‘I have to wee 30 times a day and can’t have sex - due to a UTI’
08.05.2022 - 11:57
/ ok.co.uk
Carrie Esson, 25, from North Lanarkshire, shares her story of horrific symptoms which have made her life a misery for years, and all because she suffers from a chronic Urinary Tract Infection... "I felt tears rolling down my face as I complained to the GP over the phone in March 2020, after finishing another three-day course of antibiotics. “No.
It’s still there,” I explained, frustrated. Lockdown restrictions meant I was unable to head to my local surgery in North Lanarkshire and instead, I was listening to the same misdiagnosis I’d heard countless times over a telephone appointment. I don’t remember a time when peeing didn’t cause acid-burning type pain, as my first memory of a urinary tract infection was aged just eight in 2005.
It became recurring at 15, when my doctor misdiagnosed thrush and it took three weeks to “clear”.Then, it kept returning – triggered by things like bubble baths, spicy food, certain underwear and swimming. At first, it returned every few months, then it became monthly, then every two weeks. I didn’t want to go out, I felt different from all the other girls.
"Drink cranberry juice, wipe from front to back and stay hydrated," was just some of the advice I was given in childhood. But little did I know, this was going to be my life for the next decade – and it was the same infection flaring and being misdiagnosed each time. Spending my teenage years at the GP every few weeks became the norm.
Ultrasounds, X-rays, CT scans, MRIs and a cystoscopy – you name it, I’d had it. But no urologist could ever find anything wrong with my bladder, despite the constant pain. I was prescribed antibiotics on-and-off for nine years, but the UTI would flare up again.