UTI in men, when should things start to feel better

[longtompot]

My dh has a uti which he has been given antibiotics for. Only prescribed yesterday afternoon so only had three pills so far, but he is in agony and is finding walking very difficult. Taking Ibuprofen helps, but then it wears off and of course he can only have it three times a day. He is also having paracetamol four times a day and using a hot water bottle which helps a bit.
I just wondered when he should start to feel a bit better.

24 hours into antibiotic he should be coming round i think? Is he drinking plenty of clear fluids? What age is he? If elderly the hydration part is very important

Thank you @Hopingtobe4 He is only 53 and is drinking a lot of water and herbal teas. I really thought he would be feeling better by now :(

Is he passing urine properly? Fully emptying his bladder?
Not being able to walk because of pain /uti is not normal. Has he been seen in person and physically assessed? If not I'd take him somewhere to be pronto.

@foodtoorder He is passing urine okay and I think emptying his bladder. He saw a GP in person yesterday who thought it might have been fluid retention, but after checking him said it wasn't that. Plus, he filled the little jar for his sample fine and said he could have filled it many times, she was happy it wasn't retention.
The infection has caused his prostate to become inflamed so I think that's a lot of his pain and cause of his interesting walks.

Try the Cystitis sachets they do for women? It makes the urine less acidic so stops the burning feeling.

@Boombatty It doesn't sting when he wees. It's more an internal pain at the front, a few inches below his bellybutton and just above the top of his pubic hairline.
Also, I know it's not proven, but he is drinking a lot of cranberry juice which I bought just in case I got a uti after my hysterectomy earlier this year!

It might still stop the pain in the bladder though. Worth a try.

Also you need to be a bit careful with cranberry juice as they tend to have large amounts of sugar in which can make it worse. Better to take cranberry tablets or D-mannose is even better.

Has a urine sample been sent for testing to ensure that he's been prescribed the correct antibiotic? Has been referred to investigate his prostate and has he had a PSA test? It could be a prostate infection which can be difficult to treat.

Better to take cranberry tablets or D-mannose is even better.

Or both! Dh takes them. He used to have recurrent UTIs which made him feel really rough, and the consultant he was seeing recommended them.
Also as the above poster said, it’s important he’s getting the antibiotics that the particular infection will respond to, so his sample will presumably have been sent to a hospital for analysis? Antibiotics prescribed before a sample has been tested are an educated guess, but won’t necessarily be the right one. I’d get back to the GP in any case, if he’s not feeling better, or 111 if he starts to feel worse. Hope he gets it sorted soon.

The Ibuprofen is probably making the pain worse. It's not recommended for abdominal pain.

Such severe pain is unusual in a UTI. I'd want to check with the GP again in case he is trying to pass a kidney stone.

Thank you all for your posts. He had a better night (pain at about a 6) but was in pain (around an 9) again this morning. He has taken some co codamol which he said has really helped with the pain, in that it doesn't hurt but he is aware of there being a problem in the area. It's made him a bit spaced out.
His sample has been sent off and I will get him to phone the GP surgery later when they will have results in.
I got him to describe the pain and where it is. It's not when the wee leaves his body, it's more his bladder contracting in order to pass wee that hurts. He isn't passing blood and the urine isn't cloudy but he did say it's not light in colour so I have suggested drinking more water. He's obviously concerned about drinking more as it means he need wee more.

Checked his results and it said all normal so I guess that means no infection, or at least no uti. He is waiting for a callback from the GP so we shall see what they suggest. Our current thinking is kidney stones due to the severity of the pain

I'm surprised he hadn't been referred for a cystoscopy.
If it's kidney stones, I feel for him, bad enough for me as a woman, but it must be worse in a man.

Bear in mind that the tests are wildly inaccurate. Only work in about 50% of cases. Consultant neurologist told me this.

If he's restricting drinking because he's worried about it hurting that won't help.

Urologist not neurologist!

Well, GP was a bit disappointing in the end. He said he was going to refer him to the hospital for a scan, said there was a trace of blood in his urine. Didn't write down there was blood when tested and told the Surgical Admissions Unit he had diarrhoea when he didn't so the SAU said they wouldn't accept the referral as they think is gastric, and dh was to go an sit in A&E for god knows how long. He is feeling a bit better than this morning, but I have said if he is the same as he was last night tonight and in the morning then he is to go up there. I think it's probably best to go during the day time, when the departments are staffed.

Hopefully final update. Not stones, it's diverticulitis! Thankfully caught quickly and hopefully a course of different antibiotics will clear it up, but a colonoscopy in 8 weeks will show that.

Thanks for updating. How did they disgnose it?

@Boombatty He had a CT scan to see if there were stones and discovered part of his bowel was inflamed. Also, the blood test showed his crp levels were over 200 and I think his white blood cells were raised too, so all showed there was an infection.

Ah interesting. Glad you have got to the bottom of it and hope he improves quickly.