Tinkle

Since I went there Oh Poop! it’s only fair if I go here too. Yes; the joy of UTI’s and such. I believe it is due to my age but my staff sees me as a “Dr. Ruth”,even though they have no clue who she is, but it may also be because I keep it real! When one asked how she may have contracted her UTI I shared with her that it mostly comes from the e-coli bacteria. To which she hastily responded that she is not into that kind of thing. Where I have to keep a straight face and tell her that that stuff can get in there regardless. If these infections are not caused by e-coli you may be in deeper waters…but I will leave that up to a doctor to explain. There are several different kinds of bladder infections, but this is the most common one. My mom told me you can catch these infections by wearing short skirts…..my doctor clarified that these are mostly caused by sex and/or alcohol….in combination or separate. I think the alcohol was a lie…I haven’t read about that anywhere thus far…

The joyous news at our age is that after menopause….when you think you have dealt with it all down there…a decline in estrogen makes you more vulnerable to urinary tract infections.

The other pleasantry is that after taking antibiotics to cure your UTI you will most likely develop a yeast infection, make sure you get some meds for that during your doc’s visit as well. UTI’s are not contagious by the way, some yeast infections maybe but most likely are not either.

There are measures you can take before hand:

• Pee after sex, make sure your bladder is completely empty. I learned that by leaning forward 11 seconds (don’t ask! 10 should do it too right?!) you’re able to get the last drops out. Same goes for alcohol make sure you drink water in between your cocktails to flush it out of your bladder faster.
• Take prio-biotics, I take them with the cranberry stuff in it to keep the urinary tract clean.
• Don’t hold your pee too long, when you gotta go, you gots to go!
• And we all wipe front to back right?!

Measure to take once you have one:

• Drink cranberry juice or take AZO cranberry urinary tract health pills.
• Drink lotsa water, chamomile tea, fennel tea.
• Increase your vitamin C intake.

I have flushed out a few infections with these methods back in the day, but I have learned that an antibiotic is better to avoid the infection to get worse or even spread.

While I am down there; kegels ladies….I have no experience with this nor do I need to as of yet. The one advantage of never having gone through labor is that I can jump on a trampoline and sneeze at the same time and still won’t pee even a little. I probably just jinxed that! But I have read that these exercises are effective…even for men. I promise once I get there I will give you more info on these.