I woke up at 5:30am and had to pee. But I couldn’t fall back asleep once I was back in bed. I was in pain. Gregg’s alarm went off at 6 and so he was awake and we snuggled for a bit before he had to get ready for work. He is gone and I am sitting here still in pain. The pain I am having is my IC. It seems that I have not been careful with what I have been eating this week. I know exactly what I did wrong, I ate raw onions 3 days in a row. BIG mistake! Well I figure that I might as well inform the world about this “syndrome”. At least from my point of view.

IT HURTS! (insert bad words here) IT HURTS A LOT! Having babies was easy(I lol at the thought). This pain stays for days, weeks, even months. It burns when I pee and I mean like a raging wildfire(screaming helps). My bladder feels like it is contracting and might even fall out when I stand up. The pain flows around my entire lower abdomen into my lower back and the pain it produces there, no pill can help(Maybe a shot of morphine). With this also come IBS. This is definitely NOT a plus! What brings on these “flare ups”? Any kind of stress, some activities, and especially food and drink. And you don’t want any clothes touching you down there because that also HURTS!(more bad words here).

I found out that I had IC about 9 years ago(wow, has it been that long already?)on my first trip to SC. I was there for a few days and I was in so much pain I needed to see a doctor, which I did. He figured I had a bladder infection. He was wrong. I did a bit of research online and kinda figured it out on my own what was wrong with me. I found a website called the IC-Network. I found everything I needed to know and even made a few friends on the message boards.

After getting all the info I needed to arm myself I went to the drugstore and bought a product called “uristat” it would help with the pain. I used that for the rest of my visit and when I got back home I went to see my doctor. He didn’t believe me and didn’t like the idea of me telling him what was wrong with me. Again I was given drugs for a infection. (this happened 3 more times)

I traveled a few more times and kept using the uristat and found that Benadryl helped with the symptoms too(I used it for a couple years). Once I was back home for good and finally had enough and saw a new doctor and he sent me to a urologist. He did some tests and a cystoscopy and we finally had a diagnosis I had IC(DUH!). It was such a relief after 2 years to have a doctor that believed me that I was in pain. He gave me some meds and I used them for a while and then over time I had to try different ones until we found one that worked for me.

Now, after all these years, I have learned to except the pain I get with each flare-up. Just this year I have finally figured out how to control it. Seeing the allergist in February and being put on a special diet has made a big difference. I have stopped taking my meds(hydroxyzine) for the last 6 months, and have had only 2 flare-ups in all this time. Its been wonderful!

Well, today I am blaming myself for the pain I am in. I ate raw onions when I should of known better. I have taken a pill(pyridium) which is similar to uristat to help with the pain. These are from the doctor. Uristat isn’t available in Canada. I will be suffering thru the day today. Oh yeah, and my pee will be bright orangey-red from the pills(good times).

So there you have it folks. That is one of my many problems I get to live with for the rest of my life:P . And you wonder why I use the name “self-medicated”…lol. I hope that this information is useful for some of you that might have IC, but don’t realize what it is. Just because it burns when you pee, doesn’t always mean you have an infection or a STD. Consider IC as a possibility.

If you need to know more, just ask me.