Kidney and urine infections

[SB2015]

Having spent most of last night in A&E I was glad to make it home in the early hours of the morning after one dose of IV antibiotics and the rest in oral meds for two weeks.

Last time I ignored a pain in my back which proved to be a kidney infection and ended up with sepsis. This time I acted a lot more quickly, recognising the symptoms and picking up on steeply rising BG levels, a good while after my evening meal (6 hours).

I had had no kidney or urine infections prior to Diabetes diagnosis. Whilst I understand that any infection is fed by higher BG, why do we get more of these to star with.

 

[mikeyB]

Ladies get urinary infections more than men because of a design fault. The way the perineum is designed means that the urethra is too close to the anus, and is much shorter in women than men. Particularly in hot weather, the perineum is a sweaty area, and a swamp of bacteria both benign and malicious (in men, too). It’s not far for bacteria to travel up the urethra and cause bother. In men, the urethra is longer, so bacteria have less chance to reach the bladder before the next wee

The way to prevent this is drink plenty, wee plenty to flush the urethra regularly, and always have a wee after sexual activity. Theoretically going commando would help too, but that’s not always practical.

Men have it easy, naturally. And that’s why Eve ate the apple (probably a pomegranate, really). To acidify the urine to discourage infection. Then gets blamed for everything. Nothing ever changes.

 

[Amigo]

This is an excellent explanation that covers what Mike explained.

Excess sugar is often the reason why bacteria is more likely to grow in people with diabetes causing UTI’s but there’s other reasons outlined in the article;

https://www.thediabetescouncil.com/diabetes-and-urinary-tract-infections-things-you-need-to-know/

 

[SB2015]

This is an excellent explanation that covers what Mike explained.

Excess sugar is often the reason why bacteria is more likely to grow in people with diabetes causing UTI’s but there’s other reasons outlined in the article;

https://www.thediabetescouncil.com/diabetes-and-urinary-tract-infections-things-you-need-to-know/

Thanks Amigo. A useful link.

 

[SB2015]

Ladies get urinary infections more than men because of a design fault. The way the perineum is designed means that the urethra is too close to the anus, and is much shorter in women than men. Particularly in hot weather, the perineum is a sweaty area, and a swamp of bacteria both benign and malicious (in men, too). It’s not far for bacteria to travel up the urethra and cause bother. In men, the urethra is longer, so bacteria have less chance to reach the bladder before the next wee

The way to prevent this is drink plenty, wee plenty to flush the urethra regularly, and always have a wee after sexual activity. Theoretically going commando would help too, but that’s not always practical.

Men have it easy, naturally. And that’s why Eve ate the apple (probably a pomegranate, really). To acidify the urine to discourage infection. Then gets blamed for everything. Nothing ever changes.

Pomegranates are so much nicer than apples. Good to know that Eve was so sensible!!

 

[Bloden]

Oh, poor you, SB. Well done for spotting it so quickly.🙂

 

[Robin]

Ouch, SB, glad you got it sorted quickly!

 

[SB2015]

Thanks @Robin and @Bloden
It is so easy to think I don’t want to make a fuss, but I leant the hard way last time.
Managing to keep levels generally below 10 and using TBRs to good effect.
The Libre also makes life a lot easier.

 

[Northerner]

I hope you are feeling much better now @SB2015 🙂

 

[SB2015]

I hope you are feeling much better now @SB2015 🙂

Now home and feeling a lot better.
Looking forward to being able to reduce my insulin doses.
Still in 150%, and then fudgin the usual adjustments I make, such as for sitting in the car for a few hours.
I usually use a TBR of 140%, so went for 180% and dropped to 170 when Libre showed a dip and dropping.
Still at least the pump makes things like this much easier for me to manage