Urinary tract infections are one of the most common women’s health problems in the world. While easily treatable, a UTI is best treated as soon as you notice the signs (discolored, strange smelling urine, discomfort when urinating, a constant need to urinate etc.) because letting it fester in your system can have serious consequences. While not necessarily life threatening, it certainly isn’t a fun experience either. So, if you are dealing with a urinary tract infection in Albany, GA and wonder what happens if you let it go untreated, the answer is as follows.
Kidney Infection
Leaving a urinary tract infection sitting there in your system for too long allows it to do what bacteria does best: spread. Specifically, up into your kidneys. Obviously, once these bacteria reach your kidneys, it will begin to infect them. The kidneys are the organs that filter through your blood and produce urine. If the kidneys get infected, then that process slows or stops completely. The symptoms of this include a fever, abdominal pain, night sweats and chills. You’ll feel utterly horrible, and unlike most sicknesses, such as the flu, this is a constant state, that won’t let up until treated.
Kidney damage
While it was said at the beginning it wasn’t necessarily life threatening, there’s a reason there’s a “necessarily” put in front of that. If you decide to grin and bear it through this process, then your life actually can become at risk. For one, a kidney infection, left untreated, can cause permanent damage to your kidneys. This, in turn, leads to blood poisoning, as now the bacteria that the kidneys normally filter out of your blood and turn into urine are not being filtered out, so you now have old, infected blood running through your veins. This can lead to a multitude of other problems, some of which are life threatening.
What happens?
At this point, you’ll need to go to the hospital. What would’ve been a short visit, followed by a week or so of antibiotic pills, is now you in a hospital bed, being pumped with IV fluids and painkillers.
The obvious combatant to this happening is to read up on the signs of a UTI, realize when it’s happening to you, and see your doctor immediately. Letting a UTI stay in your body can only be detrimental to your health, so when you think you have one, go see the doctor immediately, and save yourself months of pain.
