UTIs: Scary Stuff When Pregnant

Warning: This post has a little too much information about the writer's internal organs and bathroom habits. Reader's discretion is advised.

This morning I awoke early again. This pregnancy bladder thing really messes with my sleep patterns, I just can't seem to sleep again after I wake up at 5:30. But I'm not complaining, even if it seems like it. I'd much rather get up for the bathroom than hold it all in and get an infection. Again. So, I want to write to all pregnant ladies (and non-pregnant ones, too) about how to try and prevent Urinary Tract Infections. It can be dangerous to your precious unborn noisemaker, so it's best to try and avoid it completely.

I see I'll need to give some background information about myself before I hand out warnings to others. Maybe you are just like me and can learn something from my experience. Let me take you back in time for an overlong flashback sequence...

Since I was about sixteen, I've worked in retail on and off. My first job was at a Superspar in Port Elizabeth. I've been there for a few weeks and I worked from 8 in the morning to 5 in the afternoon, six days of the week. And I can say with complete honesty that I have no idea where the restrooms were in that building. I also remember working in a Spur Restaurant in Cape Town and only going to the bathroom at work once in that whole month of slavery. Horribly shocking, I know! Maybe even hilarious, it all depends on your sense of humour. I can only shake my head in disbelief when I think about the damage I must have cause to my kidneys and bladder.

A few weeks back, I went with my mother to her doctor closeby. And I was fortunate enough to have a job handed to me when I asked him if he needed someone to work in his new office. I worked there from Monday to Thursday, a total of four days, before becoming really ill. I had to phone in sick Friday morning. I felt like a zombie, but a zombie with an illness that makes it groan even more and have it crawl around the floor instead of slouching around slowly.
As Friday went along, I noticed some pains in my back where I figured my kidneys were. I got a little worried and when it got worse on Saturday, I went to the hospital's emergency unit.

I explained my symptoms to the nurse and gave her a sample of offensive fluid. (I have huge respect for nurses, they have to deal with a lot of... stuff.)
The doctor on duty came around to me and poked at my abdomen with her stetoscope. Really deep too. The baby responded after she was done, I thought it was too cute how he tried to get the prodding to stop with one giant kick. The doctor told me that I did have an infection and that she would give me antibiotics. She also said that I should return if I start getting pains in my abdomen, which made me wonder if she had any faith in the antibiotics.

My dear mom got me the antibiotics at the pharmacy while I was waiting for her in the car. I only remember feeling like a tacky animal skin draped all over the car seat. As soon as I got the medicine, I drank the first two pills as prescribed. I've never took any medicine as diligently as I did with that entire course. I had to drink the pills every 8 hours, and I made sure I had alarms going off for every set of pills. Especially for the ones I had to drink late at night.

It was a five day course, and on the fourth day I felt little pains in my back again, just like the pains I went to the hospital for. But worse yet, I felt pains in my abdomen, just underneath where I figured my uterus was. Naturally, I got extremely worried. The doctor must have been right not to trust the medicine, I thought to myself. So the day after the end of the course, I went to the hospital again.

That time I went to have my urine sent to a lab post haste. They told me to go tell my usual doctor that I had a sample sent away. So I went to the office of my doctor, which is in the same hospital, and I explained it all to her receptionist. She asked me with eyes wide open "Why didn't you come back yesterday already?" which scared me even more. Surely she knows more than I do about all this! Why didn't I come back earlier? Why, why, why?!

After the receptionist assured me she will have the doctor phone me IF the results come back before the weekend, I went home with a broken and worrying heart. I kept thinking of a person somewhere on the internet saying about how she lost twins due to a UTI. And I realised more and more how much this tiny diaper-filler hiding inside of me really means to me. I realised that if I was to lose him, I would miss him every single day for the rest of my life.

That evening, my mom came over and noticed that I kept going to the bathroom every two minutes. She told me to put on my shoes, we were going to take a trip back to the emergency room. She waited with Steven, my husband, in the waiting room while I told my symptoms to the long-suffering nurse and gave her the awful gift of urine yet again. I waited for the worse, hoped for the best, and tried to avert my eyes from a chart on the wall that quite casually lists "Death" in a red column. After eternity passed, a doctor came into the room.

She looked at me and uttered the following phrase: "Your urine is clear." The relief I felt at that moment was so immense, I felt a strange warm liquid forming at my eyes. I asked about my symptoms, and she said that my uterus was just pressing on my bladder. And that the pains I experience in my abdomen was just ligaments stretching. I thought it was quite cruel of my ligaments to start stretching while I was paranoid about any pains that might show up in my abdomen. And the back pain? Also a normal pregnancy symptom. I did feel a little sheepish about rushing to the hospital for normal pregnancy pains, but I was over the moon to know that I didn't have to worry anymore. I went to tell Steven the good news and we just held each other for a minute. I decided right then to take excellent care of myself for my baby's sake.

So what caused this awful episode? I believe it was my inability to take care of myself when I am working. It's really not that I ignore the feeling of a full bladder, it's that I don't even feel it. I receive no warnings from my body when I work. No hunger, no thirst, no toilet need. For a few hours I'm not even human, instead I'm just a robot that just keeps working with nothing to stop it.
I suspect that I may just release way too much adrenaline when I work, making all my body's needs a very low priority while I'm in fight-or-flight mode. It sounds like a good theory, at least.

Next time, I will give tips and tricks to prevent Urinary Tract Infections. We have to keep healthy for our tiny unborn ones. They depend fully on our bodies to function properly.

The Thankful Part!
As you already saw, I’m thankful for the proper function of my urine system. Well, two nights ago, Steven and I watched Titanic. So I’m also thankful for being on dry land and not in water which can freeze one to death.