A Cautionary Tale

Today is Memorial Day here in the U.S. It’s a celebration of our fallen warriors, the ones who fought for us so we wouldn’t have to fight for ourselves… and it began as a celebration of freed slaves honoring those who fought for their freedom way back in 1865. As Time.com at http://time.com/3894406/who-invented-memorial-day/ phrases it:

On May 1, 1865, freed slaves gathered in Charleston, South Carolina to commemorate the death of Union soldiers and the end of the American Civil War. Three years later, General John Logan issued a special order that May 30, 1868 be observed as Decoration Day, the first Memorial Day.

I married a retired military man. Memorial Day has had more meaning for me in the last eight years than ever before in my life.  It’s been a revelation, as our wedding invitation stated:

The Retired Lieutenant Colonel

Paul Arthur Garwood

and

The Former Wannabe Hippie

Gail Rae

Invite you to our wedding reception

Thank you again to all those who gave their lives so I wouldn’t have to.

Being a bit dramatic here, I also sort of saved my own life last week by saving my kidneys from further damage.  I know, I know. There’s no comparison, but it sure is a good way to get into today’s topic.

I wrote about dreaming about my bladder last week.  Well, I decided I needed to take that dream a bit more seriously. Off I went to my local pharmacy for an over the counter (OTC) urinary tract infection (UTI) kit.

I chose the Azo Brand because it is

the same urinary tract infection test used in many doctor’s offices, to determine if the bacteria that cause a UTI are present. {The description continues.} Then call your doctor with the results. The most reliable, over-the-counter UTI home test available, AZO Test Strips offer two UTI tests in one – including both Leukocyte (white blood cells) and Nitrite tests – which makes them more reliable than nitrite-only tests. (Doctors look for Leukocytes as well as Nitrites in diagnosing UTIs.)

Leukocytes are higher when you are fighting an infection. Unfortunately, that’s any infection. So what about nitrites?

When the urinary tract is infected by harmful bacteria then it leads to the development of nitrites as a byproduct. The kidneys are responsible for filtering the blood and for the elimination of unwanted waste materials from the body. However, they are incapable of filtering out the nitrites. The nitrites can however travel from the kidneys into the bladder and get stored there. They are then passed out along with the urine. Therefore the presence of nitrites in urine is generally an indication of the presence of a urinary tract infection.

Thank you for that information, Diseases List at http://diseaseslist.org/nitrites-in-urine/  Notice our kidneys are NOT at fault for once.

So far, so good.  I mean bad.  You take the test by urinating on a dipstick.  First you urinate for a second or two, then hold the dipstick under the urine stream, and then sort of mop up the excess urine.  Pay attention when you do this or it can get messy.

There were three test strips with accompanying color charts in the box.  I took all three. (Did I ever tell you about a family member who took the same OTC pregnancy test a dozen times just to be sure?  This doubt must run in the family.) You guessed it. All three were not just positive for UTI, but highly positive.

As you know, doctors don’t prescribe medication over the phone so I tried to make an appointment with my primary care doctor.  She is much sought after and had no openings that week, much less that day. She is part of a practice so I took an appointment with another doctor in the practice, one I had seen a time or two before under the same circumstances.

He had my chart in front of him.  I was wearing a medical alert bracelet. I told him three times I had Chronic Kidney Disease. In addition to ordering ciprofloxacin 250 mg. – which is safe for certain stages of CKD for certain periods of time at certain dosages – he ordered phenazopyridine 200 mg. for the pain. He kept talking about not being alarmed when it changed the color of my urine.

I didn’t feel like he’d heard a word I said.  I wasn’t too worried, because I always check with the pharmacist before taking any new medication.  She was alarmed, told me not to buy this medication, and that she would be contacting this doctor to tell him prescribing phenazopyridine for anyone with CKD was inappropriate.  This is the second time this has happened since I was diagnosed with CKD.

The National Institutes of Health warn that you tell your doctor if you’ve had kidney problems should he/she prescribe this drug.  I did… a minimum of three times. This is what Drugs.com at http://www.drugs.com/mtm/phenazopyridine.html had to say about this pain reliever.

What is the most important information I should know about phenazopyridine?

You should not use phenazopyridine if you have kidney disease.

Okay, beating a dead horse here (I’m just so damned annoyed!), so let’s see if we can figure out why CKD patients should not be using this drug. Uh-oh, MedicineNet at http://www.medicinenet.com/phenazopyridine-oral/article.htm tells us

Although the exact mechanism of action is unknown, phenazopyridine is thought to provide relief of symptoms of UTIs by acting as a local anesthetic on the lining of the urinary tract.

All right, let’s try this another way then.  Why shouldn’t CKD patients take this drug? After looking at Wikipedia – even taking into account that anyone can edit these entries – I’m wondering why anyone would take it at all. It’s a form of Azo dye.

Less frequently it can cause a pigment change in the skin or eyes, to a noticeable yellowish color. This is due to a depressed excretion via the kidneys causing a buildup of the drug in the skin, and normally indicates a need to discontinue usage.

What! Exits via the kidneys? Excretion can be depressed?  Nope, not for me, not for you either. Take a look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenazopyridine

Here’s the caution: sure we trust our doctors and those doctors they trust, but check with your pharmacist, too.

Hey, where are the weirdest places to read my CKD books entries?  We got some really weird ones, but we want to see yours.  The contest runs until the end of the month.  That’s plenty of time to snap a picture and post it. Not on FB?  Include it as a comment on the blog or email it.  You can even post it on Twitter.

Until next week,

Keep living your life!