Breakfast - Shredded wheat (no preservatives or sugar) with milk (whole or 2%...skim milk makes me hurt) and blueberries for breakfast
Lunch - Baked potato with real butter and sour cream (again fake butter and sour creams make me hurt...so I stick to the real stuff)
Dinner - Fish or Shrimp baked or grilled in butter and stir fried veggies in butter
Snack - Saltine crackers with Jiff Peanut butter, banana or avocado
Water is a huge part of my day. I drink a little over a gallon of water a day. I seem to do best with tap water. Bottled water is just too risky. Too many bottled waters are acidic or they add vitamins or flavorings that my little dysfunctional bladder just can't handle. I've tried most bottled waters now and the only one that is great for me is Mountain Valley Water. So I buy a lot of it for days when I'm not going to be close to home.
Most days I'm good with the diet. It helped me lose the weight I needed to lose and I feel good that I don't eat junk food. But there are days when hamburgers and french fries cry out to me especially this time of the year when you can smell them cooking on the grill! Sheer torture! But one moment of "Oh this tastes so great" isn't worth a week of crying through the pain and not being able to get out of bed. So I stick to the diet and pray that one day I get to add a little bit more to my diet.
Thinking Outside the Box
I've seen a lot of doctors this past year. The two that have helped me the most are my new gynecologist, Dr. Kay Chandler, and the physical therapists at Advanced Physical Therapy. Both offices have experience working with patients with Interstitial Cystitis. Both have worked outside the box with treatments to try and keep me out of pain. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but over all I believe that God led me to these ladies and that they are on this journey with me to help and encourage me. Recently I've been trying bio-identical hormones with some success. Female bladders are VERY affected by hormones especially estrogen. So we've been working with dosages that might help. They ran all the hormone panels and saliva tests on me to see what my body needed. Basically my hormone panel this last time showed that of a post menopausal woman. I'm 45 years old! So this was a bit of shock. Currently the lowest dose of compounded hormone works okay with me but I even have reactions to that. I keep taking it though because it helps with some other symptoms even though it causes other ones. I'm only taking .01 ml of the hormone. So my body is extremely sensitive to medications now.
Considering an Autoimmune Disease as the Cause?
I've read that many doctors think that Interstitial Cystitis (IC) is caused by an Autoimmune Disease or disorder. I've come to a point where I believe this to be true. I have allergic reactions to things that I have never had reactions to before now. This past month I had a bladder infection. I took 4 different antibiotics trying to kill the bacteria causing the infection. Each culture showed a new bacteria. So the doctors would switch the antibiotics. This last culture was tricky because the 2 antibiotics that would kill the bacteria I was allergic to...so I had to take one and see if I could live with the allergic reaction. Once my face and lips went numb we had to switch to the other antibiotic. So my allergies to medications, foods, chemicals, and some I'm sure that haven't shown up yet has increased dramatically during this illness. I've read that there is a connection between allergies and Autoimmune Diseases. So this again makes me think there is a connection between this and IC.
Wishing It Was Just a Bad Dream
I told Rick recently that if someone had come to me before I got this illness and told me they had this disease and described symptoms as I just did that I would be certain they needed professional help. I so wish that this was all just in my head and I could see a psychiatrist or therapist and they could help me see that it is all a bad dream. But after a year of having to give up way too many things that I love I know that not to be the case. My hope is that I never give up praying for and believing that one day God will heal me and that when other ladies are sent to me that have this disease that I will be an encouragement to them.
"O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me." Psalm 30:2
