Unfortunately, I'm allergic to Cipro, so I don't know which I feel worst about for you - I'm shuddering in empathy! Because of that (and other healthy reasons), I drink cranberry juice daily.

I'm so sorry you have to go through this SthrnZeta. I make and pass A LOT of kidney stones (Cysteine stones) so also get a lot of UTIs. My best advice, if you can stand it, ask for a mild scrip of Vicodin while giving the Cipro a chance to work. Cranberry supplements are just that--supplements. Best thing to do is to drink as much as you can stomach of cranberry juice (pure is best but hard to drink straight). When I get an upset stomach, I often go for the cranapple juice. It's easier to drink and I've often had to drink up to a bottle a day while getting rid of the UTI. This causes more of a void to push the bacteria out. The over the counter pills like AZO don't often work for everyone (they never do for me)and just turn your urine red orange.
Feel better:)

I'm taking the AZO tablets and they help a large amount, though not completely. I have taken vicodin in the past when it was prescribed for other things and it didn't do much for me. I think I'll just have to deal with it for now and keep drinking the water. Definitely not a fan of cranberry juice - but cranapple is alright.

This thread is so shocking! I've never had a UTI or a yeast infection, thank God (I'll probably get one or the other right after I post this. ( ). My friend said she often gets them after sex (at which point, I refrained from gloating;)) and my sister warned me to drink water out the butt through college because that's when most of the people she knew got their first ones because they replaced water with soda and alcohol. It all sounds so horrible, I'm sorry for your pain!

Does cranberry really help that much? What is it supposed to do? I hear people talk about grabbing the cran for a UTI, but no one seems to know why, they just know that they should!

Cranberry naturally helps inhibit bacterial growth in the urethra and is even supported by the American Urinary Health Association (or something like that) as having urinary tract health benefits, though I'm not sure this statement has been investigated or proved factual by the FDA. Cranberry juice by no means cures a UTI, though it can help keep it from getting worse while you are on antibiotics and may help prevent infections in the future if drank regularly. I have known girls to start drinking it in mass quantities when an infection hit and were able to avoid going to the doctor and getting meds prescribed but that has never been enough for me.

i believe that i read somewhere that if a woman is having recurrent infections, her partner might need to get checked. he could be passing the bacteria back to her.

get well sister.

A lot of things cause UTIs, including diabetes or taking too many of certain medications. One thing I only found out about fairly recently is that, left untreated, a UTI can cause Alzheimers-like symptoms.