No Pain Relief for UTI

[ShadowNurse]

My part-time job is as a community health nurse for an autism organization. I go to the independent living homes in the area and keep up the health needs of the residents. Today when I visited a home, the house manager said that one of the residents was currently being treated for a UTI, and that UTIs are a recurrent problem for the women in the house who do not clean themselves well. I asked if there was Pyridium being administered for pain while the resident had antibiotic treatment. The house manager had never heard of it, and had not been given a prescription. I was honestly upset. She said these patient are often overlooked when it comes to pain control.

I was so upset. UTIs are so painful, and the medication is easy to obtain. I wrote down the brand name for the house manager and I know she will follow up and have a prescription obtained. It just really bothered me today.

[Kooky Korky, BSN, RN]

Good for you! UTI's can be very painful. Thank you for being knowledgeable and for starting the ball rolling.

A doctor once told me that Pyridium was unnecessary for a UTI pt because the antibiotic would start working quickly. My relative has had 2 UTI's that I recall. The first was awfully, the 2nd barely - she had only frequency, no cloudy urine, no pain, no fever, but she felt something was amiss and the doc gave her an antibiotic, which did kick in pretty quickly.

Still, I think every doctor and APRN should have at least 1 severely painful UTI so they understand the need for pain relief before the antibiotic starts giving them relief.

[Oldmahubbard]

24-48 hours of agony before the AB kicks in. That's been my experience.

[llg, PhD, RN]

On 9/12/2019 at 7:47 AM, Kooky Korky said:

Still, I think every doctor and APRN should have at least 1 severely painful UTI so they understand the need for pain relief before the antibiotic starts giving them relief.

I had a satisfying conversation with my doctor a couple of years ago when that is what happened. She had always been good about writing the Pyridium prescription ... but ... when I went in for a routing visit, she commented that she had finally gotten her first UTI. And boy, did she now have a better understanding of why patients were so insistent on being seen quickly, getting their meds quickly, and including Pyridium! She said she had no idea how painful a UTI can be until she got one herself.

By the way ... you can buy it over the counter now in small dosages.

[amoLucia]

Just thinking about pyridium and the autistic population you serve. ORANGE COLOR!

Might that group of pts be frightened by the orangey color they'll start to pee?

Also there might be the problem of leakage and subsequent staining.

I an see where diligent pt & staff teaching may be strongly needed.

Have been there & know that.

[Oldmahubbard]

Neon orange, if I might add... stains the fingers that touch a pill, too

[hppygr8ful, ASN, RN, EMT-I]

There is actually this strange belief that persons with Intellectual disabilities (Got to get with the new standard nomenclature) have very high pain tolerance for everything from UTI's minor surgeries and dental surgeries. For 6 years I fought with physicians about this only to be rebuffed. It's one of the reasons I left.

Hppy