Diet

[mom2kk2006]

Hi there,

I have a few questions. First I haven't had a bowel movement since the operation/blowing up my bladder, I had a really tiny one Saturday but that's it. Went to the doc and he said my bowels were empty, which makes sense because I was on IV for 3 days. Today is Tuesday and I still haven't had one, should I be concerned. Second question is, there are times during the day yesterday and today that I actually get a break, the urgency is like 1 hour away, does this mean I am coming around? Also I bought Camomille Citron caffeine free(with just lemon flavor) and pure peppermint caffeine free tea as well as squirrel bread made without flour, are these ok. I tried to follow the diet chart in column one but not familiar with it. Does anyone have any good soup ideas for me to follow with the column one ingredients like a chicken vegetable soup?

We'll chat soon.

[traceann]

Hey there! :) If it were me, I would give my doc a call and tell him my concerns over not having had a bowel movement, see what he has to say about it. ;)

I do fine with peppermint tea, and any tea that has lemon peel in it for the lemon flavor, it's the juice I used to be careful about.

Here's some things ideas for the diet, that I did for myself. In the beginning, when I was very diet sensitive I made any soups out of broths that were organic and not containing any preservatives or msg. Once things got under control, I tested regular canned broths and I did just fine - msg and all. But, to begin with I played it very safe!!!!

Fresh and frozen veggies: The frozen more than the fresh, since it was winter, lol. But, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, corn, peas, carrots - were my favorites. I would sometimes cook them as directed with amt of water called for (mostly with the broccoli and cauliflower) and add chopped fresh garlic and salt to the cooking water. Then I would drain it, toss it back in the pan and heat it slightly with some olive oil and herb of choice or just toss with butter, tossing the veggies to coat. My hubby loved them that way! I would make myself glazed carrots from the frozen one, cook them a bit, then add brown sugar and butter to taste, to get the glaze the way I wanted.

Potatoes & Sweet Potatoes: Any potatoes really. Regular, the small new red potatoes, yukon gold, etc. I made lots of microwave baked potatoes, just skipped sour cream til I tested it out. My hubby's favorite way for the new potatoes ( I like the really small ones) is to halve them and set aside. I melt some butter in a big bowl along with some chopped garlic to taste and salt to taste, cook it for about 45seconds to a minute. Then I toss in the potatoes and cook as my microwave directions indicate. Or, I cube them up, toss with olive oil and salt (pepper if you can tolerate it ) and additive-free garlic powder ( I get mine from Trader Joes) then bake in about a 400-425 degree oven til roasted tender and browned, yummy! I also treat my Sweet potatoes the same way -- cubed and roasted, sometimes with some brown sugar sprinkled on if I want different.

Breads: I have no problem with breads, only I tried to choose ones with the least preservatives etc. I still have to watch out for soy flour too. I love Lender's plain bagels, eat them often for lunch with cream cheese and a sprinkle of garlic powder (in the beginning I was sensitive to garlic powder with preservatives, so found a brand with none added) and dill sometimes!

Dairy: I have no problem with milk (but some do), vanilla ice cream (favorite is Breyer's French Vanilla -- no preservatives etc), cottage cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella and Monterey Jack (that's on the maybe list, I believe, but I have been fine with it from the get-go), feta cheese & ricotta. I made/make my own dip and salad dressing with cottage cheese, any herbs I am in the mood for (usually salt, fresh garlic and dill) and a little milk. I blend it all in the blender to the consistency I want. My hubby loves this better than store-bought!) I also have no problem with American processed cheese singles, Velveeta etc. So grilled cheeses were a mainstay!

Meats: I ate all fresh meats. Steaks, ground beef seasoned with herbs and salt, etc, chicken breasts breaded with homemade bread crumbs or grilled or pan-fried, I stayed away from pork products as they can have additives etc. unless I was assured it wasn't 'treated'. I ate lots of eggs, scrambled etc ( my favorite way was scrambled with mozz or M.jack cheese, dill or dried chives, garlic powder and salt - then wrapped in a friendly tortilla, one with no scary ingredients, lol)

Pasta: Lots and lots of pasta! LOL. Lots of times I would combine with the veggies I cooked in the garlic etc and dressed with olive oil, was pretty tasty! Lots of Fettucine Alfredo made at home too, lol. Hubby loves that also. For extras, I sometimes added some cooked chicken or shrimp to it and some veggies -- or sometimes just veggies! Yummy! I love my pasta, that's for sure so I tried to get as creative as I could!

Seasonings: I used lots of oregano, freeze dried basil (brand I get is Lighthouse), freeze dried chives (also Lighthouse), regular dried basil, thyme, rosemary, salt, bay, lemon ZEST (not juice), mint, etc. I also used olive oil as seasoning too, and fresh garlic (generally cooked bit or roasted).

