e. coli (sp?), penicilin and pregnancy...

Ok, I don't know if anyone is going to be able to help me with this. Brighid, maybe you can...
Ok, I'll kinda give the run down of everything that has been going on in the last few months and what led to this.
When I was 19 weeks pregnant, I started to bleed. It was a pretty decent amount of blood, so we went to the hospital. The midwife on call did a speculum (sp?) exam, and said that there was no blood coming from the cervix, and she determined that it was coming from the urethra. I dropped off a urine sample the next day at the lab for a urinalysis, and they ended up sending the results back to my family doc stupidly, who called me and told me I had a bladder infection and needed to be on antibiotics. Well, the same day, I got a call from my midwife who said they had also recieved the results, and it said that they were "contaminated."
So, 2 pieces of info from the same test. Both suggested that I do it again, and to make sure that I clean real well with the obstetical wipes that they give you.
So, that was what I did. And the results came back the same: my family doc said I had a bladder infection, and my midwife said that it was "contaminated" again.
Now, I thought that it was fishy that my family doctor kept saying that I had a bladder infection, since I: 1) had no symptoms, and 2) he has been telling me that I have had a "bladder infection" since I was like 6. He checks every time I see him, even if I have no symptoms, and always says that I have an infection.

Well, I thought this was downright weird, so my midwife set up an appointment with a doctor at the University Hospital in the city at the disease clinic. She asked me a ton of questions and started to ask why I had not had all these bizzar exams done to me that I have never even heard of before.
So, she then had my go to the lab at the hospital where they tested for everything under the sun.
I got a call back about a week later, and she told me that I have e. coli bacteria (I hope i'm spelling that right). If I'm not mistaken, do we not already have e.coli in our bodies, but it's "controlled?" When I was doing my biology course, I remember skiming across something about that.

Anyway, she put me on amoxicillan (sp?), and told me that it was immidiate that I start to take it 3 times a day for a week, then I need to go back to the hospital a week later for more tests, and on September 4th, I need to go in for an ultrasound of my kidneys.

This has been such a whirl-wind of stuff that I don't know where to start asking questions. Is the penicilin safe for me to be taking right now? She also said that she was going to wait until I had to baby to do the utlrasound but that this was an emergency and that I need to get in ASAP. I'm freaked right out. I have an appointment with my midwife tomorrow, so I can ask then, but there has been so much miscommunication between my midwife, my doctors, the labs, and these doctors in the city that I have been the sole information provider, and it seems like I'm having to provide more answers than I'm having answered.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, and maybe someone has some idea about this e.coli stuff.....I dont know the first thing about it!

 

Although I am not an MD or a midwife, I have 3 kids, I am an RN, a prepared childbirth educator, a certified lactation counselor and I worked as a L&D and newborn nursery nurse for 6 years.

First of all you should find out the specific results of your UA(urinalysis). Unless the bacteria count is over 100,000 it is not considered "infection". Also, they should have done a C&S(culture and sensitivity) which involves seeing if anything grows in a petri dish over a three day period.

Next, you are correct: we all have e-coli on us but not in our urine. Usually you would have symptoms other than blood if you truly had a urinary tract &/or bladder infection, such as: burning when you pee, feeling like you have to pee often and then only peeing a small amount or none, pain when peeing and/or bladder spasms and lower back pain.

There are other possible reasons for the blood.

As for the antibiotics - they are not harmful for you or the baby during pregnancy. However, a raging infection, no matter what bacteria responsible, can cause pre-term labor or spread to the blood stream if not treated. Prescription antibiotics are not your only option, though. Cranberry juice and/or cranberry tablets along with increased amounts of water can be very effective in treating UTI's.

Lastly, if you do choose to take antibiotics please be sure to eat yogurt daily to avoid getting a yeast infection.

I hope this has helped you. If you have other questions feel free to PM me.

Peace2u.......................Tammy

 

Tammy pretty much covered it....sometimes UTI's are asymptomatic, and there are no other symptoms. Antibiotics are definately safer than having a bladder infection, which can cause pre-term labor, kidney damage, or a systemic infection.


I'd recommend you take the antibiotics, and when they are finished, get some pro-biotics at the health food store and add a teaspoon to your food or drink twice a day for 2 week,s then once a day until you have the baby.
AVOID fruit juices, simple carbs like white bread, pasta, rice, etc, bladder infections LOVE sugars! Eat only plain, unflavored yogurt.
You can take CranActin, which is a cranberry enzyme, and works much better than juice, which has a lot of sugar. And drink TONS of water! Flush out your urinary tract. You should pee clear as water.

 

I don't have a UTI or bladder infection at all, though. There is no sign of one at all, it's just the e. coli that's showing up.....I only wrote the thingy-ma-bob about the bladder infection because my family doc kept just jumping to that as a diagnosis, which was totally wrong.

 

If your urine tested positive for e.coli, then you have a UTI. You don't have to have signs and symptoms like pain, burning, urgency, a UTI is not always a bladder infection.

e.coli is th emost common cause of UTI in women, it's just the way we're built.

 

OHHHHH, that makes more sense now!!!!!! Yeah, when I asked my midwife about it yesterday, she was saying that everything is normal...I was totally confused...she was saying the same kinda things you guys were.
Unfourtenately the doctor I was dealing with in the city was really hard to understand and didn't give very good explainations of what she was saying.
but thanks sooooooooo much for clearing that up!!!