I'm living in the US, I have an OB GYN in the US. We sent a urine sample off just before I flew to the UK. They rang at the airport and told me I had a UTI, so had to get some antibiotics (gave us the name, dose and amount)...

So I go to my UK Dr's surgery... End up booked in with some locum Dr (she's filling in for a regular Dr there)... I tell her I'm pregnant, being treated in the US as I live out there and that I had a urine test come back positive for E-Coli infection... I tell her that my Dr has prescribed 10 100mg xxxxxx(name of antibiotic) and I just need her to write me a prescription to collect it. She makes a fuss about how SHE wouldn't prescribe that, checks and double checks that it's safe during pregnancy...fine fine...then says "I wouldn't be giving you 200mg a day!!! I'd give you 4X 50mg!!!"....What? I actually had to explain to her that 2X 100mg was the same as 4X 50mg more than once.

Well she didn't want to prescribe 10 days worth, she only wanted to prescribe 5. So I say to her "I want 10 days worth as that is what my Dr has prescribed..." (and of course THEY are the ones who have seen the results from the Urine test)... She refuses and says she knows best. I ask her if she'll ring up my Dr in the US and talk to them. NO. What?!

Well in the end she prints off the prescription and doesn't give me much choice. Tells me to take the 5 days worth and put in another Urine sample about 5 days after I finish (which is stupid anyway, because the bacteria will have had time to start growing and I'll need more antibiotics than if she'd given me full dose initially)... She also tells me that if there's a problem they will ring me. If the urine shows up clear, they won't.

So. I go and get the 5 days worth...Pay one charge. They come in pretty big boxes, so if she'd prescribed me 10 days worth, I'd still have paid one charge.

Take the 5 days worth...Take the urine sample in when told. Hear nothing back. Okay, all clear then? Phew.

So, had my appointment with OB GYN office again - turns out I still have the infection!!!!!!!! My nurse was P-I-S-S-E-D at the way I was treated in the UK.

What are the chances that I could've got the infection AGAIN, that quickly and despite improving hygiene as much as possible (eg using antibacterial wipes after going to the toilet)...

I'm going to ring my UK Drs surgery on Monday (they're obviously closed now and aren't open over the weekend) and find out what the hell went on...if my urine actually even got tested and what the results were.... TBH even if the urine came back clear, I'm still utterly peeved at how I was treated...If MY Dr prescribes me something, the Dr I get to simply fill out the prescription could at least TALK to them and come to a decision instead of just arguing with me and refusing to talk to MY Dr!

Urgh. I really don't want to take another dose of antibiotics

xx

hmmmm its very usual to give a 5 day course over here, if you dont mind my asking what was the name and strength you were told to get? xxx

Yeah, I know from previous experience (though before I was pregnant) but seen as I'm being treated by a Dr in the US for pregnancy stuff and he's the one that's seen the results from the lab, I'd much rather go with his general opinion, or at least have had the UK Doc and him communicate about it before my non-regular Doc decided to change it simply because she wanted to

It was Nitrofurantoin 100mg (20) 2X a day for 10 days

xx

Wow I remember this from when you first posted it before and Ic ouldnt belive how you got treated then, still cant believe it now.....I would also make a complaint while you are on the phone to them, she should never have treated you like that, I also believe that she should have called yuor Dr to check on the anti biotics anyway, just on the off chance that you could have got the name wrong slightly, un proffesional Id say......Hope that you get it sorted this time round, it is possible that you only had a 5 day course it wasnt long enough to treat the infection and rid it, my drs always give me a 7 day course of anit biotics minimum........

The same Drs surgery has prescribed me the wrong antibiotics 3 times in a row for UTIs also

That's another good point Shady, tbh that's the thing that's pissed me off most...The refusal to contact my regular Doctor. How did she know I wasn't just walking in there and claiming to have a UTI from self diagnosis??

xx

The normal adult dose of nitrofurantoin is 50 to 100 mg four times daily for seven days.

Organisms are said to be susceptible to nitrofurantoin if their Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) is 32μg/ml or less. The peak blood concentration of nitrofurantoin following an oral dose of nitrofurantoin 100 mg, is less than 1 μg/ml and may be undetectable; tissue penetration is negligible; the drug is well concentrated in the urine: 75% of the dose is rapidly metabolised by the liver, but 25% of the dose is excreted in the urine unchanged, reliably achieving levels of 200 μg/ml or more. For this reason, nitrofurantoin cannot be used to treat anything other than simple cystitis.

got these from wikipedia

Thanks Mrs A, I read up all of this stuff before starting the course, just to make sure it was considered safe for use in pregnant women.

xx

its no problem, i think there should have been a better antibiotic choice is all

TBH I think it is fair that the UK Dr did her own diagnosis, prescribing etc. I would not expect to go to my GP and tell him that the doctor down the corridor told me I need a course of Valium so could he please just write the prescription; so I wouldn't expect someone to be able to go to another Dr in another country and tell them their Dr said they need X so can they just write the prescription.

It seems to work differently here - whenever I've had a UTI, I've been given a very short course as it is not good for your immunity to take longer courses if not necessary; then if the infection is still there, I get more, but only if the infection is still there. As for the infection being there when you went back to the US... you said that you'd been re-tested here and it had come back clear.

I didn't say I'd been retested in the UK and it had come back clear, I said I had been retested and they hadn't contacted me. I have yet to clarify with the surgery if it was clear or not.

I'd have had less of a problem if the Dr in the UK had required another urine sample and made a diagnosis based on that, but she had NOTHING to go on apart from what I had said and refused to contact my US Dr to find out the results from my lab tests etc over there. I could've told her I'd been prescribed X, Y and Z and she didn't even ring my US Dr to confirm!

Would you not be slightly concerned if a Dr prescribed you something without running tests? Because that's basically what it was... I could've been lying to get the drugs for someone else for all she knew! She didn't even do a dip-stick test in the surgery...

xx