UTI symptoms, previous TMS, advice

Hello!

A bit of backstory: I’ve always been a perfectionist, and overachiever, and for most of my life I attributed my success and my self worth to being both of these things. In 2013 I started my undergraduate degree at a high pressure University and by the end of term one developed chronic pain in both my wrists. By the end of the year I had seen 10 different doctors, been diagnosed with RSI and the pain was so bad I had to take a year out. 18 months into my pain journey, I came across TMS. As I read the book, pain lanced throughout my body and it clicked into place, I could see myself on so many pages, and within months I was 95% better.

I thought that was it, my happy ending. I’d done the work and figured out perfectionism, people pleasing and repressing my emotions was not in fact the key to my success but the key to my self destruction. Occasionally, I’d get a twinge of pain and take it as a sign to reassess what pressures were on me at that point in time, but I essentially thought I was done.

Present day: last week it suddenly occurred to me that the recurrent UTIs I’ve been getting for the last 3 years might not be exactly what they seem. A couple of times the tests have come back negative for infection, the doctors give me the medication anyway, I felt better but then the pain/itching/burning would return within a matter of months. It has now got to the point where it consumes much of my mind with fear of what might trigger it, what might make it worse, or what might make it better - just like my wrist pain did.

Part of me is disheartened that I’m back here again, that the doing the work didn’t ‘fix’ me (but maybe that is my perfectionism talking). Part of me is worried that if doing the work didn’t work the first time what is to say it will a second time, and what if my life continues to be a carousel of different health issues. Another part of me is worried my UTI like pain hasn’t gone away like my wrist pain did when I figured out that was TMS, so maybe it’s not TMS this time after all. While it makes a lot of sense that it could be TMS, I haven’t totally convinced myself and thought I’d look to this forum for some advice.

 

Hi Starchild, I'm not in the right place at the moment to offer any deep and meaningful advice, however ..... UTI's are something I have encountered over many many years and have had my health journey interrupted by antibiotics more times than I wish to think about. When it appeared about 3 years ago I was told it a resistant strain and required full-on serious antibiotic which I gobbled up, although I was told it would reoccur. I didn't want to rely on this type of "cure" so I turned to D-Mannose powder and when it did reoccur a month later, I took the powder for two days, I think, and haven't had any signs of it since. I'm in Oz, so buy it here, but google it anyway and see how it looks to you. I have recommended it often and actually slip it into my case whenever I travel. cheers, marls

 

Hi Marls, thanks for your message and your advice, hope all is well with you. I did some research a month ago and started taking d-mannose powder along with probiotics, which seemed positive for a few weeks but the symptoms returned nonetheless which was part of my wondering if perhaps this might be TMS mimicking UTI symptoms for me