MicroGen DX Re-test Finds Antibiotic Resistant E-coli & Flight to Dr. Michael Hsieh

I flew to see Dr. Michael Hsieh in Washington DC for my UTI / Cystitis / Bladder Pain symptoms (they've become milder since March, but still super stressful at every half an hour to every hour of wanting to pee), sharp bladder tinges of wanting to pee, sometimes a bit stings at the end or urination, bladder pain during/after urination, and the newer intense bladder pain that started in June that put me into a wheelchair. I can walk for 15 minutes slowly with a cane but after that, back to the wheelchair.

In Canada, a urologist takes many months to wait, and then my appointment with a Canadian urologist is only 5 minutes. I tried to go via private healthcare for my urologist or any urologist, but a Vancouver private clinic never got back to me after repeated calls, voicemails and emails to them. They would call back 1 or 2 weeks later but when I call back, nobody picks up the line or it goes to voicemail. And they replied to my email nearly a month later. That is so bad, considering I was so willing to pay for local private healthcare. So that is why I chose to fly to the States for a private appointment to get in pretty much right away. Also, in Canada, I haven't found a urologist who uses DNA next generation sequencing tests (except for urologist Dr. Curtis Nickel - but he can't take me in since his hospital only allows patients in his area). 

Dr. Hsieh was patient, gentle, knowledgeable and very nice. He listened to every question I had. He spent about an hour and half with me for my consultation. So if you're flying from far away to see him, make sure you mention that to his receptionist to ask if she can book you in longer to go through all your details. I would love Dr. Hsieh as my urologist, but it's 2 connecting flights of 6 hours to see him each way and a lot of money that I don't have. So I don't know if I can keep affording that. Plus flying with frequency and bladder pain was hell. My previous post "How to Fly with Bladder Pain" outlines how I flew with pain and frequency. So in the end, I will need to find a local urologist who is willing to take time and care to look after my case and read over Dr. Hsieh's findings. I had a photo here with Dr. Hsieh but I removed it for privacy.

If you book with Dr. Hsieh or any of the doctors featured on this blog, you can feel free to tell them you found them from my blog "Vancouver UTI Girl". Nobody will know who "Lexie Fei" is though, because it's just a fake name I use online to protect my very sensitive posts. That name won't be in any doctor's medical file. You don't have to mention me if you don't want to, it's completely up to you.

Dr. Hsieh talked about my symptoms and some procedures I could do (Urodynamics and Bladder Instillation) to rule out other problems. I didn't do those there since I was only in DC for 2.5 days and it would cost a lot of money since I'm a Canadian with no US medical insurance. But those were options for me when I would go back to Canada since it would be covered free by my healthcare. Dr. Hsieh and I did a re-test on the spot at his clinic with a MicroGen DX kit he had. He tests patients with MicroGen and Aperiomics DNA next generation sequencing. I made sure that I didn't drink a lot before going to his clinic, so that my urine wouldn't be too diluted. Three days later, MicroGen reported that it found quinolone resistant e-coli on my Level 1 and Level 2 tests.

To find out how to order a MicroGen kit, how it works, how much it is, and how to get a doctor for it, read my previous post: "MicroGenDX Confirms I Don't Have Interstitial Cystitis: What A DNA Next Generation Urology Test Looks Like" and read the right hand column of this blog. There is also another DNA next generation sequencing company called Aperiomics as well (on right hand column of this blog), which I also did last month. I spent so much on my problem so far and it's super stressful financially and emotionally.

To see the full sized images, click on them and download them. If you don't understand how to read them, click on the link above about the "MicroGenDX Confirms I don't have interstitial cystitis" blog post, where I talk about how to decipher this test result.

Level 1:




Level 2:

PS, the red means my e-coli is resistant to these antibiotics. If you read my 1st post, this makes a lot of sense. I took a heck lot of antibiotics under the guessing game of drop-in doctors, then eventually by the time I was doing cultures, they all came back negative because I was already on so many antibiotics and drinking loads of water that diluted the results. The full long story is on that original post.

Here's where the scary and fearful of the "unknown" comes in. Dr. Hsieh didn't want to treat me unnecessarily with antibiotics, because he said it could lead to stronger antibiotic resistant UTIs for me in the future, which is pretty scary since look at the mess I'm already in (my current antibiotic resistance is from taking so many wrong antibiotics for the big previous UTI in February 2018). There is the possibility more antibiotics could make me worse or even more resistant to treatment. After all, if you read my 1st post, the wrong combination of being given mass UTI antibiotics was what got me into this mess. So he wanted me to fight this off naturally (taking Jarrow's Fem Dophilis probiotics and eating the IC alkaline diet). Then hopefully I fight this off and my bladder inflammation (if it is bladder inflammation) will die down. I met 2 ladies now who had similar problems and they healed naturally in 1.5 years. That's such a long time! So I'm not sure if I really want to wait that long. I'm also not sure if I will even heal naturally. However, he did caution that if I did want to do antibiotics (with the recommendations of MicroGen DX) to talk to my doctor first about it.

My doctor green lighted the antibiotics - Bactrim (sulfamethoxazole and trimethoprim) or Augmentin (also known as amoxicillin and clavulanate or co-amoxiclav) since they are on the MicroGen recommendations.  I may or may not go the antibiotics route, I haven't decided yet. I'm fearful and crying every day. If I do the antibiotics route, then I am solely doing this at my risk and I full well know the consequences that they may hurt me more. But if it is successful, then my pain and gain is your gain. Most people write to me that my blog is like a guinea pig trial (me the guinea pig) to help others gain insight into their own illnesses. I figured if I'm suffering this much, to keep documenting it so you can learn from my mistakes and successes! Please note that everyone is different and what may work or fail for me, may not be the same for you.

August 2018 update:

I did a rotating antibiotics of Augmentim + Bactrim for 2 weeks and it didn't work. In fact, it made the e-coli even more resistant, which I wouldn't find out until October's MicroGen re-test.

October 2018 update:

In October, I did another Microgen DX test would showed the e-coli has dwindled down to 72,000, but picked up even more resistance when I did another round of antibiotics back in August. Again, the test results made sense with what I was doing. I also started feeling a lot better in September too, so it made sense that the ecoli count would be down in the October testing.