Thank you, JudgeDread! I am fully recovered, gratefully. Onset was around 10 AM and it was so painful/uncomfortable that I was on the couch all day. I drank several liters of water, downed cups of berries and citrus, took a tbs of baking powder (never tried that before, head about it online) and took a painkiller with no relief.
Desperate, I took an antibiotic. My UTIs seem to not respond to anything else
. I have tried flushing it out with water, cranberry pills, cranberry juice, with little or no relief.
I am really intrigued with the d-mannose that ValRock recommended. I absolutely want to try it next time (unfortunately, there will be a next time, I'm sure!). I hate taking antibiotics- I think it's risky in general (yeast infections, overmedicating/building up resistant-strains of bacteria) and it interferes with my birth control. It is the only way I have been able to able to cure UTIs, which I get 2-3 times a year. If there is an alternative, I am all for it!
You are definitely not alone, by the way. I had chronic UTIs when I was a child and had to be on a prophylactic antiobiotic for a year. I finally "grew out" out of it, thankfully, but still get them more frequently than the average female. You have my sympathy!