When Your Bladder Is on Fire: The Messy Truth About UTIs

If you’ve ever had a bladder infection that feels like you’re peeing fire, this one’s for you. And if you haven’t? Buckle up — because today we’re diving into one of life’s messy, painful, hush-hush moments that almost every woman deals with, but hardly anyone talks about.

In this episode, I share the real, raw, and honestly hilarious play-by-play of the UTI from hell — the pain, the blood, the ER visits, the meds, and the moment I realized the real culprit might be my gut. We break down why UTIs happen, why they come back, why they can take you out at the knees, and what actually helps you get through one without losing your sanity.

You’ll hear:

• What a severe UTI really feels like (no sugarcoating here)
• How gut health, stress, antibiotics, and hormones all play a role
• Why recurring infections happen even when you’re doing “everything right”
• The pain meds that feel like the fire department arriving
• The tips your girlfriends should be sharing but never do
• The habits that help stop the cycle from repeating
• The probiotic + nutrition link no one warns you about

This episode is equal parts education, comedy, and “OMG, SAME.”

If you’ve ever been doubled over in a bathroom whispering “why me,” you’re not alone — and you don’t have to power through these torturous moments in silence.

Grab your $12 sour cranberry juice, hydrate like it’s a job, and let’s talk about the stuff women deal with every day but rarely say out loud.

Don’t forget to subscribe, leave a review, and share this one with your girlfriends — trust me, they need it.

Thank you for tuning in! I truly appreciate every one of you, whether you’re here for the first time or have been with me from the start.

