Question: Hi there. I was treated for UTI symptoms 10 days ago. Didn't have much burning or any pain- just some discomfort in my lower abdomen area and a hard-to-describe feeling of my bladder being full, hard, stretched out (?) and tender, but not necessarily needing to run to the bathroom. After a 500+ count of white blood cells was found in my urinalysis, I was put on Macrobid. After 3 days, expecting my symptoms to go away, I went back to urgent care where I had a normal urinalysis, but still this full bladder feeling. They told me to just stick with the Macrobid, which ended 3 days ago and while I feel mostly better, I still can't seem to shake this full bladder feeling completely.

I am peeing every 4-5 hours so I can't really say I'm having frequency or urgency issues. And again, there's no pain or burning. It's just this weird feeling that will happen every few minutes. It's not normal.

My question is, does a UTI sometimes have these residual effects? Can my bladder just be irritated or raw due to the antibiotics and the infection in general? Urimax tabs help and one dose lasts me over 24 hrs, but when will this go away?? It's worse as the day goes on, with the worst feeling being at night (although I don't awaken to pee). The internet has me panicked that I could have IC. Do my symptoms line up with this? This all happened out of the blue two weeks ago. I only had one other UTI in my life and it was 15 years ago. No complications, I was better immediately. Please help, I'm scared and I feel like my anxiety is making it worse.

Thank you for your quick response, doctor.

I'm 32 years old in good health and I just figured after a week on the Macrobid and now after 3 days done with it, I would be better by now. Like I said, this whole thing happened out of the blue. The panic is because I have no burning, no cloudy pee, no frequency issues and no odor, which all seem to be the tell-tale signs of a UTI. So I'm just wondering if this full bladder feeling is a residual effect of the infection that will clear up, or if I was misdiagnosed in the first place. The initial culture came back negative, but there were the 500 LEU in my urinalysis so I was put on the Macrobid. The second culture also came back negative, but all the LEU disappeared. That's when they told me to go home, finish the Macrobid and be patient. I've been patient, avoided caffeine, spicy foods and soda, and I'm still feeling this.

The only thing I'm currently taking is a 90B women's probiotic, daily. I'm not on the Urimax right now. My last dose was 2 days ago. I don't REALLY need it, but it helps. Again, there's no pain. But the feeling is enough to make me worried. You read about women who have similar symptoms to mine who have been dealing with them for weeks, months, and no doctor can seem to help them. I just want to feel normal again.