UTI? or something worse?

16F living in Switzerland, height 169cm, weight 60kg, take ADHD medication daily (ritalin short-acting 15mg in morning, 10mg afternoon), have asthma (mainly seasonal as I have serious hay-fever, or whenever I am ill) and for that I use ventolin and am supposed to take daily steroids, seretide twice a day but I usually forget that one. I also take vitamins sometimes I think and when I was a kid I was anaemic.

I had a UTI literally one month ago and we went to the doctors, they gave me antibiotics and it was healed, side note I developed a rash under my eyes a few days later so we went back and they said it might be antibiotics allergy and gave me antihistamines, but in hindsight I think it was just a reaction to new makeup.

Lately I have been needing to urgently pee a lot more than usual, since around Wednesday last week. The sudden urge just hits me and I have to rush to the bathroom. On Thursday a few times it got so bad that I was unable to hold it and wet myself slightly as I couldn't get to the bathroom soon enough. On Friday morning I started having quite a bit of pain when I peed, and also like my bladder wasn't fully empty, I was only peeing a little bit but kept on needing to go later on. This is almost the same symptoms as the last UTI I had. On Friday after school I also peed myself a little bit twice as the urge would hit without any time for me to rush to the bathroom. However, on Friday I started getting these random cramps or really bad shooting pain in my side (I think on my right side, I may be wrong). It wasn't usual pain, or period cramps, and it happened mostly when I made an attempt to hold my pee, or when I was peeing, but also just at random times. On Friday evening it hit me suddenly and was so debilitating I had to lie on the ground until it shortly felt better. I was really in pain, and almost shivering and feeling quite nauseous as well during and after this happened.

I had made plans with my friends to go out on Friday night and so I did, as the pain in my side had stopped mostly for now. I went out and drank alcohol (legal age of drinking is 16 in Switzerland), and got quite tipsy/drunk (I had a glass of rosé and two hugo cocktails). I was fine while I was out but when I got home I peed for finally a long time, still with pain, though it finally felt like my bladder was a bit more empty. I then went to sleep and I woke up this morning at 11am and haven't gone to the toilet since (it's 2pm).

I took 15mg of short-acting ritalin an hour ago, and, unusually, my heart has been feeling a bit fluttery and faster since then, like heart-palpitations... I'm not sure if this is from the ritalin, drinking, or the UTI. I don't know if it hurts when I pee still, as I haven't needed to go surprisingly, thought it might be that I haven't drank enough water.

Last night I was truly convinced my UTI (that I should have gone to the doctor earlier about but stupidly chose to ignore) had progressed into a kidney infection, but I haven't felt any symptoms besides heart palpitations today so far. I'm not sure if its possible that its cleared itself up or if I was being dramatic over it, or if it just hasn't affected me today since I haven't gone to toilet yet. I also feel like my chest is a little tight, in addition to the heart palpitations, and I should take ventolin, which is unusual for me because it isn't hay fever season and I'm not sick at all really.

What's going on with me? I'm confused and concerned, and I don't know if its worth going to the doctors about.

Posted Mar 8, 2025, 12:56 PM UTC

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