flares

[Cherie708]

How long after eating a no-no food/beverage do you know it was wrong to do and flare? And what is YOUR flare, how long does it last etc?

[Amber48]

For me it really depends. Sometimes I can tell within a few minutes. I ate tomato soup once and was in pain before I could even finish eating it. Other times, I will have pizza for dinner and not notice the effects until the next morning. I can't really understand the logic behind why some things effect me right away and others don't but I seem to notice that quite a bit. My flare involves a lot of pain in my bladder/urinary tract (not sure of the proper term). Normally if I take a Pyridine or drink a glass of water with 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda, I will feel better within a couple of hours. Sometimes if I am going to eat something that I think might upset me, I will try to drink a lot of water or eat a lot of other things with it, to dilute the pain causing ingredient/food. I haven't totally figured out everything that causes me to flare and sometimes it seems like I will be affected by a food and other times it doesn't seem to bother me. I think I should probably start making a diary of what I eat and how I feel but I haven't started that yet. Hopefully that helps...

[Briza]

For me, food induced pain or flares I usually can feel the effects within 3 hrs, sometimes less than an hour...but usually closer to 2-3 hrs. For me food flares are much easier to get under control w/ my meds than my flares induced by physical exhuastion or stress...those for me come on really fast sometimes out of nowhere (like one second no symptoms and the next full on pain, burning, freq, urg, back ache AND vulvodynia symptoms to top it off)...and those flares often take a few days, sometimes less, to get the symptoms under control with rest and meds. However, the first couple years I had IC I was in extreme pain most of the time and didn't really know which foods were triggering my pain or that stress/physical activity could cause it. Basically I was in pain/flare/burning all the time back then, didn't matter what I ate or did, I was just always in pain. At the time I had few to no meds to treat my symptoms with.

[ICNDonna]

For me it depends on what it is. If I just have small amounts of an irritant, it can take a day or two to react. Usually a liquid causes a flare within an hour.

Donna

[BT2008]

Cheri,

That is a question that has been on my mind as well. Like the early days of Briza's IC, I have been in an unrelenting, constant flare since June (2008). I try very hard to avoid the foods on the IC diet list (tomatoes, vinegars, citrus, etc.), but for those no-no items that I do occasionally consume, I have yet to find that any particular food/liquid actually makes my pain worse (it is bad enough with just water and simple foods!)

For example, coffee is a HUGE no-no! BUT--if I am constipated, I have a small cup to help stir things up! Why take such a chance? I have found through much experimentation that I cannot take even the most gentle laxative or stool softener because I also have acute episodic IBS (spastic colon). And THAT is something I try to avoid if at all possible. Such an attack makes me wild with the pain of both--which is totally out of control! I am miserable every day with IC pain alone, but those days nearly kill me!

So, I make a conscious choice: whatever pain an occasional cup of coffee may bring to my IC, it is nothing compared to the outrageous pain of having IC and an IBS attack!

Since everyone is different, I am assuming it is all trial and error for everyone. It may be easier for people like Briza to judge these things now...after having her IC under better control, but she also said that in the beginning (like us) it was very hard to determine. So, I guess we just need to be patient with ourselves and try and figure it out as we go.

~Beth

[krisillis]

I usually know within 3 hours but it has taken up to 24 hours for a reaction. Usually if I get a reaction 24 hours later I get a lovely rash to accompany my pain. Most often the rashes come only from MSG or preservatives rarely is it brought on by things like tomatoes or coffee.

Christine