Sub for tomato: Home-roasted Red Peppers. Just thrown in the broiler, roasted til skins are blackened. Put in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap, let sit 15-20 minutes. The skin will "steam" itself off, and make it really easy to peel. I always had them around. Sometimes would store in olive oil, salt and some fresh chopped garlic. Can use anyway you like. I pureed sometimes in a blender with seasonings to use as a "red sauce" for my homemade pizzas! Yummy!

Beverages:Lots of water, lol. And some herb teas, look for decaf and watch out for rose hips. My faves are blueberry, peppermint and rooibos (Celestial Seasonings call it "Madagascar Red"). Most of my teas I get are by Celestial Seasonings, as it's readily available to me in my grocery store here in the boondocks, lol. I now have been able to do Kool-Aid, that's one of those test-it-out kinds of things, see if it bothers you personally.

Snacks: Thank goodness for Lay's plain potato chips!! Yum! I did ok with Quaker rice cakes in caramel flavor and the minis in caramel flavor, I love snacking on a few Kraft caramels -- ok, usually ends up being more than a few, lol. Bagels and cream cheese, canned or fresh pears, homemade treats with all safe indredients like sugar cookies etc.

Well, I hope this helps give you a jumping off point! It should help with creating any soups you might want, as long as you have fresh and friendly ingredients you should be ok!! ;)

[mom2kk2006]

Thanks for all the great advise, I am going to print that up. Does anyone have any suggestions or reasons as to why yesterday I was great with the peeing thing and today I am right back at it. Anymore suggestions on frequency/urgencies-MAJOR ISSUE. Yesterday and today I haven't eaten anything I haven't eaten all week. I've kept it all very safe and plain and similiar. I went to the pharmasist today and he said to double up on the stool softeners and if nothing by Saturday then take a laxative. He said many are like that and not to be to worried. I go to the doc tommorrow to fill out short term disability forms because I can't function on no sleep, back and neck aches, my mind is so foggy. God I hope there is light at the end of the tunnel and WHEN!!!!

[KensethFan]

Nice comprehensive list!!!

Although the frequency does not go away on its own, some of the things that have helped me are Camomile Tea and Feverfew Tea.

Other than that: Oxybutynin (especially in the form of the Oxytrol patch). I was on it, but the patch was really expensive. It worked incredibly well though. As a result of the expense, I moved to Vistaril. Vistaril has helped quite a bit too. Vistaril has less side effects than Oxybutynin, so that is good. Vistaril is a prescription antihistamine that has helped many ICers with both frequency and pain. It helps me alot, but not quite as well as the Oxybutynin did.

[kuntrygurl78]

My suggestion is to order the cookbook off this website. I got mine in today, and had a chance to glance over it before I came to work. There are a lot of great recipies in it, and a lot of dos and donts in it. I cant wait till tomorrow when I can really go gung ho into it, and then go grocery shopping.

Something else I did was print off two copies of the the chart. I have one here and one at work. With me being newly diagnosed it really helps having it handy. I have a horrible memory. I am also slowly putting together a list of things that I know that work and dont work for me. (ive only been doing this for about 2 and a half weeks.)

Ive been drinking lots of water and milk. Milk seems to coat my stomach. I also bought some Celestial Seasoning tea. Ive only had a few servings and so far so good.

I too have problems with frequency and urgency. I am going to call my doc when I get up tomorrow and see what ideas he has. I have noticed that either from the diet or the Elmiron, that I am feeling better now than I did a few weeks ago. Im up less during the night than I was then, but it's still not where it should be. I would suggest keeping a diary so that you know what causes you to go more.

Good luck to you!

[mom2kk2006]

So nice to hear from you. Let me know what the doctor when you go tommorrow says about frequency and severity. There's gotta be something were missing. good luck and I look forward to hearing from you. If you've only been doing this just over 2 weeks the rumor mill has it that we won't see a difference for a minimum of 3 weeks to 4 months. All I know is I can't possibly go that long peeing every 15 minutes as I am an absolute wreck already, it's not the pain killing me it's the peeing.

[traceann]

Mom2kk2006, you are very welcome! I too took Ditropan (oxybutynin) and that helped me with the spasms, but not the frequency and urgency - that was the first med I was put on, before my IC dx - when we didn't know what was going on. It wasn't until I added in my other meds, Elmiron then Vistaril that I noticed a huge difference. And honestly, things got better when I started the Vistaril - I started sleeping through the night. ;)

In the beginning, I too had days where things were going along nicely then the next day it felt like I was back at square one, ugh. But at that time, my poor bladder was so sensitive, any bit of stress, gas/constipation (those two can still aggrivate my bladder), hormones - could set me off. Didn't matter if I eaten safely or not. I was just glad that I had eaten safely, otherwise I imagine it would have been much worse. I personally had problems with chamomile tea, I was bummed. But I was told that if you are sensitive to ragweed - and this is a relative of that, you could have problems with it. Now, it doesn't bother me one bit, but in the beginning, holy cow!

