Hello. Mom, who has mobility issues and uses a walker to get around her house, got ill with a bug for 24 hours, went to emergency room, had very high blood pressure and a slight UTI. She's back home now but is too weak to get out of her chair and bed and needs assistance. My sister has been spending the night and staying with her during the day, but she can't do it much longer (it's only been two days, though). We are just waiting for her to get her strength back. I live out of town and can't get down there til this weekend. Do we get home health care to come stay with her or check her into the nursing home? She has no other illness nor demetia. She got a bad UTI last year, stayed in the hospital for a week and too weak to be by herself so, she went to the nursing home. She got stronger after a month or so. But it took a couple of months after that to convince my siblings to let her go home. She was at home and managed just fine with someone coming a couple hours a day to give her a shower, grocery shop, clean, etc. She's been home for 5 months. I would like to believe she will get over this and get her strength back. But what do we do in the mean time?
.. Cranberry Juice (not the cocktails that are mostly sugar. We use 100% cranberry juice, mix with some water and add truvia sweetener, to reduce the caloric intake). Even better, from what I've researched, is extract in capsule form.*
.. Grapefruit Seed Extract is a broad spectrum antimicrobial (caveat: there are raging debates on the efficacy of GSE, but my personal experience is over-the-top wonderful) .. comes in liquid or tablet form. I can't begin to understand how it works for colds, flu, yeast and UT infections, I just know it does. Google it and read up for yourself.
.. Probiotics, like *live* acidophilus, is beneficial to the entire GI and Urinary tracts; helps stabilize bowels, and some have found it helps avoid the UTIs.
.. Clear liquids .. as much as s/he can tolerate, as much without sugar/carbohydrates as possible*
.. Healthy, wise cleansing. Most of us don't think about this, but START with clean hands. Dry wiping generally just spreads whatever it is down there around. Wet wipes are better. Bidets are better still (there are hand-held, water-filled bulb, long handled ones available.
Hope this helps. One of my mantras is, "Google is your friend" (or Bing .. whatever search engine you like). Research on UTIs + sugar, UTIs + nutrition, UTI prevention. There's a wealth of information.
* Sugar FEEDs the bacteria. Also note: starches convert to sugar. It's worth researching a diabetic diet. It primarily advocates a low carbohydrate, *balanced* diet and isn't that hard to comprehend or manage (even without calorie counting).
I think if she is all right and managing and willing to have some in home help, you can postpone a care facility and NH. It would also help you and family to not have the full time care responsibilities.
There is a very effective product on the market at work so well even urologist are recommending it. It's called Cystex and is a very concentrated cranberry juice. 1 tablespoon today, or two can be taken if needed helps to prevent UTI's. It also contains sucralose, however. I wish they would make an unsweetened variety where those of us in the health field good at the type of sweetener we prefer. But in the meantime, I write this off to thinking of it as medicinal and sometimes you just have to do what you have to do if the benefits far outweigh the risk.
On an added note: I recently discovered D-Mannose (a simple sugar derived from many fruits, cranberry being one with the most .. hence its likely efficacy) supplements and after her last hospital visit and with the first signs of a UTI, began her on a daily regimen. So far, it's kept the worst of her symptoms at bay. We took a urine sample to have it tested, as a baseline, yesterday, and today began a more acute dosing. I have my hopes up.