I need to go back and update a June blog. Unfortunately, I didn't conquer the urinary tract infection. Though the symptoms were better, they were still there going into the weekend. The next week I was traveling to my parents' house to take both of them to doctor appointments. I didn't want to get caught with a painful infection on a weekend or when I was out of town. In addition I felt like the continued infection was dragging me down. Antibiotics took care of it very quickly.

Though I gave in again, I was really encouraged that I fought it as long as I did. It's the first success I've ever had. I have hope that if I started treatment earlier I might have beat it. If I didn't have such a busy schedule and could have rested more, I'm sure that would have helped too.

Several of you wrote with advice about UTIs. I really appreciated all of the suggestions. Two of you wrote about cranberry capsules. I have bought some and am taking them every day. This seems like the best preventative measure I can take.

I'm going to summarize the other ideas that were sent, just in case some of you are also trying to fight off an infection.

"What helped me besides the antibiotics was a long soak in a warm tub with plain old white vinegar. That really helped the discomfort."

"Remember to use cranberry juice without sugar."

"Soothe the tissues with marshmallow root powder or tea. I find it very soothing and helps me tremendously when my bladder gets irritable. Also licorice root tea."

"Have you tried Uva-Ursi for your UTI? I'm a blood type O and I think it works great!"

"Have you tried drinking parsley water? It will help you to eliminate more water and to take bacteria out of the urine. I usually boil 1 bunch in a stock pot of water for about five minutes. I drink it warm or cold."

"I changed my underwear to pure cotton that helped a lot. I learned to just gently cover myself with toilette paper when doing a bowel movement because the fine almost unnoticeable "splash" of the toilette water carried microbes to the wrong places. That made a huge difference as stupid as that sounds. I sometimes just wash with an iodine solution to cleanse the area if need be."

I am always amazed by the amount of experience the people on this website have. I hope it will be a long time before my next UTI. When it comes I'll be ready to fight again.