Still not right

Pain down below. Not really painful when weeing, but doesn't feel quite right. Feeling like I need to shit all the time too. Link between cystitis and diarrhoea - first time I've read of someone else having this issue.

No joy at the Doctors'

Well, the doctor refused to give me any more antibiotics until my urine has been cultured. I guess this is sensible, given all the problems with over-prescribing antibiotics. But the problem from my point of view is that the trimethoprim will have been effective enough to make my sample show up as clean, but not effective enough to knock the cystitis on the head :( Tried to talk to the Doctor about this, but he just told me that if the sample was clean, that meant there wasn't a bacterial infection at the root of the problem. Same old, same old. In the meantime, going to start taking the Chinese herbs again, and then got the reflexology appointment on Wednesday.

Trimethoprim

Doctor gave me trimethoprim on Friday. I told her that it never used to work for me, but she wanted me to try it anyway, as it's been a while since I've had it, and she thought maybe the immunity my bugs had built up to it might have abated. It has definitely helped - I'm feeling much, much better - but the cystitis hasn't completely gone. Have another doctor's appointment later to discuss it. Hate dumping loads of antibiotics into my body, but had a terrible time a few years ago when had cystitis almost continuously for eight or nine months. Doctors kept giving me trimethoprim and claiming I couldn't possibly still have cystitis when I said it hadn't cleared it. Was weeing blood most of the time, and couldn't leave the house. Not one of those doctors did a pee test. Finally managed to impress on one of them the seriousness of the situation. She gave me some other antibiotics and the infection finally cleared. Trouble was, because I'd had it for so long, my bladder was fucked, and I was pretty much incontinent. Waking up every half hour twenty minutes from around 5am, and then if I needed to go whilst out, I needed to go instantly. Had to be treated with oxybutynin, which sorted things out. But really, really don't want to go there again.

Off work again

Woke up feeling much better. But then had a painful attack that got worse and worse until decided couldn't deal with work, and had to come home. Now has calmed down. Not sure if partly due to worrying about having to run out of meeting :( Got a doctor's appointment at 3, and going to see a reflexologist on Wednesday.

Still burning

Felt much better by lunchtime yesterday. However, woke up in pain this morning, which has slowly got worse. Likely causes:

• Rooibos tea - seems to hurt bladder.
• Black tea this morning - really sore after that.
• Stress - got very upset last night after an argument with A. Also incredibly stressed about work to point where feel can't cope.

Have made some barley water today, and also had some sodium citrate, together with probiotics, cranberry tablets, and Chinese herbs. But not doing so well right now. Need to get life under control with some meditation.

Cystitis again :(

Well, the last episode eventually cleared up - I stopped drinking tea and coffee, and it finally went. Now, however, I've got cystitis once more. This time, I had to take ampicillin for a gum infection around my wisdom tooth. It gave me diarrhoea and thrush. Yesterday morning we had sex before getting up. First time in what feels like ages, used a condom, but nevertheless, I woke up at 2.30am this morning with cystitis and the shits. Took some sodium citrate and a paracetamol, and also drank a few cups of hot water, but too painful to get back to sleep. Suspect this time, problem caused by the fact that I hadn't washed, have diarrhoea (so probably higher concentration of bacteria than normal down there), and probably also imbalance in the internal ecosystem as a result of taking the antibiotics. Did put a probiotic capsule inside yesterday to try and sort out the thrush/prevent cystitis from occurring. Has helped with the thrush at least. It would be so good to be free from problems with my lady garden.

Ongoing lady garden problems

Well, the episode of cystitis I last told you about never quite cleared up. Then I got up to things last weekend that made it worse. It hasn't been really bad this week, but there is residual pain. It hurts if I don't drink enough water, and my lower back and lower belly towards my groin are tender to the touch. I've been attempting to treat it with Chinese herbs, homemade barley water, cranberry squash, and cranberry tablets (although I know the latter are supposed to be more effective for prevention rather than cure). But it hasn't quite gone. I inserted a probiotic yesterday. But I'm a bit wary of doing this now, as I'm pretty sure the terrible thrush is actually an overgrowth of friendly bacteria. The doctor told me it was thrush, but it doesn't feel quite like thrush, and it came on after I had inserted two capsules in an effort to get rid of the cystitis a few months ago. There's info here. Luckily, it turns out that this is easily treated by having a bath in baking soda. Happy bladders, people. More from me later...