"Describe your IC pain!"

[mare mare]

It's really interesting to see the many different ways we individually describe our IC pain. One I use a lot is.....
Feels like a "brick" between my legs 24/7!!:cussing:

Ob/gyn forgot to remove spectulm!:cussing:

[Imustpee]

Pressure..like my bladder was so fulll it was going to explode.:cussing:

[ICNDonna]

My flare pain is very much like extremely severe menstrual cramps. It feels like my muscles are trying to expel my bladder.

Donna

[vm]

Feels like a bladder infection that won't go away OR it's like when you're on a long car trip and you have to pee REALLY bad and there isn't a rest stop soon so you hold it and hold it and then when you finally do get to pee you don't get the relief.

[**Angie**]

My pain changes but mainly it feels like a cross between a real bad bladder infection and cramps. Then when it's real bad I feel like my bladder is being carved out like a pumpkin with severe hip pain--then when it really gets going I have pain that hits my left knee down to my ankle. (sometimes my right knee and ankle will get in on the action) I told my Uro about this and he says "well I hope you don't have any back problems too" --explain to me how when I have bladder pain and the pain radiates down my legs that this all the sudden is because of my back? Of course I have all other kinds of aches and pains with IC but these are the constant ones.

[Trishann]

My pain changes too. Some of the time it is severe pressure and deep shooting sharp pains. Then other at times, if I urinate, it is like a high amount of elecitricity shooting through my whole body. I get ice pack and things trying to get comfort, just to urinate again, and start all over again.

At times, I also have the pain going down to might upper leg to the point I do have to stop walking or whatever I am doing at that monent.

[mare mare]

OMG! Those shooting pains! I have them too! So they are probably IC related! Sometimes feels like I've been shot with a taser gun! It really startles me, I never know what to expect next. I get those menstrual like cramps too. But my constant chronic pain is the worst!

[Lynn15]

I get those sharp, shooting pains too, luckily not that often. I usually feel them in my sides around my kidneys...but my kidneys have check out as ok. I remember the first time I felt it and how scared i was because i had no idea what it was. of course i went to the doctor and nothing was found.

Mostly i feel a constant pressured feeling in my bladder that is hard to explain. It is not necessarily "painful", just more uncomfortable and annoying. It feels like it is full but it's not.

[icsonja]

OK I feel like I want to just cut out everything from below my breasts to above my knees, that should just about do it, except for the headaches! Makes for quite a mental picture....:evilsmile ,yep just get rid of it all.

[**Angie**]

Now see I only want to remove the area between my ribs and hips. I'm only
5 feet tall I don't think I'd look right if I went all the way to the knees!!!

[mylilegirls2]

I have severe pain every day.. feels like someone is taking a knife and jabbing my bladder with it.. When I get my bladder even slightly full I want to scream and when I do not empty it right when it gets to having anything in there I am in so much pain I can barely move.. I have pain every day no fail.. Sometimes it feels like someone has reached their hand up in there and grabbed my bladder and will not let go.. And sometimes if I try to go pee.. the muscles in my bladder stop the flow.. so I sit there for about 15 mins trying and finally I give up.. and am back in there in 5 mins trying again only to wait another 10-15 mins to try to pee again.. I am so tired of this and just can not take the constant pain any more...

[Claredale]

I call it hot rocks in my bladder. I have the pain in my thighs too. The other day when I was in a huge flare, I described it as one of those pockers you use to move around your ashes. I swear it felt like that was poking my bladder. It also feels like labor pains at times.

[megancolleen]

Mine is a hot, raw, irritated feeling. I often think about how good it will feel to apply some aloe vera lotion or something cool and soothing to the base of the bladder. It just feels inflamed and super sensitive. One time in one of my worst flares my bladder was so swollen and hot, I swear I could FEEL the bladder touching the inside of my stomach and it was burning hot. And it definitely feels like I urgently need to pee every second, but I've learned to differentiate between irritation masked as having to pee and the actually pressure where I know I really do need to pee. Also lately I've been having these tingling sensations in my back and butt when I need to pee. Sigh...poor little bladder, it's so messed up....I wish I knew what to do to make it better.

[George]

My urethra just is constantly irritated. It ranges from burning in a flare to just always feeling irritated. I just feel a constant feeling of having to pee which I feel in my urethra. OK so that is the urethra. Then when I am in a flare my bladder just throbs and feels like someone is rubbing sandpaper in there. I think this is a really good thread to see how we all describe the pain we go through. On bad days it is like a sore triangle from the pubic area to the end of my penis. On a good day it is just the irritation in the penis. I keep trying to pee to get rid of the irritation. Sometime my urethra feels like there is sand or grit in there. Does that make any sense? Anyway that's me.

George

[Claredale]

I have a lot of weird sensations on my inner thighs as well. The last time I went to the doctor, she tested my sensory on my thighs and my left thigh was okay, but my right thigh had the tingling sensation. I also have muscle pain in my legs and back during the flares when it is hard to pee. I guess it is from being so tense.

