Urinary Tract Infections

I have a small problem that I had before my Gastric Sleeve Surgery.  I have been getting Urinary Tract Infections for the past year.  I have seen a specialist and he cannot find a cause for these.   He said that I was just prone to get them.  He gave me a prescription to help ease the pain when they come up.  Well, now that I have had my surgery, I have had two of them.  Since I cannot drink as much water as I used to, I find it difficult to "flush them out".  The medicine that he gave me is in a capsule form, so I don't think that I can take them right now.  So, what should I do about this.  Any suggestions?

Can you drink cranberry juice?  Also, the capsules.. depending on how they are put together, can you open them and take the contents?  Maybe call your specialist and see if there is a liquid form you can take.  I'm sorry, I know those aren't any fun at all..  hope you get to feeling better soon.

I have had more UTIs than I can count (though none in several years). I finally found that the ONLY way to not get them was to drink as much water as possible. Cranberry juice never did much for me, sadly... There's no "magic" remedy to getting rid of them. It's a matter of making sure that enough water is filtering through your kidneys/bladder/urethra to prevent  a bacteria build up. I have learned to spot the signs of an impending attack (for me that would be bladder spasms) and up my water whenever I feel one coming on.

Sip water ALL DAY. Even if you can't get in much water at once (I know I sure can't), you can carry around a water bottle and sip from it throughout the day to get your intake up... If you are prone to getting UTIs, watch the color of your urine. The darker, the more likely one will occur; the lighter, the less likely. Also, if you decided to go the Cranberry juice route, be aware of the fact that juices contain lots of carbs and will likely trigger carb cravings (the nemesis of weight loss mode!). Sorry that I can't give a better answer, but getting as much water as you can is the only real way to keep UTIs at bay.

Good luck, hon. I wouldn't wish a UTI on my worst enemy!!

Debating whether to respond because this may be too much information but some things to help avoid UTI's.

• Make sure you are wiping front to back after a BM (seems logical but you never know!)
• Go pee after sex so anything that has entered that area gets flushed back out
• drink unsweetened cranberry juice
• wear cotton, not nylon undies
• pee often...don't hold it in
• stay away from baths...showers only

I used to get them quite often when I was younger but following these steps eliminated them.

For treating this one...how far out are you from surgery?  I've been able to swallow capsules since week 2.  I take probiotics.  It's scary at first because you hear of so many "got stuck" stories but you can do it...use liquid to flush them down.

Good luck!