urinary tract infection – Peter Tan

Cloudy With A Chance Of UTI

Having lived with chronic kidney failure for the past seven years, I am especially observant of my urine every time I empty my bladder. There are two signs that I look out for in my urine: clarity and smell. Yes, I smell my own urine! Normally, it would be pale yellow in colour and clear.

The first emptying of my bladder this morning yielded a kidney dish-full cloudy urine. There were sediments at the bottom of the dish after I left it for a while. Cloudy urine is never a good sign. It could be the symptom for a number of serious problems like urinary tract infection (UTI) and acute kidney disorders.

This is not the first time I have had this problem. It appears once in a long while. I suspect I have mild bladder infection since there is some discomfort in that area and there is the urge to urinate more frequently. There is no fever and the urine smell is nothing out of the ordinary. Fever with bladder discomfort is a sure sign of urinary infection.

I am not too concerned yet as the cloudiness and the extra urge to urinate usually disappears after a day or two by drinking more water. I am increasing my fluid intake to flush out whatever that is inside there. Hopefully, the urine will be clear again by the end of the day and the extra urge would have disappeared as well.

Serum Creatinine At All-Time High

Serum creatinine result from blood taken on June 2 showed it hit 299umol/L. This is the highest level yet. It has never gone above 288umol/L before this. The threshold is 400umol/L after which I have to undergo dialysis regularly for the rest of my life. I hope this is just an abnormal spike. Or could it be the effect of the urinary tract infection that knocked me out in May?

Whacked Out By Fever

The one good thing about being sick is that no matter how unhealthy I felt before that I would feel all hale and hearty after I got better. This is how I am feeling right now. It is a matter of perception but I am not complaining. I had fever last Friday. It went away on Saturday and I felt well enough to participate in an accessibility audit at Kuala Lumpur Sentral with a group of students from University Malaya. Early Monday morning, I had fever again. It consistently hovered above 39C. I was nauseous, light-headed and had abdominal pains. My body was burning hot.

Wuan decided that I had delayed enough seeing a doctor for the persistent fever that has been plaguing me for the past few weeks. She duly took a one-day emergency leave and dragged me to SJMC. I was already feeling better when I reached the hospital. The urologist prescribed a one-week course of antibiotics for urinary tract infection and paracetamol for the fever. I also had to provide urine specimens for culture and sensitivity test to identify the bacteria that is causing the infection. I took the opportunity to ask him about the lump in my scrotum. He said that it will take a while for it to disappear.

Today is the second day I am on the antibiotics. The fever has not returned. I feel a little weak but generally I am almost my normal self again – a matter of perception that is. I have not eaten much since yesterday due to the nausea. I am going to take it easy for now. Wuan and I will be making a trip up north again soon and I want to be at my best of health to endure the long journey there and back. Besides, there is a lot of packing up that we need to do while we are in Penang and a lot of food that I am looking forward to eating while there.