Battling My 2nd Kidney Infection

Around January 8  or 9 I started feeling some abdominal pain which at first felt like bloating.  It slowly moved over to the right side and varied between dull and sharp at irregular intervals.  It continued over the weekend, and I decided to go to the Urgent Care Center on Tuesday to avoid another hospital visit like the last time (we really don't need any more unnecessary hospital bills!). 


I was also running a 100.9 degree fever, had a headache, and was lightheaded/dizzy. The day before I had experienced some shortness of breath, but that went away pretty quickly. I told the PA that I’d had a kidney infection before, a year ago, which was accompanied by a stone that soon passed on its own (very painful!). I highly doubted this was appendicitis, as the pain had been going on since Friday, was not painful when touched, and was not excruciating, nor was I nauseous, vomiting, or in a line of family members who had had appendicitis.

They ran a urine test and came back to tell me 2 things: my Absolute Segmented was high at 13.5 (normal range 1.8-7.0), indicating the presence of white blood cells and an infection; my ketones were 160 mg/dl. I told her I wasn’t worried about my ketones because I was on a low carb diet. She asked how long I’d been on a low carb diet and I told her a year. She then proceeded to ask me if my endo knew about my low carb diet, to which I said yes. She asked how many carbs I eat, I said 30g a day. She said I needed to eat more carbs.  (Yeah, not going to happen!)
She erroneously went on to tell me that ketones are from burning muscle (I corrected her and said they were the by-product of fat burning, which she later admitted was correct). She did a thump test, where she thumped the left and right side of my back to check for tenderness…only the right side hurt in the back…then she said that they were going to do some blood tests and get an IV going. I at first thought the IV was for treating possible dehydration, and I explained that I try to drink 8 cups of water a day. I asked to make sure it didn’t contain any glucose, and the nurse said no (it was 0.9% sodium chloride, looked safe). It became clear, however, that she was trying to flush out the ketones.
After the first IV was done, they did blood work and came back to tell me that my potassium levels were low, at 3.3 mmol/L (normal range 3.6-5.0) and my sodium levels were low, at 131 mmol/L (normal range 137-145). She also pointed out that my carbon dioxide was low, ever SO slightly!! It was 21 mmol/L (normal range 22-30) and she said it was because my body was acidic. She gave me a printed study from 2001 (15 years ago!) where 2 people (a WHOLE 2 PEOPLE!) were found to be in “euglycemic ketoacidosis”, or diabetic ketoacidosis with normal blood sugars, “which was originally described whereby the initial blood glucose was less than 16.7 mmol/L (300 mg/dl).” 

I was incredulous! Not only did the study not specify what these 2 people reported as “normal” blood sugars, it seemed to imply that anything less than 300mg/dl was considered normal!!  (As I've said before, high ketones are not worrisome when normal blood sugars are present, and being on a ketogenic or low carb diet like I am, ketones will be present as they are by-products of my body's fat burning.  They are used as fuel instead of carbs, and any ketones that are not used for fuel are eliminated in the urine.)
They hooked up a second IV and I was left to shiver from my fever with a small blanket in that room for over 3 hours.  While I understood her concern about high ketones, it was clear to me that she knew very little on the subject.  If I had not been feeling so lousy, I would've happily given her a lesson!  But anyway, I was kinda irked that she was more concerned about my high ketones than my kidney infection.  She wanted me to go to the ER to get a low dose insulin and glucose IV to combat the ketones, but I refused, telling her I was more concerned about my infection. I signed a paper stating I refused ER treatment and she gave me a script for Cipro and sent me on my way.
(Note:  I relayed my experience to some of my friends and one of them told me that Cipro is fluoride based.  I loathe fluoride and completely feared fluoride poisoning!)

After 3 days of taking the Cipro, however, I started experiencing some awful side effects, including panic attacks (which I've never experienced before), insomnia, lower blood sugars, and chest tightness (due to stress/panic attacks).  I contacted the clinic and told them the side effects and another worker at the clinic, who happens to be a friend, gave me Bactrim instead and I've been doing much better.  I have 2 more days left of antibiotics to take and then I'll be good.  I finally started getting my energy back on Monday and have been doing my best to drink plenty of water.  Egg drop soup has also become a new favorite during this time of sickness.