29-year-old female. I’m sharing my lab work below since I can’t upload a picture. I visited the ER on 11/05/24 and was diagnosed with a UTI. I’ve been experiencing symptoms for months now, including extremely foul-smelling urine (which is new for me) that lingers even after flushing. I’ve also been very nauseous, and both of my kidneys have been hurting. (I have hydronephrosis in my left kidney, so I often feel pain there during a UTI even if it hasn’t progressed to a kidney infection. I never get the typical burning feeling, and I usually wait a long time to get checked because the process feels like a revolving door.) My temperature peaked at 99.7, and I had diarrhea a few times just before going to the ER. I received more results tonight confirming it’s an E. Coli UTI. I’m currently taking cephalexin four times a day. Should I return to the ER or an Urgent Care? Am I at risk for sepsis because I delayed treatment for so long? I can’t see my primary doctor because they aren’t very helpful and it takes forever to get an appointment. Here are my results: WBC: >60/hpf (Abnormal), RBC: 10-20/hpf (Abnormal), Bacteria: Moderate, Epithelial Cells: 0-5/hpf, Mucus: Many, Color: Yellow, Clarity: Cloudy, Specific Gravity: 1.025, pH: 6.0, Leukocyte Esterase: 3+, Nitrite: Positive, Protein: 2+, Glucose: Negative, Ketones: Negative, Bilirubin: Negative, Blood: 1+, Culture: >100,000 CFU/ML Escherichia coli.
There is no reason to go back to the ER as long as you are already on antibiotics. The medical staff will review the culture results to make sure the antibiotic is effective; if it isn’t, they will reach out to prescribe a different one. Just keep taking the Keflex and you should start feeling better, as E. coli is usually very responsive to most antibiotics.