Question: Bacteria in Urine

That's a tough one, as it's a subjective opinion. If the doctor who ordered the test felt like you didn't have symptoms of a bacterial infection, then they just mark it up as another 'oddity' - so to speak. If you have symptoms of, say, an UTI - then they will give treatment for it.

Can Lyme and co cause this? Yes. So can a UTI, kidney infection, bladder infection and so on.

This write up gives an interesting "Dr's view" :"The prime driver of whether a urine culture should be sent off to the laboratory should be patient signs and symptoms indicative of a urinary tract infection."

"In conclusion, routine treatment of asymptomatic bacteriuria in all but a few selected patient populations is not supported by evidence and is likely to contribute to the growing burden of antimicrobial resistance."

www.medscape.com/viewarticle/780828

Right, because no one with those symptoms has a chance of having a bacterial infection, right? UGH!!! They should have been doing more of course, but on the other hand, maybe it's best that they didn't if you weren't aware of how you could respond when starting Lyme treatments. Maybe a small blessing in disguise???

If you hadn't been aware, then you likely would have gone back to the ER when you herxed and they would have most likely given you steroids to calm the reaction, since they have never been taught anything about good Lyme treatments, the herxheimer reaction and all that.

They used to find bacteria in my urine a lot, as well as my white and red blood cell counts doing "funny" things - like both being very high or both being very low, or one is high and the other is low. Yet not one doctor ever suggested that I had an infection in over 40 years unless it was obviously bronchitis, strep throat, tonsillitis or something else that they always see.

Most likely. Lyme lowers immune function - that's been proven - but so do steroids, so the bacteria had the perfect "playground" (if you will) to be on. Nothing was holding them back much.

I'm so glad that you figured out you have Lyme and are on the right track to healing now!

My cousin has been on lots of cipro for uti...is sorta last resort... i heard dmannose cranberry and acv but she is very by the book...

Since the bacteria they found wasn't identified, because they weren't concerned with that, there's no telling what the bacteria was from. It could have been from the kidneys shedding the bacteria, or from anywhere along the urinary tract. You don't have to have a UTI in order to have bacteria in your urine - remember, there are some labs that do urine tests for Lyme bacteria!!

Short answer, yes. They do urine tests for Lyme, so Lyme bacteria could have been what was seen in your urine if you had Lyme at the time.

I've gone round and round with doctors over them saying that bacteria in the urine is normal - so forgive me if this come out wrong - I promise it's NOT aimed at you specifically! I'm just afraid some of my frustrations might show.

It's pretty easy to find quotes like this; "Urine in the bladder normally is sterile-it does not contain any bacteria or other organisms (such as fungi)."
www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/urine-culture

So if that's the case, why is it considered "normal" to have bacteria in your urine? Especially if someone is dealing with some unknown condition, why is this overlooked/ignored? I used to ask them if it was their child/grandchild in my position, would you just send them home and tell them that there was nothing unusual found??? Not a single one that was willing to answer that question said they would.

So why are we? Because it's easier. It's much easier to assume the patient either doesn't know or won't look it up - or will believe the doctor even though they have spent the time and energy looking up things.

Now the other side of this is:
"Asymptomatic bacteriuria means you have bacteria in your urine but you have no symptoms of infection. If you are healthy, this condition is usually not a problem and not something that your healthcare provider needs to check for. However, it can cause complications if you are pregnant, have had a kidney transplant, or have certain other medical conditions. If you have one of these conditions, you will be checked for asymptomatic bacteriuria."
www.summitmedicalgroup.com/library/adult_health/aha_obg_asymptomatic_bacteriuria/

But notice here, in the above statement, that it says "if you are healthy" - which we are definitely not. And when they say "have certain other medical conditions" - if we could get away without mentioning Lyme, believe me, those doctors would say that a stealth infection, that has yet to be identified (or even if it has) and debilitating symptoms would be more than enough cause to be culturing that bacteria. If for no other reason than to eliminate the possibility that that's the bacteria that's causing all the trouble. Otherwise that's like a plumber leaving the toilet in the bathroom, but never hooking it up and charging you the full charge for replacing the old toilet.

Traveler, I totally agree with you, it should not be overlooked when someone have bacteria anywhere.
In my case the problem was that in ordinary urine test it was written small amount of bacteria, but when I did urine culture, it said no pathogen bacteria was detected. And then my Dr said it is normal to have small amount of bacteria. At that moment I didn't know I was infected with Lyme, so I didn't think much about it.
Maybe lab looks for common bladder bacteria like E.Colli and maybe I actually had Bb, which remained unnoticed somehow.

Please tell us his opinion, it would be great to hear what a LLMD thinks.