Is it happening again...?

[Serenity]

Hi everyone,
About 3 years ago I had symptoms of frequency, urgency and mild pain. When I went to my gyno they put me on anti's and told me I had a UTI. Went on my marry way, took the meds and five days later all the symptoms where back and in full force. My gyno told me that there was probably an infection in there that the first dose of anti's didn't take care of. So I was prescribed another dose of anti's. This repeated another time before she did a urinalysis, for only to find the test to come back negative! After the test result, I’ll never forget the way she looked; she said, “are you depressed, what’s going on with you?” She immediately thought I was making this up. I was so frustrated and started pursuing another gyno only to go through the same thing there. I eventually linked up with a urologist and they started doing some tests to figure out what was wrong with me but before I finished up everything the urologist looked over at me and said, “dear you look so healthy are you sure your not depressed.” I got up right then and stormed out of his office never to return again. For the next several months I went without seeing any doctors and started searching on line… I found this website and started chatting. The weirdest thing is after I found you guys my symptoms started subsiding although never completely going away (still had to pee on average 10-15 per day & at least twice @ night) but it was much more tolerable. So regrettably I stopped searching for a diagnosis until now. I recently (started the first of this month) have been suffering again with symptoms of the same, frequency, urgency and mild pain. I went to see my new gyno (I like her) and she gave me anti’s and Pyridim (sp?). She also did a culture and it came back negative. I went back to see her and she gave me a pamphlet on IC and Elmiron. She also referred me to an urologist. Ladies I’m sacred and want this to just go away! I guess what I’m having is a flare which is coming up on a duration of a month. I don’t want to go through this and am frightful of my appointment with the urologist. What if they don’t believe me? I just needed to vent and re-introduce myself. Sorry for the lengthy chat but I’m feeling overwhelmed and nervous. Right not I feel like I am going to feel like this FOREVER! Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
:help:

[Dixiefireball]

:hi: and :welcome: to the icn familie i'm sorry you been threw so much many of us go threw that before being dx. have you tried the ic diet yet? that can be very helpful in controling your systoms please check it out at www.ic-network.com/handbook. you will find more information there that you may find real helpful for your ic systoms.
I wish you lots of luck and please let us know how you are doing we do care
sending you hugs and prayers
Rhonda

[Imustpee]

Hang in there! Some of us here on the board have had I.C. all our lives, and we still live our lives the best that we can..I work full time as a music teacher, I am very happily married for 12 years and I have a 19 year old son in college..life is GREAT!!!!....hopefully you will get a good caring dr that will listen to you...you are NOT crazy..we all understand exactly how you feel and we are here when you need us..

[mick]

Serenity,

I was dianogsed with IC this last summer and had surgery (cyctoscopy and hydrodistention) this fall to confirm and treat the condition. I had been seeing other doctors during the past 5 years that had treated me for a prostate infection when it actually was IC. It may be sometime before you can get the treatment you need but have you looked at the ICN for recommended diet changes? I found that changing my diet in addition to my drug treatment is very key to managing IC. The urologist may want to do a urodynamics test on you before going further. I actually had to go through 3 different urologist before I found one that brought up IC and was able to supply me with some relief. You might ask about a drug called flomax as your are awaiting further testing. It did give me some short term releif during IC flare-ups but it was not a long term solution.

Hope things improve soon.

[Katrina]

:hi: Serenity :welcome: to the boards!
I would say, have some hope since this uro is recommended by the gyno that seems to understand. I would love for your symptoms to just go away....but if you have to have them I would much rather someone diagnose you so you can start feeling better. I highly recommend you try out the IC diet which you will find in the handbook in Rhond/Dixiefireball's link.

Have faith that you will feel better!!! Besides the diet a nice thing to start is Prelief. http://www.akpharma.com/prelief/preliefindex.html

I hope you feel better soon.

:grouphug:

[ICNDonna]

It sounds like you are moving in the right direction to get a diagnosis. I suggest you tell the uro right at the onset that your gyno thinks you have IC and that your research tends to make you agree. I hope you connect with a caring uro. That can be so important.

Warm hugs,
Donna