Dealing With UTIs When You Don’t Want To Deal With A Doctor’s Office Visit

When you think you have a UTI, you need to speak to a doctor. But the process of finding an open appointment time, traveling to the doctor's office, checking in, waiting, and waiting again can be annoying and not something you really want to think about. Now, however, you can avoid all that by scheduling an online appointment to ask about UTIs and get a prescription to combat the condition. If you haven't made an online appointment before, these tips will help you prepare. 

You May Still Need to Go to a Lab for a Test

You can get your diagnosis and prescription online now, but if you're calling about a bacterial infection like a UTI, you may need a lab test to confirm the diagnosis or to sequence the specific bacteria (to ensure you get an antibiotic that will work). You don't necessarily have to go to a doctor's office for this; there are plenty of independent labs that can run an analysis for an affordable price, and you can schedule the test easily.

If You Have Repeated UTIs, You May Have Another Condition

A number of people have problems with recurring UTIs. In some cases, these are actual UTIs that keep occurring due to another health issue. However, other people sometimes have different conditions whose symptoms mimic those of a UTI, such as interstitial cystitis. If you can, try to have all your online appointments through the same organization so that you build a record that the doctors can see. That will help them treat you properly because they can spot patterns that can indicate these other conditions.

Try to Keep a Log of Symptoms

The ability to get an online appointment quickly means that once you start experiencing symptoms, you can get treatment pretty quickly. That means you won't be dealing with symptoms for long. If you start having repeated UTIs, you could miss vital clues if you don't have a good record of what your symptoms have been. It's great to get early treatment, of course, but if you're getting these infections a lot, you'll want to take a closer look at symptoms for clues.

Start keeping a log of symptoms, including what you feel first, when do you know it's a UTI and not something else, and so on. You can also log the day the symptoms started and see if there's anything about those start dates that can clue you into why you keep getting those infections. For example, if you're female and get UTI symptoms the week after each menstrual cycle starts, you'd want to point that out to the doctor.

Being able to discuss UTI symptoms with a doctor without having to go through the driving, parking, and waiting that goes with in-person visits (not to mention the worry over who may be masked or unmasked and sick) is such a wonderful change in how doctor's appointments are done. Even if you have to go to a lab for a test, you'll be able to stay home for most of the diagnosis and treatment.

Contact a local doctor's office to learn more about online UTI consultations.


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