Just a heads up, this post doesn't involve eats, love or happiness. In fact, it's actually the opposite. And a little personal and maybe even too much information...but here we go...
On top of being sore and exhausted from my first few weeks of my culinary school externship, I felt something else was wrong. Without hesitation, I knew I had another UTI. I've gotten urinary tract infections in the past and I thought they were finally over, but I was wrong. Goes to show that holding my pee for my entire shift doesn't really work out to my benefit. I was angry, in pain and severely annoyed.
I was watching the Today Show the other morning and they were discussing medical issues that people are usually too embarrassed to ask about. I'm getting a little bolder in age because this topic has come up more than once over the past few months and I've realized I'm not that embarrassed to talk about it. Maybe if I do, it might help a few people out. Plus, when you have to pee all the time, it's the only thing that's on your mind...so here's my pee post.
Did you know that UTIs are the second leading reason for people to visit a doctor? They are incredibly common in women and one out of every five women who get one, will keep getting them. When I first started getting them I had no idea what was going on and was incredibly embarrassed to go to the doctor and talk about my peeing pain. I had no idea they were so common and was pretty devastated that the one thing I was prone to was UTIs. I was able to get an ongoing antibiotic prescription to keep on hand as a preventative measure and for treatment. When I get them now, I swear by the antibiotics and pray that I don't develop an intolerance and then I head right to the store for some AZO. AZO is an incredible brand. Not only do they have strips that can test for a UTI, they also have a pain reliever that decreases the urgency to "go" and helps with the awful pain that comes with these infections. Don't freak out when you use it and see bright orange pee, it's totally normal.
I've also done plenty of research on Google for other home remedies that might work. Here are a few obvious and not-so-obvious things that I found:
- Drinking cranberry juice (or blueberry juice). This is mostly a preventative measure, but can certainly help at the beginning stages of an infection.
- Taking cranberry supplements. (Some of the pills can equal 8-12 glasses of juice!)
- Drinking water mixed with baking soda. If you do this at the beginning of an infection, it's suppose to help flush the bacteria out. I tried it, and it's nasty...but I think helped a little bit.
- Taking a bath soothes the pain. (Doesn't taking a bath soothe everything?)
- (This one is a little out there...) Taking alka-seltzer and dissolving it in water and using that as a cleanser "down there".
I have it pretty easy because I know some people who get these a few times a month. I can't imagine anything like that. I've been told that I could visit a urologist and potentially have a surgery that might stop them from happening. I've also heard that they are working on a vaccine for UTIs. I'm pretty lucky to have the medicine on hand, although it makes me feel pretty awful.
So there's my little real life problem. Growing older kind of sucks, right? I guess the older I get, the less embarrassed I am about sharing some personal issues with the world.