[charmedx3]

I feel burning constantly in the urethra and vaginal--almost like a yeast infection. my bladder vibrates (odd feeling). somedays I feel like I have a babies head pressing down on me. if i hold my urine to long next time i have to pee I feel it much sooner and my bladder burns and it hurts to pee after that . I also get crampy & my low back starts hurting. sometimes i get shooting pains in my bladder but not often just the burning sensation.

[Claredale]

I have felt the "head pressure" many times. When I don't go to the bathroom right away, I always have a spasm when I try to empty my bladder and have a shooting pain quite often.

[tabasco32]

my feels like a strong achy pain like if I stretch my bladder would pop

[Judy777]

Mine feels like pressure and sometimes it feels like my insides are being torn out.

In a flair I have burning pain with severe cramps. I have IC with Hunner's ulcers so that is probably why I feel like there is a blow torch on my bladder. I also get a bad pain in my hip sometimes it's a deep pain that feels like it's in the hip bone. I also get the tingling feeling in my inner thighs and down my legs into my feet sometimes.

I was also having severe back pain sometimes my back would hurt worse than my bladder did. It felt like I was having back labor like when you are giving birth. I have not had the back pain since I have been having the Heparin instills weekly.

[~*~Christine~*~]

Like it's being pushed in and out like an accordian or sometimes like somthing is scraping the insides
Feels like an inferno when I don't drink enough water :evilsmile

[L. Thomas]

Like an apend. attack with a full-low belly.
________
COLORADO MEDICAL MARIJUANA DISPENSARIES (http://colorado.dispensaries.org/)

[Claredale]

There are times I wish that I could take away the feeling from my waist down. Just a few hours a day would be nice. I know that is insensitive to some people, but the pain just gets that unbearable sometimes!

[Silverfox]

Severe burning bladder frequency, same exact burning in my hands, fingers and soles of my feet. changes in intensity, have suffered this for most of my life, from my earliest memories.
At first, my current IC Dr. told me I was very, very, rare patient. Now he understands it's all nerve damage. I finally got him to take a look on some internet sites, so now he could understand that I was not so rare.
I love the new site nervepaininfo, as it sounds like us discussing how it feels, and looks like us too! LOL

[Claredale]

Do all of these things have to do with IC?

[tabasco32]

now i feel like when I get up from sitting a bunch of needles or knives want to fall out of my bladder and onto the floor.

[mare mare]

Tabsco,
I get that feeling just out of nowhere sometimes! Suprise!! No warning!

I had one so severe that my husband had to help me to the bed! It knocked me off my feet!

It's more frequent since I've had cysto. hydro.

Have you found yours more frequent since cysto. hydro??

Hugs, Mare Mare

[DoulaSue]

I tell people "imagine a time when you had to pee so badly that it hurt", that's how I feel 24 hours per day. Like, I'm just about to urinate, but my urethra spazzes and stops it, even when I'm just sitting in a chair. I feel like I have a severe UTI, pressure, frequency, no relief. :(

[meme]

I always get a really full feeling in my stomach and upper chest right before I have an urgency flare. Then its just intense pain and pressure in my bladder until I use the restroom. If I eat something wrong then I get bad pains in my bladder and every step I take feels like someone is sticking needles into my urethra and nothing takes away that pain. Also right before and during a flare I get really shaky and sweaty like I'm going to pass out.

[petrie86]

It feels like my urethra is on fire! and I feel so much pressure in my bladder that it might explode. thats how i describe it. Sometime it feels like someone is using a cheese grader in my bladder

[Freckles]

My bladder feels like a raw bleeding ulcerated mass of a fire ball. It never stops burning. The fentanyl patches dull it a bit, but not much. It literally never stops. It's horrible.
Karen

[SrMaggie]

I can relate to many of the explanations that have been mentioned.
My bladder holds 100cc, no matter how long I try to hold it. Holding it of course makes everything worse. I was wondering about the pains in my lower back and my legs. I drove for 9 hours yesterday, and today, my hips were really painful. I was running a lot this morning. Tonight, I've only been twice - I can't figure it out sometimes. I do have the pain in my urethra and can hardly walk sometimes. My friends ask me to walk with them, but I can only go slooooow.
I have never been one to take meds, so when it gets painful I let it go too far. Recently, I've been trying to take just a small dose as soon as I feel a twinge. That has helped tremendously. Someone on the boards suggested that and it has been a godsend.

[LizGrirl]

Some days it feels like a UTI that is a little higher on my body than it should be.

Most times it feels like 2 barbed pieces of metal stuck into my hip bones and which won't let me walk as freely as I like to.

And when it isn't hurting so bad it feels like pressure from someone laying on my bladder for too long. A little uncomfortable but at least its bearable.