Uti while tapering vanco?

[Anib]

Hi everyone. I’ve been tapering vanco and am down to 1x a day now and have been doing great as far as c diff is concerned. Woke up this morning with urinary urgency and flank pain. I tested with an at home uti test and it came back positive. I’m feeling so dejected. Felt that I was finally on the mend and was feeling so optimistic before this. I’m scared to death to start another antibiotic and won’t unless culture comes back positive. This is only my 2nd uti in my entire life and now I’m wondering if vanco caused this and what do I do if it did. Do I stop vanco and have them switch me to dificid? Do I continue along with antibiotics to treat uti and hope it doesn’t happen again? I don’t know who would be better able to handle this urgent care/er, my obgyn, ID? Any thought?

[NanciT]

First it's important to know that with any UTI symptoms a culture is necessary. Moving forward, with any infection they need to do culture and sensitivities.

I will share my experience and also let you know there are MANY on the site who have had the same response to Vanco. If you look up side effects, you will find all UTI symptoms listed under Vanco side effects. Mine did not start until I was OFF a 3 month taper. I ended up seeing a urologist and my GI. I was not treated because the urologist monitored the culture and I had CDIFF for a year, the risk of antibiotic out weighed the bladder irritation from the Vanco.
I would have a Urine sample and culture done, if it's negative there are medications that can help the symptoms and its best to see a urologist. I went on Drugs.com and printed out the full list of side effects which includes all the bladder symptoms and brought this in to my GI and urologist. If you decide to go in, make sure to bring that with you.
Often the UA may show slight infection, but the culture does not. This actually occured with me for a very long time, I had a standing order for the UA and culture.
If you look up UTI in the search bar, there are several threads on this

Sorry you are going through this, I know how difficult it is

NanciT

[Anib]

Thank you NanciT for your invaluable advice. I am currently at urgent care waiting for test results. I hadn’t thought about seeing a urologist so I will have them refer me to one and hopefully urologist and ID doc can come up with the right solution. The urgent care doc is telling me that she’s never heard of vanco causing bladder problems, so you’re right, I should have brought the side effects list.
This is so frustrating. I feel like I’m taking one step forward, two steps back.

[roy]

Bladder irritation is a known side effect of vanco, theoretically it should not be but for unknown reasons it's fairly common.
Be wary of what an urgent care wants to treat with if its proven to be bacterial!
Macrobid is a very low offender but urgent care might want to prescribe a high risk broad spectrum treatment.
If its caused by vanco it probably does not need treating.

[roy]

If your still at urgent care here's Mayo's list of vanco side effects

More common
Bladder pain
bloating or swelling of the face, arms, hands, lower legs, or feetbloody or
cloudy urine
decreased urine
difficult, burning, or painful urination
dry mouth
fever
frequent urge to urinate
increased thirst
irregular heartbeatloss of appetitel
ower back or side pain
mood changes
muscle pain or cramps
nausea
numbness or tingling in the hands, feet, or lips
rapid weight gain
seizures
unusual tiredness or weakness
unusual weight gain or loss
vomiting

sorry about punctuation.

[NanciT]

If you are still there, show the list Roy posted to the MD. Make sure they do a Culture and Sensitivities, that is so important. You won't have results for 48-72 hours.
Unfortunately, MANY MD's do not know Vanco can cause these issues.

NanciT

[Anib]

Thank you roy, that’s very helpful, especially since the 1st half of that list describes my symptoms to a tee. So, the urgent care’s urine dip stick test came back negative (yeah!). They are sending it out to culture just in case since I’m symptomatic and my home test was positive. It seems like it’s more interstitial cystitis so I’ll be taking azo as preventative. I also have been having D this am since tapering down to QD starting yesterday, but I’m just going to wait it out to see if it gets worse. If vanco is causing the urinary symptoms, the last thing I want to do is increase the dose.

[LHutz]

I experienced UTI like symptoms from Vanco. I'm a male so at the time I was fairly certain that it was not UTI but a side effect from the Vanco. They went away after a couple weeks.

[NanciT]

If symptoms persist, see a urologist. Bring the list with you, most physicians are not clear on side effects of Vanco. A urologist would make the diagnosis of Interstitial cystitis but mine feels the diagnosis is often Pelvic floor dysfunction. We do have a few posters diagnosed with IC post Vanco. Vanco can be very irritating to the bladder.

Hope you feel better soon!

NanciT

[Anib]

Thanks everyone. The wealth of knowledge on this site has been incredibly helpful especially since we’re dealing with illness/treatments that most docs have very basic information on. I’m still having pain, but feel reassured that at least I don’t need antibiotics. I’m going to try d-mannose tomorrow- just ordered from amazon. Hopefully this will clear whatever is going on.

[NanciT]

I forgot to mention the D Mannose, I have taken it for the last 4 years post CDIFF! No UTI's so far thankfully

NanciT