[mountain mama]

I really need help. My husband is a C-5 quad. His injury was 6 years ago. Thirteen years ago he had a liver transplant and is on immunosuppressants. He gets UTI's so frequently that our hospital bills are unbelievable. We need some advice. Oral antibiotics rarely work any more for him. He has had to be hospitalized for sepsis many times. Does anyone have some advice for us? He has an indwelling catheter. I have severe rheumatoid arthritis and worry that if we go back to in and out caths, I will have trouble with it. I do not have much use of my hands

[Tetracyclone]

Mountain Mama,
No quick fixes here, as you all are in a Very difficult situation.
You could try seeing a chinese herbalist and getting herbal pills and diet advice from them. You can try keeping his urine PH steady between 6.5 and 7 (again with diet), and using D-mannose.

have you tried a diet based approach before?

Best of luck.

[mountain mama]

Tetracyclone, on Jan 16 2010, 11:39 AM, said:

Mountain Mama,
No quick fixes here, as you all are in a Very difficult situation.
You could try seeing a chinese herbalist and getting herbal pills and diet advice from them. You can try keeping his urine PH steady between 6.5 and 7 (again with diet), and using D-mannose.

have you tried a diet based approach before?

Best of luck.

I just heard about D-mannose from a new nurse. Does it really help? She told me about using it with a cranberry pill.

[dangerousdave]

Do not use D-Mannose and Cranberry at the same time
My preferance is to take D-Mannose before bed and Cranberry juice in the morning
It works for me
D-Mannose stopped my reaccuring infections
But it only works for e-coli infections

This post has been edited by dangerousdave: 16 January 2010 - 04:23 PM

[jules]

As Dangerousdave says D-Mannose and cranberry are an option, I didn't know they were only effective against e-coli, however e-coli is by far the most common cause of UTIs

[Trinity]

Tetracyclone, on Jan 16 2010, 02:39 PM, said:

You could try seeing a chinese herbalist and getting herbal pills and diet advice from them.

Please be very careful about mixing herbal drugs with immunosuppressants, the last thing you want is to reject the liver because of interactions between them

[jules]

I second what Trin says about mixing even herbal drugs with immunosupressants. A friend of mine was on herbal treatment for severe Excema and they turned out to be hepatotoxic, and he had to come off them. I am immunosupressed myself and have had more problems with UTIs and other infections (even my eyes) since I started treatement.

[Tetracyclone]

Trinity, on Jan 23 2010, 05:27 AM, said:

Tetracyclone, on Jan 16 2010, 02:39 PM, said:

You could try seeing a chinese herbalist and getting herbal pills and diet advice from them.

Please be very careful about mixing herbal drugs with immunosuppressants, the last thing you want is to reject the liver because of interactions between them

Thanks, Trin. Once again you have to remind me of something I should have though of.