It's hardest in the beginning, but pretty soon you'll get it down to a science for yourself! No worries!!! ;)

Hugs!
:)

[swarr]

Traceann,

What do you think the vistaril helped with? I have not tried it, I'm taking elmiron and elavil. I had a flare today who knows why... I have been feeling pretty good most of the time. The flare lasted maybe an hour and now I'm feeling fine.

Thanks
Sandy

[traceann]

Hey Sandy! The Vistaril (Hydroxyzine) helps stop the histamines from attacking our bladders. I read about it here on the site and decided it was something to try - it was super cheap, and I have allergies anyway, so it could help that too, lol.

My doctor explained it to me that it helps block the histamines that are attacking our bladder linings, and if taking Elmiron it can help it work better, do it's job better and faster basically by not letting the attacking histamines tear it all down. Here's a link to the article that prompted me to tell my doc I wanted to try it:

http://www.ic-network.com/askthemd/theo0503.html

I will say that when I first started taking it - the first couple days, it felt like my frequency went UP - but I stuck with it and that went away. Also, it took my body a week or two to get used to the med, to get past the sleepy's etc. I only take 25mg at bedtime, and it's enough for me. I try to take it though around 8-9 pm so I don't have morning groggies!! ;)

Hope this helps!!!

[swarr]

Thanks Tracey for the great info. I think I'll talk to my uro about it. Do you take brand name or generic?

Sandy

PS. Sounds like your a good cook!

[traceann]

I get the generic version of Vistaril, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. For some reason I seem to think this is one med that really seems to help me out a lot! ;) And like I said, it's very inexpensive. Without insurance, it was running me about 7 dollars a month, lol. Now that's what I'm talking about!! LOL!!

Oh, and thank you for the compliment, I try!! ;)

[mom2kk2006]

Thanks for all the advise, I am going to bring Vistaril up to my Specialist when I go back Thursday. So there are good and bad days huh, I just want some great days, sleeping through the night, what's that? My big thing with frequency and urgency is how do I know what's affecting me when I don't have any good days yet, I have been on Elmiron for 1 week now and still in a flare so is that because Elmiron hasn't started working yet? How do I know what foods are good when I don't know what feeling normal is?

[traceann]

Hey there mom2kk2006, you sound so much like I did at first, lol. How was I to know if the diet was working when I just felt rotten all the time!?? LOL It's probably working and you don't even realize it yet - your bladder is just so darned aggrivated that it needs a bit more time on the friendly stuff, lol ;) As JulieB posted, a good analogy is if you break your leg, you put the cast on to help it heal, but that doesn't mean that after a few days it's healed... (I hope I did you justice JulieB!!) I think that's relavent to meds and the diet! The "cast" (diet/medication) is protecting your "leg" (bladder) while it's trying to "heal". So, don't give up!! :)

The Elmiron definitely hasn't had a chance yet at all, it can take 3-6 months to feel and see some improvement and up to 12 months to feel the full benefit of the drug - it is no quick fix, hence the reason the diet can be your biggest tool to help keeping your symtpoms managed. But for me, the wait was definitely worth it! :)

I was happy I brought the Vistaril up to my doctor, I chose that formulation of Hydroxyzine due to the fact I thought it would be better for me, and my doc didn't have a problem with either giving me Vistaril or Atarax (they are both hydroxyzine, but a bit different from one another).

Hope this helps you out a little bit!!! :)

[mom2kk2006]

Tracey you've been a god's sent, how long have you been in remission?

[traceann]

Well, I hesitate to call it that, LOL - don't want to jinx myself, but I have been feeling pretty good since about last June/July. The bout with the colitis seemed to take center stage, and ever since the bladder has been a pretty happy camper, lol. I still have my moments, especially if I have gas or am constipated (I remember my bladder then!! LOL) and PMS/hormones tend to aggrivate it a little bit. But I have been able to eat just about anything now a days, but I do so in moderation yet -not tempting fate too much!! And I am usually still conscious of what I am eating, it's a habit that's now hard to break!! I read ingredients and try to stay as close to the healthy foods I can, it seems to be working, so I am sticking with it!!!!! :)

[swarr]

Yes, I have to agree with Mom on that one. I'm glad you are here to answer questions. I know it can be repetitious at times, but I really apreciate you.

Sandy

[traceann]

:kiss: Why thank you ! ;) I don't mind one bit.... :)