Urinary Tract Infection: It's Not What Everyone Thinks It Is

Been a little busier than usual and this has been in my drafts since mid-December...

UTI or urinary tract infection is quite common for girls only because of how our anatomy is on the outside. It's quite rare for boys though it's not impossible for them to acquire UTI.

D was diagnosed with UTI early September and he went through a course of antibiotics. It was the scariest thing we had to go through since his fever was erratic though persistent and he went through chills at one point. He had three urine cultures and even though there were two types of bacteria that was present in his urine, only one was removed with the antibiotics. Then he was clinically all right and well even though E.Coli was still positive in his culture. His pedia, Doc Monna, ordered for another urine culture in one of the top hospitals here in Davao just to make sure and then we will decide on the course of treatment thereafter.

I was a little unsure with the fact that the course of treatment for E.Coli in UTI is only via IV antibiotics, I wasn't too keen with admitting D in the hospital just for that when he is clinically active and not having fever. So, we postponed the urine culture and decided to go the organic route and made him drink coconut water for two weeks straight...hoping that his UTI would just go away.

By mid-November, D was having his usual fever and loss of appetite. We rushed to the hospital for labs. His CBC platelet were within normal range so it's not dengue but he does have an infection. His urine culture was due in a couple of days so we resorted to just letting him drink paracetamol for the meantime to regulate his temperature.

When the urine culture came out and it was still positive with E.Coli...then I knew that his UTI was back with a vengeance so we were prepping ourselves for the worst, which would mean that D would have to admitted for IV antibiotics. So, late November D was admitted at Brokenshire Hospital for 10 days for his UTI treatment. It was one of the most challenging times because I knew what it took to be in the hospital and the discomfort and pain he'd have to go through with all the needle poking and lab tests. I'm quite proud to say that he's such a trooper and has even made tons of friends amongst the nurses.

He was discharged with a clean bill of health though he still has some procedures to be scheduled. D is still maintaining his antibiotics for the meantime, but he is scheduled to have his circumcision next week due to his phimosis (the tightness of the foreskin of the penis that prevents the retraction of the foreskin over the glans). And once he's all healed up, he'll go through VCUG (voiding cysto-urethrogram) to check if there is anything in his urinary tract system that might be the cause of the infection aside from his phimosis.

We hope that his circumcision and his VCUG will go smoothly so that his recurring UTI will be done and I won't have to panic every time he would get a fever...

julie