Her beauty may end up saving many lives.

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/rant

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I have had two UTIs in the last few years and each time I have been given Cipro. Expensive but quick. You only take it for three days and that infection is gone.

But yeah, like eveyone else you have to go to the doc at the first signs before it becomes something else.

Also if you have very frequent UTIs you might have something else going on that needs to be treated differently.

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Also, I think it's pretty rad that you know about this stuff. May I inquire as to your area of specialty? I have friends and family who work in healthcare, so I always find it pretty interesting when specialists come out on Jezebel and talk about the stuff they know.

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Yes, I know the common rule about finishing ALL antibiotics. Yes, I know that certain types of antibiotics treat certain conditions/types of bacteria. Yes, I have unused antibiotics in my cupboard for a good reason. And, yes, I would generally to to a doctor, but you try to get an appointment on a Saturday morning during cough and cold season. I have an allergy to Cipro, and a resistance to other antibiotics like Amoxicillin. And I am intimately familiar with the symptoms & risks of untreated/mistreated UTIs.

I don't mean to rant, and for the average person the preachy advice would probably be pretty damn good advice.

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Oddly enough, though, I started out doing data analysis in the financial industry!

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It's incredibly tragic about this young girl, and I guess the moral of the story is, if you feel you're not getting proper medical attention or if you have a nagging feeling something just isn't right, get a second opinion. You may not have a medical degree, but you and you only are the best judge of what is right and wrong for your body.

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Glad I do my research because honestly, I imagine it is easy to be led astray by this kind of crap advice from actual medical professionals!

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One thing that does happen is that if you get the pain and drink a lot of fluids to minimize it, if the infection is still small, you can dilute the sample of bacteria down so that they can't see them right away. Maybe this doc has "tested" his theory that way and just thinks his patients don't have infections anymore.

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Also, since I keep antibiotics on hand for UTI's, usually I can get away with one dose at the first sign, as long as I drink tons of water and cranberry juice too. Obviously, people have to talk to their doctors before they use antibiotics that way, but the three I've been to have been pretty positive about it.

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Mr. Gwilt more or less forced me to go to the doctor earlier this week as I had some mysterious symptoms/ailment and I am notoriously bad about putting off going until I am really, really sick. I'm still waiting for the bloodwork/test results. I'm sure everything is fine, but: "Thank you, Mr. Gwilt! I am an idiot."

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My symptoms were really manageable in the beginning and I didn't really pay attention to them. I thought I had a UTI so I just started taking some cranberry pills and figured it would go away (note: if you have had a UTI for more than a few days crandberry juice probably won't cut it. Better to be used as a preventative measure.)

Slowly, I started getting pain in my lower back, but figured it was just that, back pain (which I do have anyways).

I had a few times where I felt kind of loopy and out of it. Then, bam! Flat on my back with a 105 fever, sweating through my sheets and shaking like a leaf with excruciating back pain. I thought maybe this was the flu until about 10 hrs in I realized I had better get my ass to a hospital because I had NEVER had the "flu" this bad. I had to be carried out of my apartment I was so weak. I got a blood test and a kidney scan and a whole ton of cipro. It went away and I luckily did not have any longterm damage. Really scary though. I will never ignore any symptoms of a UTI ever again.

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In fact, it was my grandmother's friends (because, of course she talks about my medical problems with them, when she runs out of her own to talk about) who suggested that my back pain could be a kidney infection. I just thought I had a (mild) flu-like virus, done something bad at the gym, and a UTI, clearly I don't watch enough House Md.

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However I won't hesitate to go to the Dr. in the future. Poor woman.

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I mean, I hope you never get a UTI, but the whole "I've never had one, so they aren't common" comment sort of rubs me the wrong way...

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I am religious about peeing after sex, though. I didn't do it when I first started having sex, and I got several UTIs...not fun.

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This kind of severe infection is rare, but starts from the small things so taking care of the small things even if they are a nuisance is really important.

Which is why here in the U.S. we need a health care program so that we can go in, get the small things taken care of and not have to get into the big things.

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::climbs down from soapbox::

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Ear infections in children are so difficult to deal with because no one wants not to give antibiotics for them even though there is some evidence that aggressive treatment with antibiotics might not be warranted. Even so that was a small study. So you have to keep giving them just in case. Luckily kids outgrow them and if you teach your little one good hygiene the number of antibiotic requiring illnesses he has later will diminish.

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