I'm uninsured, what can I do about my kidney infection?!


Question: I'm uninsured, what can I do about my kidney infection.?
I've been off of my health insurance for about 10 months and it's starting back up in January.

About 2 weeks ago I had the symptoms of a kidney infection similar to the one I'd had 4 years ago (fever, chills, lethargy, flank pain). I've had bladder infections my whole life but this is only the second time that I've had a bad kidney infection. The doctors at two of the clinics I went to confirmed that I have a kidney infection, but they both said they were unable to treat it or prescribe me anything. I found one doctor that gave me Bactrim to treat the UTI, but she also recommended I go to the E.R. I've been taking the pills for a little over 24 hours now. I woke up this morning and the pain in my right kidney is more sharp than it has been these last 2 weeks.

I'm barely hanging on, financially, working two jobs and going to school (even while I've been sick these past 2 weeks). There's absolutely no way I could afford an emergency room visit even if they offered a payment plan.

Should I just continue to take my antibiotics and wait it out until January.? Are their any cheap clinics in Southern California that will treat a kidney infection.? How long does it take for something like this to become life threatening.?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I'm going insane worrying about this.Health Question & Answer


Answers:
I'm uninsured and umemployed and barely hanging on as well.
I had to go to the ER this summer to the tune of 7 grand.
Now I have bill collectors calling me 6 days a week.
Do I regret going.?
In a way, but I thought my life might have been in danger, so what else should I have done.?

If you think you should really go - suck it up and worry about the bill later, because yes, kidney infections can be life threatening. Health Question & Answer

I know hospital bills hurt, but a septic kidney is a lot worse! They can be deadly! Go to the hospital now!!! Your health is most important.Health Question & Answer

Pray and ask others to do likewise.Health Question & Answer

PLEASE, read your own question again, and ask yourself this: "Would I let this happen to another person, whether family or not.?" If you would run the risk of having someone else get worse and even die while they wait for their insurance to start up again, then go ahead do same for yourself.

But since I know you would not be capable of such a thing, I tell you to go to emergency room right now. Don't concentrate so much on the monetary part of this problem. Infections are not to be kid around with!!! By the way take all medication, even non-prescribed ones. Explain EVERYTHING to medical staff and ask about anything you don't understand.Health Question & Answer

I had very hard kidney disease, but I'm healthy now. I can tell you just that nobody can tell you what to do just like this. Because wrong treatment, even wrong food can hurt your health even more. I can tell you this things that can help you and are usual for all kidney problems: avoid salt totally and spices too. Don't eat junk food, don't eat sweet things, only fresh fruit and honey, limit meat on 100 grams per day (white chicken meat, or some light meat), avoid deep fried things, eat veggies fresh or cooked in water, don't eat too much, because some foods can worse your health, totally avoid all sodas, juices and similar, drink just water and natural tea, especially Bearberry tea which is good for all urinary infections. How much liquid you should take depend of your condition, which means for some infections are recommended to not drink too much liquid, and if you have kidney stone then you should drink lot of liquid. So limit your liquid intake until you check if you have kidney stone, I suggest you to do so because you feel pain in kidney which is symptom of stone. Check color of your urine and how often and how much you urinate. I know it is hard for you to measure your day urine but you can see if color of your urine is not bright yellow, and if it looks red, and if you are urinating low quantity even if you drink normal amount of liquid (1-2l/day), these are very bad symptoms, and if you notice this change of color of your urine, go to doctor and tell him that, and stop drinking more than 2 glasses of liquid per day. If you don't have this symptoms, then it is good. But even if so, you should go to do some blood tests and urine test, even on ultrasound scan which will give doctor more acurate diagnosis. I don't know is there some cheap ultrasound scaning in your place, but you should look for that first to see if you have stone, and other things which scan will tell about your kidneys. In your tests you should pay attention on levels of urea and creatinine. (http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/...
Take Bactrim as your doctor said, and don't take any vitamins or minerals on your own, because in some kidney diseasses some minerals can worse things. Just take healthy diet, and no salt at all. Check color of your urine now and if it is red go to clinic without delay, because in that case time is important. If your urine is bright yellow then you have some time, and find somewhere to do ultrasound scaning and blod and urine tests in next day or two.
Be free to contact me. Health Question & Answer



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