where management think everything is fine. While this is an assumption, it does happen that many units have staff levels that are too low and being rushed is a contributing factor to making mistakes.

They were very busy Supermum.

I don't mind calling them, I just tend not to complain.

I will say something this time though, scary to think it could bring on premature labour if not picked up!

I ended up spending 5 days in high dependency with a uti in my last pregnancy - I was 5.5 months pregnant and the theatre was prepped to deliver the baby, I was so ill. Definitely complain, these things are not to be messed with.

Hope you're feeling better soon xx

Leukocytes alone with no other abnormalities can be indicative of contamination, such as from vaginal secretions or infection (which could possibly need further investigation especially if a woman had vaginal symptoms).

However in pregnancy and with urinary/renal symptoms at the least they should have sent it off for culture.

Hope you're better soon.

I would complain, if only to save someone else going through the same.
interestingly I has the same symptoms and same leukocyte and blood readings.
The GP prescribed antibiotics and sent the sample off
the sample came back clear from the lab which the GP couldn't understand.

Lavender that apparently isn't that unusual, I have had samples showing up non specific problems before (inflammation and pus but no real infection) and have had positive dipstick but no infection at all. If you're ovulating, menstruating, haven't cleaned yourself before the sample (wee could and most likely would contain traces of vaginal fluids etc), all these can have an effect on the dipstick.

I have consistently been getting triple positive for protein over the last 3/4 weeks, have been told to take a sample mid morning after drinking 2/3 glasses of water, washing myself and then sort of holding everything apart so to get a 'clean catch' as otherwise results supposedly not reliable.