Celebrities can be annoying with the things they overshare on social media. I usually understand when they share health problems and accidents that lead to hospitalization though. Those type of setbacks are no joke and they can derail someone’s career obligations. Amy Schumer had to skip the London premiere for her movie, I Feel Pretty, as she was just hospitalized for five days for a kidney infection. I’ve never been hospitalized overnight and can’t imagine how she must have felt, and how hard it must have been to be in the hospital for five days. Here’s what she posted. She wrote that her new husband, Chris Fischer, was by her side and supportive, as was her sister, Kim, and her assistant, Molly, who is her sister-in-law now because she’s Chris’s little sister.
It is a sad fact that urinary tract infections and kidney infections can be caused by sex. I’ve had a few UTIs and they’re not only painful, they can make you fear intimacy. I’m trying to change my diet to more whole foods and am taking probiotics now because I’ve had two UTIs recently. (I also follow the recommendations here.) I never had a full blown kidney infection but I was close in college and had to go to the emergency room when I got a fever from it. (Sidenote: You can get UTI test strips cheap at CVS and through Amazon. I’ve used them and then emailed photos of the results to my doctor to request a prescription.) I feel for Amy and hope she’s ok now and that she’ll avoid UTIs in the future. It’s something a lot of us deal with and don’t discuss. That’s another reason why it doesn’t bother me when celebrities discuss their health issues, it does help people. If you feel like you’re getting a UTI, you probably are.
Photos credit: WENN and Instagram/Amy Schumer
Wow, five days in the hospital is a long time for an otherwise healthy young woman. Must have been pretty serious
I’ve had one kidney infection and they absolutely suck. I wasn’t hospitalized but it took forever to get diagnosed and it felt like someone was constantly punching me in the kidneys. Sucks that she had to be hispitalized but glad she’s okay! I’m not a fan but don’t wish suffering on others.
Agreed about the pain. I’ve had one kidney infection, and when they took my blood pressure at the start of the exam, it was extraordinarily high, due to the pain. I couldn’t even cry.
If you think you have a UTI, get it treated. It’s not worth having scar tissue on one kidney like I do now.
I’ve only spent the night for kidney infections – but it was following an 11 hour wait in the ER because YAY NOVA SCOTIA HAS A DR SHORTAGE.
I had to be hospitalized for almost 2 full days with kidney stones though – and like SusieQ my blood pressure had skyrocketed from pain. I was almost fainting at one point. But I was also stubborn (and kind of stupid) and waited to go to the er until I couldn’t handle it anymore. Being hospitalized is the worst. When I’m sick I just want to be a hermit in my own bed. But they kept saying I was nauseous and wouldn’t let me eat (I was so hungry and the nausea had subsidded within the first 20 minutes of an IV with fluid, morphine and gravol) and only let me have popsicles. They ended up releasing me and I immediately went and ate a spicy chicken burger. And threw it up almost as fast as I’d eaten it. My husband helpfully was like “well they told you you were nauseated!”. Not at all the nurses fault – they were just playing it safe, and probably weren’t sure whether I’d need to have surgery/blasting done, so I get it. But man, I was so hungry that I didn’t even regret the chicken burger.
It’s going to be really awkward for her assistant/sister in law when they divorce.
Kidney infections are no joke, they are extremely painful. IMO it rivals labor pains. I was hospitalized with one about 20 years ago. I also get frequent UTI’s and I run to the dr to get it treated because I never want to experience a kidney infection again. Hope she’s better soon.
Agree! I’ve had two kids natural, and the pain of a kidney infection absolutely rivaled that.
And I used to get them anytime I had sex with someone new, or if I hadn’t had sex with my partner in a while.
Once I discovered peeing after sex, that really helped control them.
I used to get UTIs all the time. Like…2-3x a month. Then I broke up with the boyfriend I’d been with for 2 years and stopped getting them. I’ve been with my partner for ten years and haven’t had one since. I’m convinced it was because our body chemistry wasn’t compatible. Hope she and her husband don’t have that issue!
I certainly cannot speak to the science of it, but I was absolutely not compatible with a former long term (2+ yr) boyfriend and would constantly get yeast infections when I rarely had them if ever. I suspected it was an STI so went for a full testing. Nope. It was literally like being allergic to his sperm. If we used a condom I was fine.
did he get treated for yeast infections, too? because if not, you can just pass them back and forth. a man’s symptoms won’t be as noticeable (if they even manifest, sometimes they don’t) as a woman’s.
I had a really similar situation!! I am very curious to know if that’s really a thing.
This only worked for me and a couple of friends, so I can’t say it’s full proof, but I used to get UTIs after sex SO frequently (even after the obligatory bathroom trip), but they’re much more infrequent now after taking a D-mannose capsule every day.
It’s a type of sugar supplement that supposedly makes the urinary tract less hospitable to bacteria, there’s a solid amount of research behind it. You can get them fairly easily off places like amazon.
@Amelia
I take them too as a prevention (!) and feel better. If I have a UTI I take a full pill, if not I break one n two and take half.
Thanks Amelia for that tidbit! I almost always get a UTI after sex but now I’m going to try using the D supplement you mention.
Kidney infections are horrible. I was hospitalized for an entire week with one. Between the infection itself, and the aggressive course of IV antibiotics to quash it, you feel like death. I didn’t feel normal or healthy again for months once it was over. The advice I was given was to be sure to urinate after sex, which helps flush out any bacteria introduced in the act. I had never had a UTI before, had no idea what the symptoms were until it was too late.