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Transcript

0:39

Hey friends, welcome to the show. This is a place where I talk about life's messy moments and how we find our way through them no matter how big or small. And today we are gonna dive into those messy moments. And this is gonna be about something most people don't talk about, but probably should. Ladies, have you ever had a UTI or bladder infection? So bad that it feels like your bladder is on fire and someone's stabbing you with tiny glass shards. I know it's not funny, but that's what it feels like. Have you ever been there where you're like doubled over? Because guess what? That's where I have been for way too many weeks. Yeah. Not just days, weeks, I'm peeing fire, praying to the urinary gods and wondering, is this ever gonna go away? But more so how the F, did I get an infection this bad? You know, I talk a lot about life's curve balls, but sometimes they're microscopic. They don't have to be these big, crazy earth shattering things that happen on our lives. We're gonna talk about UTIs, because no one really talks about them, and half of us, probably even more than half of us, are gonna get at least one at some point in time. Today we're just gonna break this shit down. I'm gonna poke fun at it. Hope that you enjoy laughing along with me, and if you happen to have one right now, grab your sour cranberry juice and start chugging away. Because I have been in this for. Two and a half weeks. I was coming back from New York a couple weeks ago. I stopped in Boston and was planning to stay there for a couple of nights. The next morning I woke up with that strong urge. You know the one that feels like a storm is brewing. I noticed that my pee was kind of cloudy and I thought in my head, this is the start of a UTI, and you're probably thinking, how the fuck does she know that already? Because I'm very prone to them. Especially after having some bounce sex. I basically have a lifetime membership to macro bid. And if you don't know what that is, it is a drug that is specifically designed to help with UTIs or to prevent UTIs. So anytime I'm gonna have sex, I either take one of these before. Or after to prevent one of these M fers from causing me a great deal of pain. But this one you guys, it felt so different. So I'm in Boston, which is about 90 minutes away from where I live, and I'm thinking, you're not gonna make it another night here. The pressure in my belly got worse by the minute, and I just started to feel crappy all over and I thought, sister, you better get your ass home. So I hopped in the car. And I knew the shit was about to hit the fan because when one of these things hits me, at least, it's pretty fast. It doesn't mess around. I felt pressure and cramping in my lower belly and pelvic area. My thighs were throbbing the entire ride home. Then the nausea kicked in. I got home, I popped one of my Macrobid pills, and I'm thinking, yes, I made it home. I probably caught this thing in time and I'm gonna be good. Then I went to the bathroom and it was straight. Blood. I'm not talking pink or just a little bit red. It looked like a murder had happened in the toilet. No joke. And my kidneys just started to scream after that. So I'm like, this is some serious shit. I called my doctor's office and they said, go to the er. We don't know if this is a UTI or a kidney or bladder infection. We can't do anything, so go see them. So I did, and I left them a nifty little sample of evidence that had probably 10 pea-sized clots to go along with it. They tested it. The doctor came in and he's like, yeah. Your immune system is shot. I'm like, yeah, no kidding. I feel like I've been hit by a truck I'm in pain. I'm sitting there and I'm just thinking. I wanna go home. I wanna crawl on a ball, and I know it's gonna be days before the glass shards and the fire go out, but they gave me a pain med. I didn't even know it existed. It's like, wow. Modern medicine has come a long way for UTI and bladder infections. It was like the fire department showed up and completely melted those glass shards and put the fire out because it didn't hurt when I peed. You almost think I don't have an infection anymore. It's that good. And it's not like taking a pain med that makes you feel drowsy. This literally goes straight to the fire and puts it out. But I still had to take two full days off work and just be in bed because. That's how bad it was. They had given me a five day antibiotic treatment. They put me on Keflex, and that was different from Macrobid, which is what I normally take, like I said before or after sex. And I'm thinking this kind of feels like. A short treatment plan for an infection that's so extreme. Less than two days after finishing my medication, I wake up at 1:00 AM I'm back in another hotel room, so total of five days on the meds. We will call it a total of seven days out. I'm traveling again in a hotel room, and that fucking familiar ache between my thighs wakes me up and I'm thinking, oh my God, the house is officially back on fire and someone sprinkling those glass shards all over the place. I'm peeing and I'm in so much pain and I don't have any of that stuff with me. I'm done with Keflex. I'm certainly not gonna be traveling with that pain med because I'm thinking I'm done. So by then all I could think about was getting back home. Back to the only thing that could put out the fire. Those magic pain meds. I had a bunch left over'cause I only needed'em for like two days and I wasn't even taking a full dose. I took half a dose and it really worked. It wiped out the pain. So girls, I needed that. Like I needed oxygen. I was like, I gotta get outta here. So jump back in the car. It's about three o'clock in the