myself and my wife took care of her for as long as we could, then i put her in a nursing home she was 79 when she passed. prior to the uti she had an infection in her finger from which her finger had swollen and the ring had to be cut off,she also had a uti then
My sister once had what, if I remember correctly, was then referred to as a bacterial shower. It occurred about 5 - 10 minutes after a chemo session, caused rapid onset of chills and violent shaking. I'd never seen anything like it; it was frightening. The shaking wasn't just like being cold; it was more like a seizure.
Fortunately, as a nurse she knew what was happening and we hadn't left the infusion center yet so we rushed back in. One of the nurses administered Tylenol, which I thought was interesting under the circumstances. She was wrapped in heavy blankets and after about 1/2 hour began to return to normal, but was still chilled all the way home.
Apparently even a tiny bit of bacteria can get flushed into the body when the tubes are flushed after chemo, and that's how the "showers" occurred.
We knew a man who had a port due to a medical condition which I don't recall; in discussing his condition, he said he had had numerous bacterial showers, I believe from port flushing.
It's been over a decade and these are just the best recollections I have of the condition, so I may be a little bit inaccurate in describing the process of infection.
These rapid infections are frightening.
They treated him quickly with IV antibiotics and steroids and all which had succeeded a couple of times, but we had opted out of transfer to hospital for ICU care. If you are frail or poorly nourished and can't fight off infections well, this is more likely to happen, but it can even happen to young people who are not really in bad shape to start with. Sometimes you can even go into sepsis from a severe viral infection. Sorry for these losses!!
I take cranberry capsules to hopefully discourage UTIs. We probably use antibiotics too much and antiseptics not enough. BTW, colloidal silver comes in a liquid form that can be used on dressings or internally (read the labels and directions).