I'm a 13 year old girl and about 36 hours ago, I got off a 15 hour international flight. 24 hours prior to that I was on a 6 hour interstate flight. I had no symptoms until I got on the 6 hour flight, which was at about 7 o'clock at night local time. I urinated twice during the flight, however, these 2 times were within an hour of each other. It's also worth mentioning that I did have a cup of tea before using the bathroom the second time and the caffeine in tea acts as a diuretic. The next day after arriving at my destination, I had virtually no symptoms apart from slight pain in the urethra, although no discomfort with urination. Symptoms began at about 3 o'clock in the afternoon with urinal frequency and urgency. In the 8 hours before my 11 o'clock pm flight, I urinated 8 times. In this time I did drink a small cup of tea and a large amount of water. The frequency increased as time went on and I began to feel like my bladder was still full even after having just been to the bathroom. During the 15 hour flight, I had a dry mouth, felt nauseous at times and urinated upwards of 20 times. I wasn't particularly thirsty but could barely swallow because my mouth was so dry, however this and the nausea subsided after a few hours. Apart from being a very unpleasant experience and having gone over 36 hours with no sleep, I did feel quite good. About halfway through the flight I was needing the toilet every 30 minutes, however, it wasn't as if I couldn't control my bladder or it was really urgent, I just felt the constant need to go. Sometimes a lot came out and other times barely any and despite the urgency to go, it took about 30 seconds for urine to actually start flowing. It was about 8 hours into the flight that I began to worry. Although my symptoms hadn't changed, my first thought of the cause of my problem was diabetic ketoacidosis. I am not at all an expert in the area of diabetes and with no wifi on the aeroplane, I had no way to find out if my symptoms were consistent with that of diabetes type 1, so I could only go off of what I knew. My seemingly nocturnal urinal frequency, dry mouth and nausea were all consistent with diabetes, so I was really beginning to worry. I told my mum but she said it was probably a urinary tract infection and that she wasn't too worried. When we finally landed, my symptoms seemed to have subsided, however, it was morning so this was consistent with nocturnal urinal frequency and urgency. When we got home, it was a public holiday so there were no doctors available. We were able to call a GP to the house. The doctor did a urine sample with a dipstick which showed positive for a UTI, however, he said that the test is only 30% accurate. I'm not sure if it is similar to a pregnancy test in that it is generally accurate when results come back positive but is less reliable when the results are negative. The doctor prescribed me antibiotics but said that if my symptoms don't subside, I should look into diabetes. He also recommended that I have my blood sugar checked at the local pharmacy. I am keen to do this however, I know that it doesn't guarantee accuracy as my slim build means that my blood sugar slides all over the place. I slept for about 16 hours and was extremely jet lagged, and I woke up with no symptoms. It is now 10pm and I'm starting to feel urinary frequency again. This is very worrying to me as I have heard many stories of people being diagnosed with diabetes after urinal urgency. I have had very slight discomfort with urination, which is consistent with a UTI, however, I wouldn't say its enough to suggest that it is definitely without a doubt a UTI, as I have had a few before and the pain was quite significant and severe. I am very very very worried that I have diabetes, however, I have quite a limited understanding of it and I'm not sure if diabetic ketoacidosis comes at a later stage of diagnosis, if I am at serious medical risk or how fast I need to act. Please please PLEASE help as I'm extremely anxious.
Thank you very much for your help and taking the time to read.
Lily xx
Thank you very much for your help and taking the time to read.
Lily xx
