Sovaldi + Ribavirin = bladder & kidney pain (UTI-like)?

[RiRiRo]

Hello--

I am on Day 29 of a 90-day treatment of Sovaldi and Ribavirin.

Last week I started experiencing mild sharp pains in my bladder similar to UTI. I went to my general physician this past week, and she did in an office urine-analysis and state there were traces of "protein and white blood cells" in my urine sample and she would be sending them off to lab for further analysis. In the meantime she gave me an antibiotic to treat UTI. The pain, however has not gone away, and it was a three day antibiotic, which today is Day 2.

Has anyone else experience similar issues?

It's almost like I have to go pee constantly, and when I go, it is quite the small amount.

My urine color is clear to light yellow. I drink tons of water constantly (as I feel I constantly have dry mouth).

I am also having problems with constipation, and have been straining I will admit.

So, I just don't know what's going on or what I can ask them to check for? Or if these are typical side effects and I should just tough it out?

[KimInTheForest]

When I was doing my pre-treatment research on these drugs, I recall reading something about bladder infection being a possible side effect of ribavirin. So I bought 2 cases of organic unsweetened cranberry juice and drank some every day. Did not have a bladder infection while on treatment. Don't know if the cranberry juice helped or not - but I enjoyed drinking it! (I mixed it with another juice so it wasn't too tart.)

I too had dry-mouth throughout treatment. I am pretty sure that's related to ribavirin too.

kim

[Lynn K]

This is not on the list of common side effects I would continue to work with my doctor. I had not seen anything personally about a relationship of ribavirin to bladder problems. I had no similar symptoms and have never had a bladder infection or any other urinary problems for that matter perhaps that could be a factor that for those with prior UT issues it could be a concern.

I do like Kim's suggestion about the cranberry juice.  Maybe with your doctors approval you could try a stool softener like Docusate or just try to increase you fiber intake either with food like say prunes or other roughage or Metamucil or similar product.

Hope you feel better soon