Bad cystitis or kidney stone

[michele u]

I have not been feeling well , alot of back pain and pressure when I urinate. It feels like when your baby is sitting on your bladder,(all you mothers can relate) I got my urine checked today and full field red blood cells. Of course i'm freaking out because my grandmother had bladder cancer. My dr. thinks it's cystitis or kidney stone. I've had 3 bad uti's since chemo. Never had any trouble before. Has anyone else had this trouble? I might have to have a ct scan to see if i have a stone

[RhondaH]

I hope that WHATEVER it is is easily and quickly corrected. Take care and God Bless.

Rhonda

[sarah]

Dear Michele,
I had severe cystitis while on Taxol but don't remember any back pain that was partiuclarly associated to that. the pain was mainly lower right large intestine area. I was eventually - after complaining for weeks - given some horrible stuff to take morning and night and after a couple of weeks it went away. I was also shown a massage technic for the intestine. You start from the lower right pressing hard and not lifting your hand off, continue up along the outside of your front to the waist area and then across to the left to the left side, down to the hip bone and down.
Hope it proves out to be a cystitis and not anything more painful or important.
Don't you hate the waiting!
good luck
sarah

[juanita]

I haven't had kidney stones myself, but my daughter has had them twice. Once before she had a baby and the other after. She said she would rather have a baby instead of ever having kidney stones again. She did hurt in her back as well as her lower abs.

[Becky]

Hi Michelle


I had my first uti just about when you did. I have had 3 bad ones, all with blood in my urine. Both my PCP and onc say it is because I had my oophorectomy (I know you did too) and put myself into abrupt menopause. Unlike you, I am ER+ so I am taking Arimidex which depletes the estrogen even more. Lack of estrogen and the abruptness of menopause thins the vaginal tissue and the tissue of the bladder wall. The thinning of the tissues can cause bacteria to stick to the walls and cause the infections.

I had an infection in Nov 05, Jan 06 and Memorial day weekend. I was very hopeful I wouldn't get another one after January's (very bad - the worst one) because I really paid attention and started taking cranberry tablet supplements (2 with each meal), drank lots of water, peed before and after sex and washed after sex. I guess it kind of helped as it was almost 5 months in between infections versus only barely 2 months.

However, a stone can also be the cause of uti's as well so you really have to get it checked out (I never had any back pain - just the heaviness on the bladder and then the urgency to urinate and of course, the feeling of always having to go. Then the blood).

My onco says that it can take 2-3 years for the body to adjust to the abruptness of menopause. For me, I am just hoping that the Arimidex is really working to lower my estrogen to the min and then I can deal with the bladder problems if thats all it is.

Keep the faith.

Love, Becky

[michele u]

Becky,

It sounds like you are right. I thought of that too about the menapause being an issue. I think i need to start using my premarin cream. My dr. said i could use it sparingly. I'm feeling better on the antibiotic already. I hate the metal taste in the mouth from the antiobiotics