I got them chronically as a child and, of course, how embarrassing is it to have to tell your mom “it hurts when I pee”.
I didn’t get them that often as an adult, but the first time I got one after starting to date the current bf, my doc asked me if I had had sex recently and told me about how it’s called “the honeymoon disease” for a reason. she gave me the advice to pee before and immediately after, and to try to have both partners cleaned up before hand. it’s made such a difference.
I wouldn’t wish a kidney infection on anyone, they’re horrible and painful. My sympathy to Amy for having to go through it.
But I have to wonder; why does she think we need to know this? If she missed a premiere her rep could have made a simple and discreet statement about her reasons for missing and be done with it. I doubt most people would have even noticed. And why is she instagramming from the hospital? Why is this necessary? Maybe it’s just me, but when I’m sick I’m focused on treatment and getting better. Making sure people see me sick is just not on my radar.
Mixed feelings. UTIs are common for women and can become just another thing we keep to ourselves because of their association with sex (my first thought here was, “Honeymoon cystitis?”) and with an organ of elimination. So, if she’s willing to be seen like this, it’s her call, part of her ‘schtick’ but also part of normal life. And the UTI tendency comes back later in life, and we once again have to be willing to identify the symptoms (which might be different than they were when we were young) and get treatment as soon as possible.
It’s great that there are diagnostic strips! When I was young, I hated having to go to the doctor to give a sample. It was hard to produce enough on demand even with an infection, wait for the results etc. We do know our bodies but doctors rightfully needed their evidence first and it meant jumping through hoops to get treatment.
@Who Are These People- Your comment provides excellent insight. I wish the last sentence of your first paragraph couldn’t be in bold letters. Ladies, take note.
When I was caring for my 88 y.o. mother last year at the end of her life, she’d get a UTI almost every six weeks or so. (She had no history of them.) Initially I thought it was her inability to communicate well (she’d previously had two strokes and some dementia) that kept her from verbalizing her symptoms to me so we could get her treated. Not so!
I learned from her doctor that UTI symptoms in the elderly are frequently non-existent. No burning or pain when urinating. Instead, mom would get delirious and talk out of her head, hallucinate, have no memory. With the first couple infections I immediately thought her dementia was getting worse. But no, those are actual symptoms of a UTI in the elderly. From that point on I learned that test strips were a valuable tool. But no matter how efficient her aides or I were in cleansing her down there, or how much water we’d push her to drink, she’d still develop them, so we had to be diligent in checking. The kidneys can become involved too quickly when the “usual” symptoms don’t appear. Boy, what a rollercoaster that was.
I had a uti a few years back, drank water, cranberry juice and took ibuprofen, it went away but a few days later I had a fever. The fever went on for a few days, my mother had to come help with the kid. I thought I was getting the flu, went to the doc and found out the infection was moving towards my kidneys. At the time i didn’t even know that was a possibility. Went on antibiotics and the fever never came back, sickest I’ve ever been. Whenever I feel a uti coming I always drink a shitload of water and the feeling goes away
UTI’s are no joke! I get them regulalry when I am stressed and have a less healthy lifestyle – and, more importantly, drink less water. I now take preventive pills, Vitamin C and lots of water all the time. I am so scared to have them and it didn’t even go to my kidneys. It’s hell on earth. But apparently really common for women as it comes from bacteria in the colon and anus. Of course sex can led to it… But not only.
I’ve always been prone to UTIs, but have greatly reduced them by taking a couple of pure cranberry pills just before bed. Cranberry has been shown to knock out a UTI in its beginning stages. My mom was suffering from UTIs while undergoing testing to get a kidney transplant, so I told her about the pills, then she told her transplant team about them, and now the cranberry pills are a part of the transplant department’s guideline for keeping kidneys healthy.
I was also on board the cranberry train but apparently there are some doubts about its effectiveness. Do you have info on that?
D-Mannose is one of the active ingredients in cranberry that helps with UTIs, at least those caused by E.coli (which the majority are). It is available as a powder to mix in water or a capsule. It’s slightly sweet so no problem drinking it
I saw an article about it years ago when the researchers gave a talk at the American Chemical Society (professional organization for chemists) national meeting. d-Mannose doesn’t kill the microbeasties, but attracts them – the E. coli have receptors that let them attach and thrive on urinary tract tissue, and enough d-mannose floating around in your urine in the bladder will inspire the microbeasties to detach and let the mannose occupy those same receptor sites. Then they all get flushed out with the urine. The d-mannose also alter the shape of the E. coli – the micrograph showed the rod shape changing to spherical.
d-Mannose is not metabolized much by humans so it arrives intact in the bladder. Well worth a try if you have recurring problems and much easier than taking two or three glasses a day of straight cranberry juice….
That’s terrible, yikes.
I really like the top of that dress and I wish it stayed the same color all the way through. It got worse as I scrolled through, lol. Red looks nice on her.
Kidney infections and UTIs are no joke, so I def feel for her but….why the multiple pictures of her in a hospital bed? Can’t she just issue a written statement instead? I find the overshare so weird.
I feel like Amy has been hospitalized for infections/illnesses more than once lately. Am I confusing her w someone else? Very possible.
I had a kidney infection – I truly truly truly thought I was going to die from the pain and then became very afraid I wouldn’t. It is horrific