Mrs Ho hum was very unwell 2 weeks ago and ended up in hospital for 5 days with a kidney infection.

She finished her course of anti-biotics at the beginning of this week and has a big kidney function test coming up on Monday.

During the night she started getting a dull pain again in the same kidney. Given what happened a fortnight ago we are not messing around this time and she is going back to the doctor first thing this morning.

Is it normal to get pain again after having had a kidney infection?

I must admit that I am getting slightly concerned…

Erm, I had a bad infection over Xmas and I spent 4 nights in hospital too. I came out ok, ABio’s did it for me too but the numb pain didn’t really subside until about 8-9weeks after the initial “WTF” I tried riding but found I was unable to bend very well, so ended up doing lots of walking and hill climbing (walking) eventually it passed and I’ve been fit as ever since.
I was told, by Dr Doogy Houser MD, that 3 months is the norm to recover, though I took less than that, I’m still on occasion worried as it hurt like hell.
I’d say if you’ve any issues go back straight away to Dr Doogy Houser MD pretty sharpish..

Alwyas check temperature, infection will always casue elevated temp. IR ear thermometer best. If not then recehck in 4 hrs just to be sure, and if the pain was only when lying in bed then most likely just kidney sore from the infection.

When in hospital, they cultured the urine and know what bacteria it is that populated (ususally E.coli) so ask them and ask them to explain where they think it came from and how they think it migrated up the urinary tract.

I’ve had a few kidney infections in my time. By some way, the most painful thing I’ve ever experienced.

I seemed to get several in a short space of time, and then had less severe recurrences over a few years, but happily not had any problems for at least 5 or 6 years now. So, in my experience it’s not unusual to get recurrent problems. If it’s at all linked to kidney stones (either on their own, or causing the infection), these take a while to break down, so won’t just disappear.

I found that drinking lots (and I mean LOTS) of water helped considerably.

HTH

Oh and one more trick. Get some urine sample bottles from GP/A&E 9), if worred about infection take sample to A&E and ask them to dip test it (machine does it now, but its called the same when they used to stick special sticks in it). If feeling sick/elevated temp and there is more than a trace of blood, its a good potential early warning. They put you on a broad spectrun antiB and culture the urine the determine if you need soemthing else. Urinary bacteria are high risk in terms of developing resistance to the common antiBs.

Thank you for the feedback.

Wife saw a GP this morning and the infection is still present because her white blood cell count is still elevated so they have given her a further week’s worth of anti-biotics and she has been told to rest plenty.

Hmmm, unfortunately presence of leukocytes alone is not indicator of kidney infection. A common cold will cause leukocytes in urine. It has to be taken in context of a) concentration of Leu, b) presence of blood and protein c) presence of nitrates, plus fever and maybe a continuous ache in kidney.

She could just still have population of the bladder, which should not necessarily be treated in absence of fever. When kindey is uder attack it tends to let blood (and protein) pass – if these are not present then it indicated a lower urinary only.

Also, did the doc send the urine sample he dipped off for culture? And, did he check what was cultured last time to be sure that it want resistant to the antiB he just prescribed?

However, its not uncommon for an opportunisitc secondary colonisation, and another course of antiB shouldnt do any harm – its just that after 5 yrs of managing chronic urinary condition in my daughter bitter experience has taughts that you need to understand & validate proposed treatment.