morning now. Been up since one o'clock. If you've ever had one of these, you know what I'm talking about. It is serious shit. You are like, call 9 1 1. I'm in that much pain. What's found in a urinary tract infection brace yourself is e coli, super disgusting. That e coli can go rogue and it travels from your digestive track sneaks into urethra and boom, it's in your bladder setting up camp where it absolutely does not belong, and then it's multiplying, like it's creating some kind of house party. Your immune system shows up like. Who the hell are these people having a party in my house and it's trying to fight back? But that's when you feel that burn. It's literally inflammation. Your bladder lining and your urethra are so swollen and irritated, and the nerves are firing off like fireworks every time you pee. Ooh, it is brutal. It's just complete fucking fire and glass shards coming out. No joke. So why are we women the lucky ones, and so prone to getting these things? A lot of it has to do with our geography are urethra is shorter and closer to the rear exit. My friends call it the Bung Holyo. Bacteria have a much shorter commute from your BHO to your urethra. If you add in the fact that everything's close together down there, and those little jerks, that bacteria can wreak havoc on your system, it's brutal. And for those of you who have never had one, and I know you're out there. It's hard for me to believe, especially being so prone to it, but I've had girlfriends tell me recently, like, girl, I have no idea what you're going through. Well, let me help you understand what the pain is like if you've never had one of these M, it's like cutting a lemon open. Not knowing that you have a paper cut and the lemon juice seeping into that paper cut, you're like, holy shit, what the fuck? It's like that every single time you pee, and I'd argue it's 10 times as worse. And these things don't stop at your bladder. Oh no. If it's severe like mine, it can spread the misery. I'm talking lower back pain flank pain, it could be your kidneys, which is really bad. I had that in the beginning before my first round of drugs. It could be low back pain, which is what I've had for. Over two weeks. It's kind of that coic area. It's not super comfortable to sit, but it's that flat area that leads down to the coic. It's a deep ache that feels like you've been hauling sandbags all weekend, and God knows we'd never do that. That's the infection creeping up towards your kidneys and you've got to get in to see the doctor when you're feeling that. When your kidneys are unhappy, they let your whole body know leg pain comes. I had that, the thighs, the calves. It's literally like an ache and a burning pain in your legs. So not only. Does it burn when you pee, but you're starting to feel it in your legs and you're like, why do I feel like I just ran a marathon and I haven't? It's your immune system. It's releasing inflammatory chemicals, making your muscles ache while your body is trying to fight this infection off, and then you have fatigue. The exhaustion just knocks you flat. You're on the couch with the heating pad or maybe a water bottle, you're tired and that's because your immune system's working overtime and it's torture. Especially if you don't have that magic pain med that's knocking out the fire. It truly is like being in a torture chamber. So this time at Urgent Care, the nurse looks at me and she's like, oh honey, you have got a nasty one. I'm like, yeah, no kidding. So yeah, when people say it's just a UTI, they've clearly never had that kind that. Takes you out because there really is a difference between A-U-T-I-A bladder and a kidney infection. The bladder may not be the villain in this situation. Meaning the reason why you got the UTI. It's probably your gut.'cause your gut health plays a huge role in this. And remember how I said I take Macrobid either before or after sex. This girl wasn't getting any bound chick chick ka baum bow on, so I was flabbergasted. Why the fuck do I have one of these things? Your gut and your bladder are connected through your microbiome. That's the ecosystem of bacteria that keeps your body nice and balanced. So when your gut is healthy, good bacteria crowd out the bad. Totally makes sense. Your immune system stays sharp and everything flows the way that it should. But when your gut is outta whack, like mine was from all the antibiotics that I was on and the pain meds I was on from the surgical procedure that I had back in September. Yeah, it's November now. This was almost like a slow moving. Bacterial infection that was creeping its way into my body, all the antibiotics, the pain meds. I've had a lot of stress trying to get my book out among my job and everything else. Just living life, the bad bacteria. Start throwing a rave, e coli, overgrows in your intestines, and guess what? It's the same little jerk responsible for most UTIs. Once that e coli overgrows, it sneaks right into your bladder. Isn't that disgusting when you think about it? Just makes you wanna take a shower. I don't recommend putting soap between your legs when you have one of these that's just gonna make it worse. Like when you pee, Ooh, girl, it's gonna be double fire. But this could be why some of us keep getting recurring infections, even if you're not having sex. By the way, sex. Generates bacteria between you and your partner, and it creeps into your urethra. That's why I am so susceptible It's not always hygiene or bad luck, there could be a couple things that are going on. In my case, I think my gut never recovered from. All the medication and pain meds I was on for my capsular contraction, breast implant surgical procedure. And then it never recovered from the first round of