@susan82, @naturegirl5, and all...Hello, fellow UTI'ers...I just got home from the hospital a couple of days ago after calling rescue to take me to the ED. Rescue thought I was having a heart attack at the time. In the ED they said it was a false positive, I was very dehydrated, etc. I'd had diarrhea and vomiting for a couple of hours before calling for help.

I hadn't felt well for about a month or so, didn't have any idea why and was getting worse. Last Tuesday, at about 4 o'clock I felt much worse and had bloating, pain in my left back, nauseous, and crawled into bed not understanding the problem. After the intestinal stuff began, I realized I needed help.

The ED put me on 2 IV antibiotics plus lots of fluids, of course. Funny thing, I drank the same amount of water and fluids that day I always do. I have heart failure and edema is always around, so I must balance the fluid intake with outgo. Nothing was different. The ED doctor said I was dehydrated and had some kind of abdominal infection. To this moment, the stool cultures are all normal.

When I was admitted to the hospital 24 hours later, I requested a urine test as they didn't do one in ED. Last year, I had 4-5 UTI episodes, one with sepsis and all with extremely high numbers-protein, bacteria, red blood cells, etc all out of sight. With several of those UTIs, there were no symptoms. None other than feeling lousy. I didn't think that was possible. I hadn't had a UTI for several years until last year, so all this was from nowhere. I have autoimmune diseases and other health issues but had stopped having UTIs. Then, one right after another.

I was on different antibiotics at different times. With sepsis, I had 2 IV antibiotics and a 10-day oral antibiotic. It cleared. But, another one a couple of months later. This really got my attention and now I'm hypersensitive about getting this infection and the problems it can cause. The urine test results were again out-of-sight numbers. I had a raging UTI~undetected. And, for the first time ever I had high calcium crystals. I don't take calcium and eat only yogurt as my calcium source.

The follow-up urine test later that afternoon was normal except for the high calcium crystals. The abdominal CT didn't show any issues other than fluid. So, was discharged the following day.

I called nephrology for insight into the urine results, no symptoms, how do I keep this from happening again...I think the entire episode was due to the UTI, it caused diarrhea and vomiting and other discomforts that led to dehydration and hospital. With no usual symptoms, what do I do?

I just got an email that the nephrologist wants to see me. This really concerns me regarding my kidneys, possible stones, etc. Does any of this make sense?
Thanks for any suggestions or insight you may have.
Blessings to all...Elizabeth