Can you have a UTI without having bacteria in your urine?

Is this a UTI or Interstitial Cystitis? i'm in pain!!!?

• For the past 4 months, I've had problems with pain in my bladder and urethra (especially after i pee). In late December, I started having an irritation in my bladder before I needed to pee as well as a horrid stinging/burning pain after I peed that would cause me to cry/moan/scream for about 2 hours after until it would finally subside. After about 2 weeks of this, I researched some, then I went to my local doctor and they tested me for a UTI, it tested as negative. They put me on a 5 day course of antibiotics anyway. Before trying the antibiotics though, I tried approaching more of a holistic way to cure my bladder by taking mannose and guzzling down cranberry juice but it didn't help. I finished my course of antibiotics and I had some relief for a while and then I got the symptoms again. I went back to my urgent care center, and the results were positive for a uti! They said that they found staff in my urine sample. I took another 5 day round of antibiotics but my pain didn't go away the next day after finishing them. I went back to urgent care and they said there was no more bacteria in my urine. I then found that a few days later I didn't have any paiin and I was fine. But every once a week I would get a weird pain and then it would go away after 2 hours of enduring it. Finally, I got another horrible attack and went to an Ob-gyn where they gave me another 5 day course of antibiotics(each course of antibiotics was a different type). This time they found NO BACTERIA. FRUSTRATIONNN. grrr. I felt better after taking the antibiotics and it had been 4 weeks. Now I'm experiencing the same pattern again, only this time my pee smells horrible and it is awfully cloudy. I'm only 15 so most doctors are telling me it isn't possible that this could be interstitial cystitis but i thought maybe it could be. SO i've been on an IC diet for a week and i still have symptoms. I decided to drop off a urine sample at a lab last night and they called back saying i have a seriously severe bladder infection with a high white blood cell count. Is it possible that I don't have IC and that I have some super germ in my bladder and that the doctors just haven't been giving me enough antibiotics for?? I'm now going on a 10 day course to see if this kicks it. Any ideas of what's going on?? Please help i've been through packs and packs of AZO and i've tried baking soda in water which helps some. I'm praying that this is just a strange and horrible UTI that i can get rid of

• Answer:

  I certainly have no idea what has or has not been done, and you are certainly unlikely by the statistics to have Interstitial Cystitis. However, there are some common factors in what you describe. So I'm giving you a site for physicians for ruling out IC. For example, when they've been checking for biologicals in the bladder, have they ruled out a Herpes simplex overgrowth? And the problem is that certain antibiotics are for certain types of growth, and an antibiotic is of very little value against viral etiology. Not to try to suggest what the issue is, I'd like to go out on the proverbial limb and suggest that you try a couple of 512mg Lysine on an empty stomach, about 5 hours apart, for a few days. Maybe more, it can't hurt you. Not to try to suggest Herpes, but if it helps, that's what it would suggest. Second site proposes that the issue is able to be dealt with somewhat with baking soda/water, which you say gave you some relief. Third site reminds about Lysine for Herpes. Next site reminds about what foods are better for better protection against Herpes overgrowth. Standard disclaimer now. This is the Internet, not the doctor's office. Best fortune to you.