There are times when a person gets a urinary infection that it is impractical or impossible to see the doctor. In such cases, an attempt can be made to treat the urinary tract infection at home as long as the following are not present:
· You are not pregnant
· You have no frank blood in the urine
· You have no high fever
· You have no flank pain
If you have none of the above, it is likely an ordinary bladder infection and an attempt can be made to treat it at home. There are things you must do and there are things you must not do in order to have the best shot at treating the infection at home.
First, you need to drink as much water or other fluids as possible. Avoid caffeinated beverages and think about vitamin C-containing juices, such as fruit juices, tomato juice and other vegetable juices that contain some acid in it. What you are trying to do is to flush the bacteria out of the bladder by giving your bladder a lot of fluid and urinating often.
You should urinate as soon as you feel the urge. With a bladder infection, this may be frequently because bladder infections alone cause you to feel as though you have to urinate frequently. Urination may cause burning so take some ibuprofen or acetaminophen to block the burning sensation you are feeling.
There is a drug you can buy over the counter called pyridium. It is a small purple pill. Take one or two of these pills every eight hours. Pyridium acts as a local anesthetic in the bladder and urethra; it takes away much of the sense of having to urinate every five minutes and there is less burning on urination. One major side effect of taking pyridium is that it turns the urine bright orange and the orange color stains the underwear. Wear old underwear and wipe carefully.
You should consider taking a cranberry supplement in the form of a cranberry pill. It is an extract of cranberry that is much stronger than any drink of cranberry or other fruit juice you could come by. Take the cranberry pills as directed and know that they are acidifying the urine, keeping the bacteria from sticking to the walls of the bladder. This will help clear up the infection.
Some things you should not do include not having sexual intercourse. Sex involving penile penetration can push bacteria back up into the bladder, worsening your condition. You should also not use any douche product, deodorant spray or deodorant powder on the urethral area. These can irritate the bladder and the urethra and can worsen the symptoms.
If your symptoms are getting better, you can keep this up for 3-4 days or until the symptoms resolve. If they do not resolve, consider seeing the doctor for further evaluation and for some kind of antibiotic that will take care of the infection for good.