bluegreen
10-01-2004, 06:19 AM
Hi everyone! I'll likely post this here and in the pregnancy area. I'm excited to find this message board - I had found a few other sites on IC, but this seems like just what I need right now
I'm 32, currently 24 weeks pregnant with my first baby, and was diagnosed with IC around 12 weeks (I began having problems with it around 7 weeks). I either didn't have IC before I got pregnant, or had it and didn't really have any symptoms.
Around 7 weeks, I started to have the feeling that I constantly needed to urinate (even though I didn't - just lots of presure on my bladder), as well as a few episodes of some fairly intense waves of abdominal pain (that often moved into my back). Needless to say - not what you want to feel during pregnancy! After three rounds of antibiotics for what seemed to be a UTI and a few trips to the emergency room (when the pain happened after doctor's hours), I kept getting negative urine culturs and my doctor diagnosed me with IC.
In a stroke of luck that must have been meant to be, the doctor I had picked for my OB also specializes in urogynecology, so I'm convinced that if I had a regular OB, I would have gone on much longer thinking that I had a UTI. At any rate - he started me on hydroxyzine, which rather quickly stopped the severe abdominal pain that I was having. However, it hasn't done much else. I still feel quite uncomfortable almost all of the time, and I've had a few instances of what I assume are flare-ups, where it's really uncomfortable to do much of anything besdies lie down. He's left open the option of the DMSO treatment - he says that it would be safe, but since some of the medicine would get into my bloodstream, it should be a last resort (until I have the baby, of course).
So...I'm just trying to deal with it for a few more months. And, as uncomfortable as it is, the worst part is the paranoia it's causing me about the pregnancy. Since I didn't have this before and can't always recognize the symptoms, I've frequently gotten overly concerened about feelings of pressure, etc... that end up being IC (but that make me worried that something's wrong with the baby).
In addition, I feel a bit overwhelmed by the diagnosis because I also have fibromyalgia and IBS (both of which I've been managing quite well). I'm not sure why more progress hasn't been made in figuring out the source of all of these conditions (since the link seems clear to me - my body just overreaacts, apparently).
Any suggestions would be much appreciated (especially from those who are or have been pregnant), and I can't wait to read more of the posts here!
Rae
I'm 32, currently 24 weeks pregnant with my first baby, and was diagnosed with IC around 12 weeks (I began having problems with it around 7 weeks). I either didn't have IC before I got pregnant, or had it and didn't really have any symptoms.
Around 7 weeks, I started to have the feeling that I constantly needed to urinate (even though I didn't - just lots of presure on my bladder), as well as a few episodes of some fairly intense waves of abdominal pain (that often moved into my back). Needless to say - not what you want to feel during pregnancy! After three rounds of antibiotics for what seemed to be a UTI and a few trips to the emergency room (when the pain happened after doctor's hours), I kept getting negative urine culturs and my doctor diagnosed me with IC.
In a stroke of luck that must have been meant to be, the doctor I had picked for my OB also specializes in urogynecology, so I'm convinced that if I had a regular OB, I would have gone on much longer thinking that I had a UTI. At any rate - he started me on hydroxyzine, which rather quickly stopped the severe abdominal pain that I was having. However, it hasn't done much else. I still feel quite uncomfortable almost all of the time, and I've had a few instances of what I assume are flare-ups, where it's really uncomfortable to do much of anything besdies lie down. He's left open the option of the DMSO treatment - he says that it would be safe, but since some of the medicine would get into my bloodstream, it should be a last resort (until I have the baby, of course).
So...I'm just trying to deal with it for a few more months. And, as uncomfortable as it is, the worst part is the paranoia it's causing me about the pregnancy. Since I didn't have this before and can't always recognize the symptoms, I've frequently gotten overly concerened about feelings of pressure, etc... that end up being IC (but that make me worried that something's wrong with the baby).
In addition, I feel a bit overwhelmed by the diagnosis because I also have fibromyalgia and IBS (both of which I've been managing quite well). I'm not sure why more progress hasn't been made in figuring out the source of all of these conditions (since the link seems clear to me - my body just overreaacts, apparently).
Any suggestions would be much appreciated (especially from those who are or have been pregnant), and I can't wait to read more of the posts here!
Rae