drugs that I was on but here's the kicker. Your gut affects your mood. I've talked about this before. I've got clips on social media about it. I've got IBS, when my belly isn't happy, I'm not happy mentally. And I mean that your gut makes 90% of your serotonin. Did you know that? That's that feel good hormone. When it's unhappy, your mood is going to tank. You're gonna feel anxious, moody, probably depressed more than anything. I call it the emotional hostage situation because now your bladder's on fire and your gut is having a complete meltdown. When your gut's happy, everything else follows. When your gut is not happy, everything else follows, and that's why probiotics matter. When I went to see my chiropractor,'cause I'm like, Hey, I am gonna do any and everything to help get rid of this thing.'cause it is hanging on like it belongs with me every single day. And my chiropractor's like, we need to put you on probiotics. This is gonna be your cleanup crew. They are the good bacteria that help restore order. To your gut and my gut needed as much help as this bladder infection because when you take antibiotics, no matter what they are, they can wipe out all the good bacteria, especially if you're on them for a while. When I was going through my. Recovery from my surgery in September. All I craved were pastries, sugar girls. I'm not a pastry person, but that's all I wanted and it made me feel, oh, so good. It's like comfort food basically. Right? I wasn't able to work out for six weeks. I was glued to my desk, sedentary and sluggish. It's no wonder that my gut is totally trashed. I usually work out six days a week in my poor little body. It was living a life. It didn't know what had hit. It's funny because a lot of shit was probably happening at that time. Actually no shit because I was really constipated. Like I had full on concrete in my system, I just started to work out when this fucking bladder, borderline kidney infection was like, hello, I'm waving a red flag. Pay attention, and that's when I finally connected the dots. Everything starts in our guts. When our guts are off. Everything else spirals. That's where these probiotics really make a difference. They help rebuild your gut. It calms inflammation and other things like yogurt, keifer, sauerkraut, kimchi, or kombucha. Can you believe all these things? They're helpful too. Just make sure if you take any yogurt or er, that it has live or active cultures because it really is for the love of your bladder. So skip the sugary versions. Sugar, feeds bacteria like you're catering their after party. And speaking of sugar, stay away from juice that has sugar sweetened yogurt, sweetened snacks, even healthy snacks, have a lot of sugar in'em. You need to starve this infection. Don't fuel it. Drink tons of water. The more you're peeing, the more you're getting that bacteria outta your body. Drink cranberry juice, and I'm talking about the real stuff. This is the$12 bottle that tastes like pure punishment. It is so sour. I've been drinking three shots of that a day. Oh, it's tough. Let me tell you, but it helps prevent bacteria from sticking to your bladder walls. And again, if we're trying to get rid of these infections sooner than later, we've gotta pull out all the stops. Make sure that you are wiping front to back. I know I sound like your mom, but trust me, it makes a huge difference and keeps bacteria out of your urethra. You're one of the lucky ones that probably never gets one of these fire burning UTIs. But for the rest of us, if you have to pee, just go pee. Especially if you have an infection and you've gotten past the urgency piece,'cause you're on meds, still go pee. Get that bacteria outta there. What do we actually do when our bodies revolt like this? How do we stop the cycle instead of just surviving the pain? We've talked about the checklist, but I'm gonna review it one more time so that you can get over one of these bad boys sooner than later. Hydrate like it's your job. Drink the cranberry juice that tastes like regret. That stuff works. Rebuild your gut with probiotics and yogurt. Stay away from full dairy products. Eat lots of vegetables. Stay away from the starchy stuff and wipe front to back. Always, always, always. And skip that sugar buffet, ladies. Save that for when you are way past the infection and never ever hold it in. And huge warning. If you're peeing blood, running a fever and you've got pain shooting in your back, do not Google your way through this. It's not time to be brave and figure this one out. It's time to go to ER and let the professionals take care of you because this shit's no joke. You need to take it seriously. I talk a lot about overcoming these moments that shake us to our core, but listen, sometimes it's something like a UTI bladder infection. We all have these moments and we're just doing our best to get through these messy moments. And guess what? My friends, that's just living life. This shit happens, and we can make it easier on ourselves if we stick together and we share the things that help us get through so that we can start laughing and smiling again. I encourage you to share this with all your girlfriends because we don't talk about these things, and I think it's so important that we do,'Cause there's some good tips in here to help each other through these torturous UTI moments. They are not fun. If you've ever had, when you know they can take you down. To your knees, literally. And if you haven't already, please subscribe and leave a review and keep tuning in for these real raw stories that we all live through, but don't always talk about,'cause we're gonna talk about'em on this show. If I haven't talked about it yet, I will talk about it guarantee. Until next time.