childhood bladder problems/symptom of Ic as adult?

[debdohairdo]

Hmmm the more I read here ...the more I am thinking and putting things together. I am wondering if there is much research on childhood bladder probs showing up in the adult IC patient. For me just being diagnosed after 2 years of pain, we are associating it with maybe trauma incurred with my hysterectomy or hairdyes that I touch everyday. But I am wondering if it relates to this.....as achild I had noooo bladder control..peed in class all of k-2 grade and wet the bed til 7th grade.I was a very happy kid by the way..not psychological :P Just wondering if anyone else has similar childhood symptoms. Thank you all :)

[Teri]

I'm 50 now and I am positive after looking back that I have had IC for my whole life. I would have periods of unexplainable pain. I was spanked for needing to use the bathroom all the time. I was embarrassed and humiliated by teachers and naturally, you can imagine what the kids were saying to me. It wasn't until I was 46 that I learned that 'normal' people only need to pee about 5 times a day.
For all my life I have suffered from severe urgency and frequency but the chronic pain didn't start until after a bladder suspension in 1993. From that day on my life completely changed. There have been alot of us girls that have been able to look back at our childhoods and realize that we weren't 'normal'. God only knows how many bladder infections I must have suffered thru because my mother refused to doctor me. So, I was this lost little girl, being hollared at by society just because I had to pee....one thing I have to say about it...it tought me to be tuff and it taught me to have a sense of humor, that's what got me thru all of those years and all of those remarks from people.
hugs~

[Drama_Queen16]

I know I've had IC since I was 7. I had the exact same symptoms then as I do now (at 17), even the same flare triggers. I also went through my share of humiliation from both teachers and peers - although luckily my mom was there to help defend me. When I was a kid they called it anxiety disorder. :confused: :rolleyes: Now they call it IC.

[Tammy]

I also had many bladder/ kidney problems as a child. Frequency/urgency.. to the point of wetting my pants in school (very embarassing) However my Mom knew I had a medical prob & raised h*** with the school staff. After that I was allowed to go to the restroom whenever I needed to without asking!! But I had some type of procedure done??? they told me it would stretch my bladder??? possibly a hydro. But I was too young to understand what they really did. I still had problems of bedwetting for many years.
Now I wish my Mom or my Grandma was still alive so I could talk to them about my medical history. My childhood med records are long gone somewhere, don't even know who my Dr or Uro was back then!!
I'm seemed to outgrow the problems, but now I have IC. I'm real concerned for my kids, one daughter has severe urgency/frequency at age 29 & one of my sons suffered from bedwetting for many years.
Take Care!
Tammy

[ic25]

I've had problems all my life and had problems at school because of it. I didn't want to go on trips or anything because I ALWAYS had to pee. I was diagnosed as anxious. Now that I'm 37 and have had the diagnosis of IC for 12 years, I realize that I've had it for a very, very long time - probably since I was a little girl.

Odd, but I'd forgotten about all of that...

[ldwall]

Gee, you girls are all making me jealous. I have had bladder problems since I was at least 10 months old. I had to be potty trained early because of them. I always had to go. I could never really get permission to go during class, so I would run to the bathroom between classes (or recess, lunch etc) even if I did not have to go, just cause I knew I could not go later. But, gee you all were diagnosed as anxious..........heck at least some people could understand that to a point. Me? I was diagnosed as having a pathological need to see how bathrooms were decorated. SHESH! I still wonder who let that idiot through medical school. But, as you can tell, I never did get a bit of support from anyone cause they all thought I was just plain nuts. :eek:

But, I know that there was something wrong all along. So when I finally got sick of it at 22, I was hoping to be told that I was normal, and that there was nothing wrong.........cause I just did not want to be told that I was nuts, and it never occured to me that going to the bathroom all the time was not normal, but I was just sick of getting up all night long. Boy, was I shocked to hear of IC when I got dxed. :eek: For once I was not a crazy person!

Shesh, I still don't get the seeing how bathrooms were decorated thing..........I don't ever remember looking around, unless you could looking for the stall that had the tp in it. :confused: Lisa

[violethillfarm]

Yup, me too. I was hospitalized with a suspected bladder infection when I was about 3 years old. I think mother told me that the doctors never did find out what was wrong. I always, always had to go far more than anyone else I ever knew, and yes I got teased about it. I was never a well child to being with and at age 19 I was diagnosed with a urethral stricture after having a series of bladder infections, or at least being treated for them, I don't know as I really had an infection all those times. I had 6 years of urethral dilations and I won't even go into that! It did stop the bladder pain for a while although I wonder if the silver nitrate installtions perhaps did more than the dilation itself. At any rate almost 6 years ago now I had what I now know was my first real IC flare, and was finally diagnosed this past March. Like Teri it's been a Hell of a long road with lots of other emotional truama thrown in the mix, but I made it and I think I am actually a better person for all I've been through. I'm also afraid for my daughter whose health is not that good (asthma) and who has already had a number of episodes with bladder infections. I'd give anything to spare her this.

