lori jo
03-08-2004, 11:32 AM
I have been reading these boards for weeks now and thought that I should finally introduce myself to all of you wonderful amazing people. I will post my story here because I have not been diagonosed with IC. But I am 100% sure that this is what has been tormenting me for years. I am 46 years old. I started getting UTI's when I was 6 mo. old and got them many times every year, about 15 years ago is when I think the UTI'S weren't UTI'S any more. I have had 2 bladder surgeries to repair a ureathal reflux. The first one when I was 6 years old was the first surgery of it's kind to ever be done in the US. But the materials that were used to reimplant the valuves desolved and I had to have the valuves replaced again when I was 18. Oh and they had to do 3 valuves each time because I have three kidneys. Which sounds good but I have lost huge chunks of them from the bladder infections that could travel up the uritures when the valuves were gone. I also had a horrible surgery called "widening the bladder neck" when I was very young, I'm not sure what the purpose was supposed to be. I found out years later that it is a barbaric thing that they used to do to women and involved sniping the muscle in your bladder that opens to alow you to pee! So now I have a slight leakage problem. grrrr I'd love to get my hands on that stoopid Dr!! Anyway for the last 15 years I have seen Dr. after Dr. for the infections and no one could tell me why I kept getting them, what to do about them or if they were actually infections. They would say "not the typical infection", "urine shows MAYBE SLIGHT signs" , "here take this medicine". Id take all the meds and it just never went away. They gave up on me so I simply stopped going to the Drs. Then about a month ago I was having the upteenth day of very painful pain, just sitting in the tub crying to my 23 year old daughter about how depressed I was from being tortured by my bladder for so many years and not knowing why. Well she and I got on the computer and found this site. I just bawled reading all of your stories and stuff. None of the stories are just like mine but if you take a little bit from each, it is me excatly. I have learned so much here and feel relieved that there are things that I can do to help myself. I started the elimination diet the next day. It has been frustrating and so far I don't know what foods trigger my flares, except catsup...OUCH! But I will keep at it. And yes I know that I need to find a good Dr and get a diagnosis but I am self employed with no health insurance. I make too much money to qualify for the Oregon Health Plan but only enough to barely get me through the month. I really can't make more than do now, but am really pushing through the pain and working a second job that is building a business that will pay really well eventually, but not yet. So for now I am on my own with this bladder hell. Sorry this is sooo long , but it really is my life story. Thanks to all of you out there who are reaching out to others who are hurting too.