IC is a broad term diagnosis and symptoms and effective treatments vary. On our Blog we seek to share our experiences and guide sufferers to comfort. We do not in any way intend to say that what we have found in our combined 25 years of experience will work for you or is the only way, only that we have found a reduction in symptoms based on our experience. Even though we share a genetic legacy, our symptoms and successes vary. We believe that diet and exercises are key. We believe you can find your way to a reduction in symptoms. We believe you can feel better than you do today.

Your Urologist

Sister 1 and Sister 2 have both gotten their best advice from a urologist who has expertise in IC. However, for both of us, this was after years of misdiagnosis. For this reason, we suggest that anyone suffering with bladder pain, urethra pain, or pelvic pain, especially if you have had a negative urine culture, waste no time. Get a referral to a urologist, and ask the urologist about their experience with IC. The Interstitial Cystitis Network has a nationwide listing of support providers of all kinds from dietitians to physical therapists to urologists. If you don't get the support you need try another provider, approaches and understanding vary but there is someone with information that can help you to reduce your symptoms. Diet is key to reducing your pain so we highly recommend seeing a dietitian to get your diet more IC friendly. If you have suffered from pelvic pain for some time, you might have given up, but there is much more help available now than there was just a few years ago, and it is growing all the time. Give it another try.

The Candida Link

I was first diagnosed by a friend whose daughter was in my son's cooperative preschool. I divulged my current symptoms through a litany of limitations, "Can't go to the zoo today, every step I take is painful." "Can't leave the house today, have to stay close to a bathroom." I was at my all time worst during those months and one day this friend said to me, "You have IC, you need to kill off the Candida." Because all I was getting was Vicodin from the medical community (And I don't knock it, but it wasn't the solution I was looking for) I put all my eggs in the Candida basket and did EXACTLY what she told me to do. I went off sugar and potatoes and all simple carbohydrates. No white rice, no pizza, no peanut butter, no fruit, no food of any kind with sugar or any variety of sugar listed in the ingredients. In addition to that, I was taking a supplement called Yeast Free and drinking Pau D' Arco tea. I also did a lot of research. Sugar is an inflamatory, in addition, sugar feeds Candida and Candida waste is acid. So when out of control, Candida is acidifying your system. It is also linked to bladder infections, which I was having frequently. I did the diet for two weeks and never felt better. The initial withdrawl from sugar was very difficult. I could stop eating any one food without noticing much, there would always be a substitute, but stopping sugar is such a struggle you have to respect the addiction and wonder why the body is so attached to it. I believe the body is attached to it because Candida has taken over the body. When the Candida is under control, the sugar cravings actually stop and the diet becomes easy. When I have flare ups with IC, sugar is the first thing I nix. It is always hard. I strongly recommend you find a naturopath or other health care professional who can test you for Candida and provide you with the tools you need to change your diet to reduce Candida overgrowth. It is imperative to have a lot of healthy food available at all times that you like and can eat. The recommended diet for IC is bland and starchy and when you reduce acid and starch you will need a lot of resources at hand to be successful. For example, if you are away from your refrigerator you might want to have some fresh veggies at hand as they are alkalizing to the system and can take the edge off an appetite without sending you to the more challenging snack food options such as chips and sugar foods.

Retention

I want to share a major victory I had with my IC in the area of retention. It has been six months since I had an episode of retention and I feel that this is my first sure deal victory since the onset of IC. Maybe it's too early to tell for sure, but I want to get the word out there because if you are suffering and running to the emergency room you need to know this. About seven months ago at the advice of my doctor I decided to give a urologist another chance at me. I had been suffering for a year or so with episodic retention about monthly. The urologist recommended amytriptaline and physical therapy for my IC and retention. Here's how that went.

The amytriptaline was supposed to reduce the pain messages to the brain that she claims are hyper vigilant and misfiring. After about two weeks I had to get off the medication due to an increased sensation of depression and anxiety. That medication is definitely not for me, though when I quit it, it seemed to me that it might have been causing a reduction in pain symptoms. In other words, my pain seemed to increase when I went off the amytriptaline. It's hard to be sure because my pain fluctuates anyway.

As for the physical therapy, I can't recommend it enough. Pelvic tension was found to be a big player in my IC symptoms, and my retention issues are, at least for the time being, gone. IC sisters will be developing a yoga video of helpful exercises, but in the meantime, consider seeing a physical therapist that specializes in Interstitial Cystitis.

There are many blogs where people share their experiences with TENS Units curing their IC pain, so other IC sufferers have also discovered a muscular-IC pain link. In the eighties I took Hytrin, a smooth muscle relaxer which also eased my symptoms some. There is quite a bit of evidence supporting the theory of a muscular component to IC pain, and from my own experience, I feel you must know that if you suffer from retention you should give physical therapy a try.