Bloody Bladder

I must tell you about what happened several months ago when I was out of town to visit my friends. I had been feeling for a few days like I might be developing a yeast infection. My vagina was burning more than normal. So when I was heading out of town on Friday morning, I stopped at CVS to buy some Monistat. I bought the 3 day ovule, which I've never tried before. Side note: the 1-day dose, ovule or cream, does not work. I know it sucks, but you have to get at least a 3-day dose.

So anyway, I drove about 7 hours to have a girls weekend with all of my college friends. My vagina continued to burn, but I figured it was just a yeast infection. That night, we hung out in a hot tub. I know, those of you who know about yeast infections are screaming, why? Why would you get in a hot tub?! I guess I just wanted to be normal and to enjoy normal things like normal people do.

Before I went to bed that night I inserted the first of the 3-dose ovule to hopefully start killing the yeast. That night was the most painful night that I have ever experienced in my life. My vagina burned like nothing I have ever felt. It was so intense and I hardly got any sleep. I suffered throughout the night just waiting for morning to come; it was like torture. I finally got up around 5:30 (one friend had a baby and was up as well). I told her how much pain I was in and we started looking up what clinics were around that I could go to (remember, I was out of town and unable to call my own doctor, plus it was the weekend). The clinics all opened at 9am so I was planning to wait until then, but the pain continued to get exponentially worse.Then I went to the bathroom and my urine was pink! At this point I completely freaked out. I tearfully told me friends that I was peeing blood and that I could not wait until 9:00 to go to the clinic. My friend took me to the emergency room. By that time my condition had worsened still and the urine sample that I gave them was completely red and mostly blood. It turns out that I had a bladder infection that was so bad that my bladder was actually bleeding. I have had a few bladder infections before, but never ever like this. I've never had blood or this amount of pain before. So anyway, the doctor gave me a prescription for pain pills and antibiotics (the bane of any yeast sufferer's existence). I also demanded a prescription for Diflucan because there is a 100% chance that if I take an antibiotic I will get a yeast infection. I will say now that the fact that I used Monistat had nothing to do with my condition worsening. Monistat normally is very affective. I just self-diagnosed incorrectly and the Monistat was not what I needed, so it would have gotten worse either way.

So of course the ER takes forever, but approximately 4 hours later I was finally on my way back and approximately 1 hour after that my pain was significantly alleviated. However, it was not even close to gone and I was still in a lot of pain and discomfort. All the other times I've had bladder infections, the pain medicine has done the trick, but this time I guess it wasn't quite enough. And I actually went through the 3-day supply of pain pills and was still in significant pain so I asked my doctor for a refill. When I went to refill it, the pharmacy wouldn't do it because I had gotten the prescription too recently before that. I understand that they have to follow strict drug rules so I do not blame them for that, but that night was really painful for me. Luckily it subsided the next day.
I asked the doctor if he knew of any reason why this might happen and he said it was kind of just like a perfect storm. It had already been building when I got in the car for 7 hours of sitting and not drinking enough water, then I got in the hot tub, and on top of all that I'm very susceptible to all "down there" problems. And then the next day I had to drive back another 7 hours. It sucked, but I did try to stay hydrated and just make more stops to use the bathroom.

I'm so glad my friend was with me at the hospital. Obviously my husband was not there because I was out of town, so I was really glad that at least I was with very close and supportive friends. She also brought some much needed humor to the situation my naming my condition "bloody bladder", which really made me laugh.

So, yeast infections, bladder infections (sometimes bloody), pain with intercourse, burning vagina. This is my life. It's always something. Maybe this was just an anomaly, but I find that hard to believe. They have to all be connected, right? It's just a little too coincidental.