What is pyelonephritis?

It's terrible. Like really fucking terrible, like I feel like I'm going to die. Oh yeah, and you usually only get it if you're a female. It starts as a UTI and makes its way from the pee hole, to the bladder, to the kidney. Yup, my right kidney is swollen with infection, taking in a lot of pain. In fact, my whole body aches with pain constantly -- it's been doing this for the past five days. I'm on antibiotics and nausea medication, but that isn't all it takes. I have to drink huge gulps of water every five minutes, I have to stay hydrated constantly. Why was I hooked up to an IV yesterday? Dehydration. Fluids were directly pumped into my system, and afterwards I felt really high/drunk, definitely dopey. I felt better, for sure. But the pain has returned today, despite the meds. It even hurts to lay still in bed.

I could've stopped the UTI from spreading to my kidney; however, I was on my period this week so the infection basically snuck up on me. The extreme body aches were mistaken for menstrual cramps. But Saturday came along (when my period finished up) and I still had these awful pains. So I knew something was bad, and yeah, basically I could've died if I didn't see a doctor yesterday. I could've died from either kidney failure, or dehydration, or both. 

It's been a lovely week (sarcasm). I realize from UTIs and diseases similar to pyelonephritis that women have it the worst. Our genetic make up is the cause of this, we can't even help it. We're in so much pain all the time from stupid infections like this. (THIS IS NOT THE LAST TIME I WILL GET A UTI, OR SOMETHING WORSE, IN MY LIFE) And basically everything sucks because I have 3 papers to turn in, in a time frame of seven days, and I have no idea how I'll pull through with this constant pain.