If you’ve ever had a bladder infection (the common name for UTIs), then you know how very painful they can be.
If you haven’t, let me describe one for you:
Many times, you don’t realize right off what’s wrong.
You’re edgier than normal. You feel “different down there,” but you’re not sure. Then, you get the frequent urinating thing. Every two minutes.
It begins to be painful, sometimes there’s nothing to urinate but you feel ike you have to. I mean you feel like someone’s holding your foot and you’ve got to jump off a cliff.
You start drinking water like crazy thinking you can dilute it. You hear cranberry juice or pills help, so you run out and buy some and chug down a quart.
No matter what else you think you have to accomplish, you can’t.
You can’t think straight. There are no other thoughts but those of pain. Your lower abdomen aches. You wet your pants, you can’t help it, and you cry as you’re doing it.
You’re in absolute agony, and if you had a gun and could drive yourself to the pharmacy, you would hold it up for meds. For relief. I’m not kidding.
Even after you get the meds, it takes hours, if not days. You can run a fever. You snap at everybody, if you can even answer them. You find yourself running your fingers through your hair over and over. You avoid everyone.
This is a bladder infection.
The medical world acts like it isn’t a big deal, but I swear, if you had to live this way, and live with this undiagnosed, you might kill someone. They act like the second you get antibiotics it instantaneously goes away. But the overuse of antibiotics carry a consequence, according to the AMA.
Doctors and nurses pooh-pooh you if you’re young.
They think you’re amorous, having too much sex. Wink, wink. While that can be one cause, it’s not the only cause.
Women suffer greatly from UTIs (more than men, in general) in part due to their anatomy, a short urethra. Yeah, blame us.
But I know there are other reasons. Nerves, for one. I always get a bladder infection when something big is about to happen buying a house, passing a big test. And yes, I’m amorous (and monogamous). That’s a good thing.
UTIs are also serious and can be life threatening if left untreated.
But what would a UTI be like if you couldn’t communicate?
If you had ALS or Alzheimer’s, or some other impairment that kept you from realizing exactly what was going on? What if you didn’t want to tell your daughter, or your nurse that you wet yourself again and again? Would you be shamed? Who wants to change multiple sheets or panties?
Urinary tract infections in the elderly are very, very common.
Particularly in women, and even more so for those who live in a care facility.
And they often go untreated.
Why?
Too many to care for, perhaps. The elder’s inability to describe what’s happening.
UTIs in the elderly or in people with Alzheimer’s can affect not only their health, but can also lead to significant behavioral changes. In fact, if your loved one’s behavior has changed recently, even if they’re male, you should consider the possibility that they could have a UTI.
Just as with me, agitation or nervousness is a big indicator.
The person is concentrating to deal with the pain there’s nothing left for niceties. Check to see if they’re running a low grade fever, if they’ve soiled their underwear, if they’re more disoriented than usual.
Elders with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s, or other neurological disorders may not remember to urinate even their bodies and muscles begin to forget, to give off the proper signals, and this leads to a tract infection.
Those who have diabetes are also having a higher risk of a UTI because of changes in the immune system. Any disorder that suppresses the immune system raises the risk of a urinary infection.
If your male elder has an enlarged prostrate, that can impede urinary flow and cause an infection. So can a kidney stone.
People who are catheterized or have tubes placed into the bladder are more prone to urinary tract infection. (This is the highest group of all)
Caregivers, You Need to Know the Most Common Urinary Tract Infection Indications:
Frequent urination along with the feeling of having to urinate even though there may be very little urine to pass.
Nocturia: Need to urinate during the night.
Urethritis: Discomfort or pain at the urethral meatus or a burning sensation throughout the urethra with urination (dysuria).
Pain in the midline suprapubic region also known as flank pain and is also associated with kidney infections.
Pyuria: Pus in the urine or discharge from the urethra.
Hematuria: Blood in urine.
Cloudy and foul-smelling urine
Increased confusion and associated falls are common for elderly patients with UTI.
Some urinary tract infections are asymptomatic and difficult to detect.
Protein found in the urine.
Kidney Infection Indications:
All of the above symptoms plus:
Emesis: Vomiting.
Back, side (flank) or groin pain.
Abdominal pain or pressure.
Shaking chills and high spiking fever.
Extreme fatigue.
Testing for UTIs is usually a mid-flow urine test, and trust me, that can difficult in and of itself when dealing with an elder loved one.
The treatment for UTIs is antibiotics, but antibiotics have become overused and may not always be effective. Be sure to retest. Elderly individuals, both men and women, are more likely to harbor bacteria in their genitourinary system at any time, which means it just comes with old(er) age.
Care facilities are a medical necessity in many families lives for many reasons, but there is a higher incidence in care homes for UTIs. If you can care for your loved one at home for as long as possible and utilize the many community resources available to you and keep your elder on a consistent routine, your elder is better off.
But I know how hard this is. I cared for my mother at home for the last three years of her life, and I do know there comes a time when you can?t do any more than you’ve already done.
By at least being aware of UTIs and how they present themselves, you can keep your loved one from suffering from this very painful and frustrating ailment.
Don’t let your elder suffer in silence.
~Carol D. O’Dell is the author of Mothering Mother: A Daughter’s Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir
