When treating a bladder infection, you’ll need to show compassion and patience. If someone you love has a bladder infection, they may be in extreme discomfort, experiencing excruciating pain when urinating and the frequent urge to urinate. Having a bladder infection can be all-consuming, with bladder problems that often come on suddenly, unexpectedly bringing tremendous pain and embarrassing needs to essentially camp out on the toilet.

If someone you know contracts a bladder infection, encourage them by offering the following:

Offer Water
The bacteria causing the pain in your friend is multiplying at a dizzying rate, making it more and more painful to urinate and increasing your friend’s discomfort by the minute. The only way to get rid of that bacteria is to flush it out or kill it, and your friend can flush out much of that bacteria if she drinks lots and lots of water. Encourage your friend to drink as much water as she can handle, even if means she has to stay in the bathroom for the day or night.  The more she urinates, the faster she’ll find relief.

Encourage Ibuprofen
Because her urethra is so irritated, it is also inflamed. Ibuprofen is an anti-inflammatory that will fight the pain while reducing inflammation.

Draw a Bath
A hot bath may reduce your friend’s discomfort and make waiting the infection out more bearable.

Call the Doctor
Encourage your friend to get help from the doctor immediately, especially if your friend is experiencing pain in her lower back, a high fever or extreme pain. Bladder infections can quickly turn into kidney infections if untreated, and most doctors will prescribe an antibiotic for a bladder infection over the phone if your friend has bladder infection symptoms. If symptoms continue or worsen even with an antibiotic, you will want to drive your friend into the doctor to make sure it has not become a kidney infection, which can be very serious.