Well, if you guys ever had one of these, than you know it's a damned b-tch. Here's the technical stuff behind it.
Your kidneys are located in between your last set of ribs and your waist line of your back. The kidneys really look like a kidney bean. The kidneys main function is to filter waste but also regulate certain hormones (Thanks to those wonderful adrenal glands located on the kidneys). Your kidneys also help maintain blood pressure.
A kidney infection is also known as acute pyelonephritis and results from bacteria invading your kidney. The most common of the bacteria are E-coli (yum), Pseudomonas, Staphylococcus.
Usually the bacteria are from the bladder from an untreated UTI , than travel via the ureters to the kidney. Sometimes the kidney infection can be caused by invasive procedures, such as, catheterization, cystoscopy, or urologic surgery. Also sepsis has been known to cause these types of infections too (blood infection).
Signs and Symptoms
OUCH when you pee...it burns.
Urgency, frequency and bloody pee. Cloudy urine, fever, chills and back pain.
To take care of this problem, you're gonna have to leave some pee with your Doc. This was it can be sent to a lab and have a culture and sensitivity done. This determines the type of bacteria is involved and what kind of antibiotics to prescribe. In the mean time drink lotsa water and stay away from citrus/cranberry, at this point it's doing more harm than good.