Michelle H.

I learned a very valuable lesson that every woman should learn in the summer of 2022; NEVER DISMISS A UTI. I have had UTIs many times before. As usual, I texted my doctor and told her my symptoms and that I suspected it to be a UTI. She agreed and sent in a RX for antibiotics. That was Thursday. Saturday I’d been totally fine all day-until 6 pm. I crashed, crawled into bed for a “nap,” and didn’t get out of bed until Monday. I had little to nothing to eat or drink for 2 1/2 – 3 days. I just slept.

On Monday at lunch my husband told me I had to go to the ER or I was going to die. Still I wanted to lay in bed and “rest,” having so idea how sick I was, but he knew. He forced me to go- and he saved my life in doing so. After many tests and labs the hospital determined I was severely septic from a UTI that had traveled all the way up into my right kidney. (Sepsis and Urinary Tract Infections)

The pain was excruciating. I was admitted to the hospital for 4 days where I received several rounds of high dose IV antibiotics. When released I was sent home with a 10 day dose of very strong oral antibiotics, which I had to repeat because it took my body so long to clear the infection. The fatigue took months to recover from. It’s been 7 months ago as I wrote this and I still suffer from mental fatigue (brain fog), as well as poor kidney function.

Lesson learned: ALWAYS go to the doctor’s office and have them culture your urine. Then you can be certain you’ll receive the proper antibiotics for that specific bacterial infection.

**Of Note** Once I was released to go home, my doctor called me to let me know that my infection had been so serious that upon my ER arrival, without treatment I would have only lived around 2 more hours. My organs were at the tipping point of failure. I also discovered that a lady in my town died from the exact same thing as me about 2 month prior to my incident. There was yet another woman that died 2 weeks after my episode from the exact same situation. Both of them simply waited too long to call 911 and had no one to take them to the ER as I did. In speaking to other women and telling my story I have encountered several women with stories very similar to mine.