I (34F former alcoholic in recovery) had a routine check up last Monday and had a full urinalysis and blood work that all came back negative except for cloudy urine. I'd been having some low back pain but nothing alarming. By Friday the pain was worse and I started to have other typical UTI symptoms (frequency/urgency) and I took an at home strip test. That came back very positive for leukocytes and negative for nitrates. I called my doctor and was put on a course of Macrobid, two pills a day.

Since then the back pain is still pretty much a constant ache, but last night I had what seemed like deep muscle pain/tenderness/and numbness where I believe my liver is (which I'm sensitive about because of my drinking past) - on the right hand side of my abdomen below my rib cage. It improved over night but is still tender this morning, almost feels like a bone bruise on my lowest rib. My doctor has called in another urinalysis if I don't improve, but doesn't seem that worried.

I've read online (ugh why do I do this?) that Macrobid is actually meant for lower UTIs, not UTIs that may have spread to the kidneys which I suspect mine has. So my question is do I just stay the course with the rest of these pills or call back and ask for something else? I've got worse case scenarios in my head (i.e. I'm actually septic and gonna die).

One possible related thing, last Monday I also started dieting and changed my eating habits. It has occurred to me that some of the back pain I'm feeling might be gas/general stomach adjusting to less fat/lower calories?

Thank you so much!