Do you still need to treat E-coli at 100xE6 cfu/L ?

[SCI-Nurse]

And please don't wait for fever/chills(this would mean in your blood stream and you are septic)- look for things like-leaking around catheter, fatigue, increased spasms, pain in sp area--something that is there and you have increased your fluid, changed tubes/bags, done what you can--- but have mild symptoms so go in, donate your urien for ua and culture and takes 3-5 days to get back and then if you are worse or the same- take the meds. So don't take too early without symptoms but don't wait too late! or you will be an emergency and possibly be admitted!!!
CWO

[mustang3]

Originally Posted by SCI-Nurse

What are your symptoms of "UTI"?????
Colonization or true UTI? and Sptube is going to do what? evidence doesn't show it necessarily decreases UTI.(maybe in a female?)
You still have a direct route to your bladder.
CWO

i think it's more the amount of scar tissue in my urethra, does scar tissue not promote bacteria within it more so that normal tissue?

[mustang3]

Originally Posted by SCI-Nurse

And please don't wait for fever/chills(this would mean in your blood stream and you are septic)- look for things like-leaking around catheter, fatigue, increased spasms, pain in sp area--something that is there and you have increased your fluid, changed tubes/bags, done what you can--- but have mild symptoms so go in, donate your urien for ua and culture and takes 3-5 days to get back and then if you are worse or the same- take the meds. So don't take too early without symptoms but don't wait too late! or you will be an emergency and possibly be admitted!!!
CWO

things have picked up with my symptoms...head aches..general pain and lack of energy...I started the meds this afternoon

[gjnl]

Originally Posted by mustang3

i think it's more the amount of scar tissue in my urethra, does scar tissue not promote bacteria within it more so that normal tissue?

Actually, infection can cause growth of scar tissue in the urinary tract, for example in the urethra, that causes obstruction and problems with urination. Whether that scar tissue harbos more bacteria than normal tissue in the urethra, I don't know.

Unless you are having a lot of spasms which are causing leakage, you shouldn't be experiencing urine in or retained in the urethra. Women may have more difficulty than men with bacteria entering the urethra, because the female urethra is short. Probably the most frequent cause of urinary tract infections in women with or without spinal cord injury or other neurogenic bladder conditions is bacteria entering the urethra during bathing or toileting.

All the best,
GJ

[thehipcrip]

Originally Posted by gjnl

Probably the most frequent cause of urinary tract infections in women with or without spinal cord injury or other neurogenic bladder conditions is bacteria entering the urethra during bathing or toileting.

Actually, sexual activity is the leading risk factor for UTIs in women.

[mustang3]

Originally Posted by gjnl

Actually, infection can cause growth of scar tissue in the urinary tract, for example in the urethra, that causes obstruction and problems with urination. Whether that scar tissue harbos more bacteria than normal tissue in the urethra, I don't know.

Unless you are having a lot of spasms which are causing leakage, you shouldn't be experiencing urine in or retained in the urethra. Women may have more difficulty than men with bacteria entering the urethra, because the female urethra is short. Probably the most frequent cause of urinary tract infections in women with or without spinal cord injury or other neurogenic bladder conditions is bacteria entering the urethra during bathing or toileting.

All the best,
GJ

no spasms...flaccid bladder, Im a T-12 complete and have never had a spasms since day one. As for leakage...I've been experiencing that for some time and I'm sure that is causing a lot of problems.

with the scar tissue form my last surgery I regularly have upwards of 20cc trapped between my sphincter and the surgical site between caths. As soon as I insert my cath the moment it gets past the scar tissue the trapped urine makes it's way into the cath and it's always very thick in nature. Any time I do a pressure release there would always be leakage...it's like my sphincter relaxes

[dwhess]

Any Suggestions on a leaky intermenit cathier
I was just in the hosptial for 5 weeks and the changed it to a larger one. When I got back home after one week, the nurse canged it back to my normal one. Now I wake up to a wet bedding.
Will it groe bake to the normal one, the large one for obtaining clean urin and the twice larger bag for the hospital caused discomfert.
Thanks for your help

[SCI-Nurse]

As long as the bladder is drained it doesn't matter the size of the catheter and you shouldn't have leaking in betweeen if emptied. Make sure she pushes lightly on the lower abdomen ande makes sure you are empty before removing the catheter. That is the only thing that I think would make a difference- if yo weren't empty when she removed the catheter then you might leak in between due to overflow.
CWO

[Sue Pendleton]

dwhess, are you taking Ditropan, Detrol or something like those for the leaking? And did they switch you to a foley in the hospital? Sometimes a foley especially with a larger diameter takes a bit to recover from as your bladder tends to shrink a bit but shouldn't be that much after just 5 weeks.

[SCI-Nurse]

Sue is right- 5 weeks is not that long. I would definitely look into why you are spasm'ing around the catheter. Medication may help it to calm down. You also may want to drink some fluid before you go to bed to see if you can get the bladder to calm down from colonization of bacteria. I know it sounds weird, but you might want to give it a try.
CKF