diary of an inflamed bladder: natural

Thursday, 21 April 2011

I am on the mend

Hiya,
Its been a while since I posted, I am currently doing a degree so don't have much internet time on my hands (unless it revolves around Shakespeare or Linton Kwesi Johnson). Anyhow, I recieved an email from my fellow ICer (who we shall call B), B was very upset because she recently went onto the forum where we both met and found it has now turned into an overly controlled and unrealistic environment which moreso than ever focusses on the medical profession as the answer to our problems....this is not so!

Like myself B has found that various lifestyle and dietary changes have made the WORLD of difference. I don't know about her but I am now 100% pain free most days, I get the occasional bout of 25% pain (usually lasting a few hours or less), the odd day of 4% pain and a few niggles now and then. This is a massive difference compared to my months of daily pain at about 75% and bad days of 90-100%. I haven't cried on the toilet for about 3months. In this time I have had no days in bed nursing my poor bladder unable to face the day, no days going to the loo every 10mins, no days where my bladder feels like its on fire. I can do things like go for long walks/run/swim/cycle without any pain, sometimes if I push myself too far then my pelvic floor muscles tense up and I get some twinges but relaxation soon helps that to subside.

I feel like a new person.

If I were to list all of the things I have tried to help myself in this situation I would be here for hours. But here are a list of things which have helped me tremendously...

Taking my diet right back to basics - brown rice, eggs, meat, green veggies, water, peppermint tea (I did 2 months of that and have gradually started introducing things back, starting with vegtables one at a time, totally avoding any kind of processed foods or additives)
Drinking 1/4 of a teaspoon of bicarb when in pain
Probiotics (Natren 2x daily)
2litres of water per day
Castor Oil Packs
Changing ALL body products to ones with 100% natural ingredients (including sanitary towels, deodorant, soap, shampoo, moisturiser etc)
Bowen Therapy
Homeopathy (Histamine 30c, Causticum 30c)
Coconut water
Stopping taking the pill, stopping using condoms of all sorts (I had tried in the region of 50 different brands and all of them set my bladder off)
Relaxing my pelvic floor muscles conciously, deep breathing focussed relaxation
The Better Bladder Book by Wendy Cohan
Writing poetry
Talking to others going through similar things - this has helped me BEYOND all else, without the support and kindness of various people I have spoken with I would not be at the stage I am at now, there are people out there who unknowingly have given me the determination and strength to say 'I can get well, and I WILL get well.'

Its been a hard part of my life, and just over a year of suffering occured before I could get to the stage I am now at. But the thruth is there ARE ways you can help yourself, which may cost slightly more money (like natural hair and body care) but I can tell you its well worth that small extra cost if it gives you your life back and helps your poor sore bladder to heal.

Take Care
Love
little_ducks x

What is Interstitial Cystitis?

Interstitial Cystitis is a condition which can be suffered by men, women and children, however most of the recognised sufferers are women.
It is a higly painful and debilitating conditon of which the symptoms are - urgency to urinate, pain and frequency of urination. Often the sufferer will have sudden urges to urinate, or even a constant urge to urinate which does not subside. Pain can be felt before, during or after urination, or all of the time - it can be in the urethra, bladder or in the whole abdominal area and is often compared to burning or pressure. Frequency is also a terrible problem, in some bad cases people can urinate up to around 100 times in a 24hr period. Frequency can make things very difficult at night because the sufferer must get up to go to the loo and this interrupts sleep leaving them exhausted and without any deep sleep (RAM) where people heal and repair.
Some people may have some but not all of the symptoms, other may have all of the symptoms listed and more. Other symptoms can include tiny white floating bits in the urine, suspensions in the urine, dust like sediment in the urine, dark and/or smelly urine (with no infection present), pain which is worse during menstruation/ovulation.
Interstitial Cystitis can often be misdiagnosed or not diagnosed at all...many women go through months or even years of taking course upon course of antibiotics for a urine infection that isn't there. Its very important to get a urine sample sent off by your GP to the lab for further investigation. Children, teenagers and young adults are often told they cannot have IC because they are too young, even when tests and symptoms show that they do, this is down to old fashioned UK regulations around diagnosis of the disease. Men are often told they have prostate problems rather than a bladder problem and this misdiagnosis is very problematic because they cannot attempt to improve their pain with the wrong diagnosis especially when they may never have heard of IC to suspect it for themselves. This is why much more information needs to be put out there for people to understand what they may have and take it from there in the most suitable way for the individual.
To get a diagnosis in the UK a person must undergo invasive tests, including (some uros do only 1 others do all):
cystoscopy (where a camera is inserted into the bladder via the urethra)
biopspy (a sample of the tissue of the bladder lining is taken for investigation)
distension of the bladder (the bladder if filled with fluid whilst the patient is in most cases under general anesthetic, the cytoscope camera then is used to see if there are lesions or tiny hemorrhages in the wall of the bladder as it is stretched by the fluid).
However in America patients are often diagnosed by symptoms alone and treated accordingly.
Many pain treatments are available and often patients are offered anti-depressants as well. Pain treatments can take months to come into play (alot of waiting in pain can occur), or they can mask the issue slightly but not fully. Some people are also prescribed rolling courses of antibiotics. There are also things like bladder and urethral stretches used. But none of these treatments offers a cure they are just ways in which some people have found relief, whilst others have had a worstening of symptoms.