urinary tract infections, etc

Jake, who lost his 29 year old wife to a mystery infection a few weeks ago, FINALLY HAS SOME ANSWERS about her illness.

It appears the precipitating infection was likely a urinary tract infection that turned into a kidney infection. She had mentioned to him that she might have a UTI, and he noticed after she was hospitalized that she had been Googling "pelvic tenderness."

This really made me think.

I have been prone to UTIs all my life. I had my first one, requiring hospitalization, before I was three years old. I had my most recent one while I was pregnant last month. The midwife discovered that I had a "raging" UTI about a week before I miscarried. I think it's likely that I got the infection from an unecessary catheterization I'd agreed to while having some tests run at a local hospital the week before that. (I agreed to the catheter because I was just wanting to get out of there after being there many hours). Interestingly, in the comments BELOW JAKE"S POST about finding out his wife had a UTI, someone says she believes she got a bad infection from a a catheter.

I will never know if the infection caused the miscarriage, but it certainly complicated things. I was on antibiotics for several weeks - until last week.

In general, like lots of women, I tend to ignore UTI symptoms. They rarely make you sick, unless they make you VERY sick. And Jake's loss reminds me that they are nothing to ignore and mess with. This was a good reminder for me. I tend to avoid ever going to the doctor and had really avoided even routine, commonsense check-ups for several years until my recent pregnancy.

Now I am going to get serious about making sure I get all my check-ups, and don't ignore "minor" infections, and just generally take better care of myself. I owe it to myself and to my children and husband and the rest of my family. And I really appreciate Jake sharing this information with all his readers, because it was a kick in the pants I needed to make a commitment to take better care of myself.

It also reminds me how lucky I am to have health insurance and how much more difficult it is for the millions of Americans who do not.

So I'm talking publicly here about less-than-pleasant stuff like urinary tract infections and catheters and death in hopes that maybe some of you who have been putting off getting that check-up, or going to the doctor about that nagging "little" problem will pick up the phone today and call the doctor.

Do it in B.J.'s memory.