Has anyone here ever had chronic bacterial prostatitis?

I seem to have it, I'm still trying to get a sense for what it's like. I wanted to compare notes with anyone who this or has had this. My story is that I apparently got an infection from a catheter, about 8 months ago. I started using catheters somewhat recently for shy bladder syndrome (I have a severe case where I can't pee in public places like airports, and self-cathetering was mentioned on some online forum). I apparently didn't use a clean enough technique or something when catheterizing, still being relatively new at it, and came down with an infection. The symptoms were pretty severe, started wtih fever etc (I worried I might have covid), then urinary symptoms followed, it was diagnosed as a UTI (bacteria found in urine), treated with antibiotics. They gave me like a 5 day course of antibiotics, and it was lingering still. So the doctor prescribed more, I think a week or so. A few days into that course it was gone. Urine culture came back clean, and they told me I could stop the antiobiotics.

Two days later, symptoms again, but no fever/fatigue this time, no aches and pains (bad urinary symptoms, but not quite as horrible). Doctor put me on another course of antibiotics, referred me to urologist. Symptoms didn't go away this time (didn't seem to change much, if at all). Urine tests were coming back clean. Doctor had suggested the possibility of a prostate infection (said sometimes doesn't show up in urine culture, and antibiotics are not so effective for it). I went to see urologist at a different clinic (soonest available appointment), by now I had symptoms for over a month. He was completely skeptical that I even had an infection at all, and took me off the antibiotics (steps backwards). He thought maybe I had just gotten a "false positive" on the culture test, symptoms were due to something else. This was very frustrating and discouraging, but I tried to go along with him. I wanted to be on more antibiotics (which no one would give me). Anyway, he took a urine sample and it was clean, then had me do more tests (not a semen culture which would've been helpful). He had me do a CT scan and this showed no issues. After like a month of waiting on appointments, test results, etc, he basically just said he didn't know what it was, and he really had no solutions. He muttered something about how he thought it could be a "laceration from a catheter" (which I found hard to believe), and I tried to take that as a possibility. Anyway, I decided I needed to see another urologist. I tried to do lots of research online about lacerations from catheters etc. Also he told me he didn't think it was as prostate infection because he did the prostate digit exam and my prostate seemed "fine".

Next urologist, by the time I got to him, my body seemingly fought the infection down significantly. After a few months of struggling, it had become somewhat manageable. He immediately thought it could be a prostate infection and had me do a semen culture (he said the laceration idea didn't sound likely to him). And yeah to him the culture made it really obvious I had prostatitis. So he put me on antibiotics. It wasn't bothering me too much at this point, just minor irritation throughout the day with occasional flareups, like maybe one day per week I'd have more intense symptoms and then they'd subside He put me on four courses of antibiotics (two weeks each) and took a semen culture test between each one. Finally after the fourth course, he took me off of them. He said he thought my body could probably fight it off on its own by now. I didn't feel the antibiotics had really affected the symptoms much (they were kind of staying the same), but it's possible they were helping maintain a plateau anyway of more manageable symptoms. For 2-3 months the symptoms were alright, not many flare ups. I wasn't complaining much and was optimistic they'd eventually subside. Then I had a pretty big flare up recently that has gone on for a week or so. I have an appointment with the urologist today and am curious to hear what he says.

I guess what I'm wondering is to hear from anyone who has had this, what was it like/is like? I gather it is not that common, which would make sense, because I caught it from a catheter and I'm in the vast minority of people who would ever even have to use such a thing. How long does it last? Do antibiotics work for it, how did you get it, does it always come back when treated? So far mine has not gone away at all, but it goes through different phases of intensity. It's hard to know if the antibiotics do anything. My body seems to fight it off okay on its own for a time, and the antibiotics don't do much that is noticeable. I've read quite a bit about it but haven't read many experiential accounts of what it's like, from someone who has it themselves. I guess I'll ask the urologist today as well if he's ever treated someone with this infection and more about what to expect.

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