[yvette]

Hmmm I was a little of both....
Before I was old enough for school....yes I was always needing the bathroom. My mother had to find bathroom for me all the time when we were out running errands. I never had UTI's or bladder problems per se. I just always had to pee when we went out. I remember still the pay toilet at Jordan Marsh despite the posh lounge that was also part of the women's bathroom. (imagine! you had to pay 10¢ to pee!)

When I got older....I was a camel. I NEVER had to go. I could work 8-9 hours and not pee, I'd go before I left the house and go again when I got home. And that was driving 30 min each way. The bathroom was NEVER an intrusion in my life.

::::::sigh:::::::::
Those days are LONG gone.
y. ;)

[MelanieJ]

I had no bladder problems until I was in my 20's. My problems in childhood were constipation problems. I still think it's linked, though...especially now that I understand pelvic floor dysfunction and it's role in IC/IBS (I have all 3 now, along with GERD). I definitely think I have something defective in the whole area which wasn't related to an injury or trama...I suspect good ol' genetics.

Melanie J.

[Teri]

Oh My God http://www.theunholytrinity.org/cracks_smileys/cwm/3dlil/eek2.gif I remember the pay toliets! I was very very young when I crawled under my first 'stall' :D

[ldwall]

Okay Teri and Yevette, you don't understand pay toilets until you have paid to pee in Poland!!!! It is always some dirty bathroom at the back of a gas station, or tourist attraction, it is run by some 70+ year old woman with 5-20 cats running everywhere, and toilet paper and paper towels are extra! I remember it costing .40, .50, or more Zlotys for me to pee.........after a while I was spending was more money on peeing then I was to do anything else! (I spent maybe 10 of the Zlotys I brought on peeing alone....grr) And the mere fact that I did not know that TP would be extra, and therefore did not have a roll in my purse........oh never mind, I guess you can figure it out!

Yevette, try sneaking into one of the bathroomos these ladies ran...........they are so mean you would not have the guts to sneak into one of their bathrooms.........that is how they make their livelyhood! hehehehehehe :D :D :D Lisa

[debdohairdo]

OMGosh you guy are sooooo funny you make me pee lolol!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hey Lisa, I actually never forgot that pee..uuhhh(Pea) green color that they use in all the school bathrooms. You can tell I spent alot of time there.As for the pay toilets..they are long gone.I guess they figuered its better than cleaning up all of our puddles. lol
On a serious note, my mom reminded me the other day of the many in office dilitations that I had as a kid. The Dr actually told her that the result of these that maybe I would be fridgid as an adult! Geeesh thank goodness thats not true.,but alot less drive since my Hysterectomies...anybody else have that happen? Sometimes I think its just this disease I guess..it seems to jip us a bit on sex.
Anyway..thank you all for your thoughts..a little bathroom humor is a good thing for all of us who "know it well" he he!

warm hugs, Debbie

[redstonebef]

Oh my you guys bring back memories. Green bathrooms and always trying to get to class on time and having to run to tolit. In grade school I got licks for having to go to the bathroom. I cannot believe all the things that I went through my poor mother just didn't know how to protect me or didn,t care too. One poor girl even dirted her pants because they would not let her go. I hope God remembers these cruel people when they got to Heaven. I feel so sad tonight of all the time lost on trying to be normal and never attaining it. At 55 I still am being treated cruel by Drs. and nurses now because of just being different and not the norm with all my health problems. I pray for all of you that are like me wonderful, loving, caring people but with health problems that noone understands. Sometimes I feel beaten down to the ground. Sorry, this one just touched a deep saddness in me. But I am okay because I know that I am worth something and that I am vauable and that God loves me and will take care of me. Hugs

redstonebef

[Patrice]

Am I the only one who doesn't fit this bill? I never had any bladder problems til now. I could hold it all day. Trips were NO problem.

[ICNDonna]

Patrice, you are not alone. I never had a bladder problem until after a hysterectomy in 1974. I developed IC within a few months after that surgery and was diagnosed in 1975.

Donna

[lilac22362]

Hi,
I don't seem to fit the usual either as I could hold all day and trips sex etc... were no problem, until last Oct immediately after a abdominal hysterectomy I woke up with horrible bladder pain and 6 weeks later diagnosed with IC and what a nightmare it has been. I also now have Vulvodynia and that is the main thing I am dealing with now. Uro/gyno says nerve damage or trauma could have taken place with the hyst. I feel blessed to have had all those good years without suffereing like so many of you did. I am 39 years old and 38 years of it were good, only wish I could go back and undo whatever took place that fateful day of Oct 16th 2000.

Hope everyone is doing!
God bless Rene' ;)

[Mal]

I'm with Patrice and Donna, I never had bladder problems til IC hit. I was, however, going thru some pretty invasive medical procedures at the time my bladder problems started.

[Shelleynz]

Hi everyone
I know this topic is very long now, obviously b/c it's an interesting one, but I would like to add my experiences.
My bladder problems started at puberty (14) with a UTI around the time my periods started. I was symptom free after that until aged 32 when pregnant with my daughter. Ever since then I've had IC.
I think the onset of my IC had something to do with changing hormones.
Shelley