Should I take the day off work tomorrow for dh?

[AstridPeth]

Posting here for higher traffic. Dh had been feeling unwell all week and yesterday informed me that he thought he might have a water infection. Said if he was feeling the same this morning he would go to the walk in centre.

Well he was feeling MUCH worse this morning. Feverish, shakey and can't per at all.

Walk in diagnosed a UTI and prescribed antib's. He hasn't been well at all today. Had been fevrish all day and vomited (only once).
He is obviously taking the day of work tomorrow. I was intending to go in, however, a friend who is not known for being melodramatic and whom I trust had said if he doesn't go for a wee soon he could end up with a catheter and in a lot of pain. She said someone should stay home with him to keep an eye on him.

Of course if I do need to stay home I wouldn't question it. But what do you think. He does seem quite unwell and he is never sick.
What should I do?

Hope he is better today! I used to work at a university and we had a young man who dismissed his 'just a water infection'. He collapsed at home and thankfully, his flatmates were there and called 999. He was very ill in hospital for a while. It was extremely scary for him and his family.

I'd be inclined to get in touch with out of hours as well and give them some 'feedback' as well, as the next time the patient might not have the forces of MN to sort them out!

A UTI in a young man is (as everyone who has read this thread knows now!) very rare and often very serious. I don't think this is the sort of thing that a nurse practitioner should be dealing with, whereas a simple UTI in a woman is bread and butter stuff most of the time.

You can read the NICE guidance and refer to it to see how it should have been treated yesterday and followed up:

cks.nice.org.uk/urinary-tract-infection-lower-men#!scenario

(This is what happens when the government tries to do the NHS on the cheap...)

Dino and others

I'm curious about why a UTI for young men is more serious than for women. Is it because it's less likely they get one, but if once they catch it it manifests in a different ways or the infection is harder to get rid of it or something else?
Would someone explain pls?( Or send me a PM if you don't want to elaborate here)
Genuine question.
We have lots of boys so this is potentially life altering, if not life saving info. Thank you

I hope MrAstrid is improving

It's much more unlikely in younger men, so it needs to be checked to rule out other things ZingDramaQueenOfSheeba. Men are less likely to get one because of the length of their urethra. In younger men, a UTI is always treated as "complicated" and so will usually need a seven day course of antibiotics, as opposed to the usual three for simple infections for many women.

How is your DH OP? Did he go back to hospital?

zing, as thecatsflaps says, it really comes down to the length of the urethra. It is relatively easy for bacteria to get in for a girl/woman because it is so short, but for a man/boy to get it with a longer urethra, it makes you wonder if there is a structural abnormality or another problem making them more prone. Clearly in the case of recurrent UTIs in men and women, things need to be looked at but you'd look earlier in men.

I linked to the guidance for men with UTIs above. Here's the NICE guidance for UTIs in children, in case that's the issue you're alluding to in your post:

www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg54/chapter/guidance

Hope that helps. (Said in a non-PA way!)

Thanks both!
I knew that females get UTIs way more often than males (and I did know why! ) but didn't know it's a much bigger deal so it was a real eye opener.

Astrid how is he doing? Fx all is well

Oh and I meant that this knowledge could become handy one day, as luckily my boys & DH has never had any UTIs (yet)
Thanks again for link Dino , will read it shortly.

I am so sorry for not getting back to you guys earlier to update. I got 2 hours sleep the first night. I just couldn't dose off, listening to his heavy breathing and worrying that he might go downhill.

As it happened he didn't go back into hospital. He slept most of yesterday and an awful lot of today also. But he is weeing more (not properly but more).
He is exhausted as you would imagine.
He hasn't been able to eat at all really so I spent some of my time off today making him some healthy soup and nipped out to the bakery at the end of the road for some nice rolls.

He has just just asked for a second roll so the soup must be going down well.

We had a phonecall this afternoon from the lovely nurse who had seen us in the a+e department. It was his day off yesterday but he said he had been quite worried about dh as it had been such a close call whether to keep him in or not and he wanted to make sure he was ok.
How lovely!

Lovely nurse suggests I take at least tomorrow off as well just in case and then go from there, work are being fine about it.

Thank you all again for your well wishes and sorry again for not getting back to you sooner. I was exhausted myself yesterday.

Just seen 3littlefrogs message. It wouldn't have even crossed my mind that he would need reguarler check ups after this. Thank you for posting. I do make sure he goes back to the docs for the all clear when he is well and he him to ask about it then. Thank you.

Good to hear he's getting better and that he's asking for seconds!

Warm water with honey and fresh lemon juice is a good all rounder when recovering from some illnesses, for energy, taste, vitamins etc, easy to digest - see if he might fancy some? (it will help with the peeing too).

That nurse was indeed lovely, what a star!

I hope you both get a good rest tonight, lots of sleep & rest is what you both need for sure