Emmie
12-14-2004, 09:37 AM
Hi all. I have been lurking here for about a week I guess, maybe more. I am a 34 year old mother of two. I do child care in my home to make ends meet.
I just want to say, "WOW, this is a great site!". I was diagnosed with IC about a year and a half ago after an ER visit for bleeding from my bladder and having horrible pain (I bled like I was on my period but had a full hysterectomy in 1999 so knew something was wrong). The only thing I knew about it was that my doctor told me the inside of my bladder looked like a huge spider web with all the holes in it, plus the info on the stack of papers he had given me. I was put on Elmiron and Elavil at the time along with Pyridum (sp?). One Elavil knocked me out for three days, I mean I would even fall asleep during conversations three days after I took one little pill. So that one was the last I ever took. I have two children 11 and 9 yrs old and was working outside of the home so I couldn't be knocked out like that. I found the Elmiron as well as the Pyridum (sp?) really helped me a lot but due to a divorce after being married 16 years and loosing my medical insurance I now can't afford them.
I do still see my pain specialist who is treating me for my back problems. (degen disk/bulging/flattened) But I don't see a doctor for my IC. My pain specialist knows about my IC and on my next visit with him I will tell him that he must start treating me somehow to help with the IC. It seems to be only getting worse and my back meds only help for about an hour then the IC pains kick in again and I honestly feel like running and screaming when it is flared up. If I thought running and screaming would actually help trust me I would be doing it :0)
I am now starting to believe that most of my back pains are cause by the IC and not my back injury like I have believed for the past few years. Reading on this forum has opened my eyes also to the fact that I am not crazy and all these pains everywhere are real. I honestly thought I had a few different problems going on but now I know that the IC may very well be the cause of it all. I also have IBS which alone is enough to drive one mad.
I honestly don't have anyone that I can talk to about my pains and problems because nobody seems to understand so I just keep it inside and it piles up until I want to explode. This is one reason I am so glad I found this site. I actually jumped for joy when I found you all because I felt that I finally found people that understand exactly what I am dealing with. I try my hardest not to complain about my problems because my family and friends honestly can not relate and I don't want to feel like I am always complaining to them. They just simply don't understand and I know they get tired of hearing about other peoples problems when they all have their own to deal with. So again I just keep it all inside of myself.
I didn't mean to write so much on my first post and I apoligise if I went a little crazy with it. I mostly wanted to say "HELLO" and I am so happy to have found this site and look forward to getting to know you all more. BTW I am still learning how to use the forums so please bare with me.
I just want to say, "WOW, this is a great site!". I was diagnosed with IC about a year and a half ago after an ER visit for bleeding from my bladder and having horrible pain (I bled like I was on my period but had a full hysterectomy in 1999 so knew something was wrong). The only thing I knew about it was that my doctor told me the inside of my bladder looked like a huge spider web with all the holes in it, plus the info on the stack of papers he had given me. I was put on Elmiron and Elavil at the time along with Pyridum (sp?). One Elavil knocked me out for three days, I mean I would even fall asleep during conversations three days after I took one little pill. So that one was the last I ever took. I have two children 11 and 9 yrs old and was working outside of the home so I couldn't be knocked out like that. I found the Elmiron as well as the Pyridum (sp?) really helped me a lot but due to a divorce after being married 16 years and loosing my medical insurance I now can't afford them.
I do still see my pain specialist who is treating me for my back problems. (degen disk/bulging/flattened) But I don't see a doctor for my IC. My pain specialist knows about my IC and on my next visit with him I will tell him that he must start treating me somehow to help with the IC. It seems to be only getting worse and my back meds only help for about an hour then the IC pains kick in again and I honestly feel like running and screaming when it is flared up. If I thought running and screaming would actually help trust me I would be doing it :0)
I am now starting to believe that most of my back pains are cause by the IC and not my back injury like I have believed for the past few years. Reading on this forum has opened my eyes also to the fact that I am not crazy and all these pains everywhere are real. I honestly thought I had a few different problems going on but now I know that the IC may very well be the cause of it all. I also have IBS which alone is enough to drive one mad.
I honestly don't have anyone that I can talk to about my pains and problems because nobody seems to understand so I just keep it inside and it piles up until I want to explode. This is one reason I am so glad I found this site. I actually jumped for joy when I found you all because I felt that I finally found people that understand exactly what I am dealing with. I try my hardest not to complain about my problems because my family and friends honestly can not relate and I don't want to feel like I am always complaining to them. They just simply don't understand and I know they get tired of hearing about other peoples problems when they all have their own to deal with. So again I just keep it all inside of myself.
I didn't mean to write so much on my first post and I apoligise if I went a little crazy with it. I mostly wanted to say "HELLO" and I am so happy to have found this site and look forward to getting to know you all more. BTW I am still learning how to use the forums so please bare with me.