Age 19

[Manders!]

Is anyone else who is only 19 or close to it and dealing with IC? :welcome: I am having a very hard time. I started having small symptoms about two years ago but didn't starting having severe flares/spasms until I was covered in stress during my first year at college. I began going to Physical Therapy and visiting my urologist often to find out what was wrong. I started the IC diet on campus and lost 15 pounds because I couldn't find ANYTHING to eat on campus. I really miss pizza. Please let me know if you have any comfort or can help me find a substitute for pizza and other delicious foods. Thanks SOOOOO Very much!!! Also, does anybody know what causes IC??:help:

[BT2008]

Hey Manders!

I am so sorry that you are dealing with all of this at such a young age! It's hard enough for me at age 50, so my heart truly goes out to you! :grouphug:

We have quite a few sufferers around your age (more and more every day it seems :(), so I am sure they will chime-in soon. And I will leave it to them to give you all of the particulars, but I strongly suggest that until then search all of these threads for more info and use the "Search" option for particular questions using KeyWords.

I will, however, help you out on the Pizza Problem. Being in college it might be a challenge, depending on whether you have access to a kitchen, but there is a way to have delicious pizza that you can make yourself. The trick is to use a "tomato-free sauce" with Boboli crust and IC-safe toppings.

There are several recipes for such a sauce, such as:
"Bev's No-Mato Sauce" found here (about mid-way down the page): http://www.ic-network.com/bev/april00.html

And one of our Support Leaders, leelee88, has a quickie Red Sauce made out of Red Peppers, so maybe she will chime-in and give you the particulars.

But you can create your own "quickie version". I just cook chopped carrots, beets, and zucchini until super tender. I also follow leelee's advice and boil red peppers for about 20 minutes, drain the water and cover with plastic wrap for about 20 more minutes and then peel the skins off. I throw all of that into a blender and blend until smooth. I pour it into a pot (or you could microwave it) with minced garlic, salt, and oregano and cook until it tastes like I want it. Then I put the sauce on a Boboli pizza crust, top with my favorites IC-safe toppings and bake! Yummy!

Again, this all depends upon your access to a kitchen, but whenever you can I suggest you try to modify as many of your favorite foods as you can to be IC friendly. For instance, you can use this same sauce--without oregano--for mexican food, using a little bit of cumin instead. Mix it with velveeta cheese and chopped green bell peppers (not hot peppers) for some really yummy Chili Con Queso to eat with chips. To make an entire meal out of it, buy a can of pinto beans, mash the beans up and add a little bit of cumin and heat. Grill or saute some chicken with green & red bell peppers, top with cream cheese and/or shredded colby/jack cheese, and roll it all up in a heated flour tortilla for delicious fajitas. Or just put shredded colby/jack on a flour tortilla, topped with another flour tortilla, and heat in a skillet on med-high for a few minutes to make a Cheese Quesadilla. All are truly Yummy!

The IC diet is actually very friendly if you can cook your own foods. If you have a freezer as well, you can make a large batch of the sauce without oregano or cumin, and freeze it in large ziplock bags. Then you have the base sauce that you can add spices to whenever you want spaghetti, pizza or mexican food.

I also make a IC-friendly "Faux-Ranch" salad dressing using cream cheese as a base instead of mayo: blend cream cheese, dill, parsley, and chives together, adding a little milk until creamy. You can use this for a salad dressing, or for a veggie dip. If you don't like ranch dressing, you can mix olive oil with tarragon, or other spices and make an oil dressing that goes well on salads. You can also add pear or blueberry juice to the oil dressing and change the tastes around. Additionally, you can go to the IC diet section for even more ideas.

If you don't have a kitchen on campus, but have friends who do, maybe you could use their kitchen on occasion to cook something that you are craving. Learn how to cook for yourself as much as possible. Also, get in the habit now of reading the labels on all processed foods! There are some really wicked ingredients in most everything that it ready-made, and these ingredients can really cause us a lot of problems.

Again, my heart goes out to you my dear, but following the IC diet as closely as possible is an excellent way to keep from getting so many flares. We are all here to help you in anyway that we can, so call on us whenever you need to!

Hugs,
~Beth

[Cassaundra]

Hey, Manders! I hope you feel better soon. I am 19 too, and I did not develop IC until my first year of college (which was in October of 2008). Right now I am taking a break to focus on my health and soon I will return to college next year.

I understand how hard it is for someone our age so if you want to talk just message me.

To answer your question, no one knows for sure what causes IC. Some believe it is a variety of different diseases. If I were you, I would check out the IC diet and follow that. To answer your other question, no, most of us cannot eat pizza. I tried it once and I paid for it, dearly.

There is another type of pizza you can try, white (which is the dough w/ cheese & olive oil) or chicken alfredo (the dough, with alfredo sauce, mozz. cheese, and italian seasonings).

I hope you feel better and good luck!

[FaitherJack]

I feel for you totally! I am only 34 started when I was younger on and off, but wasn't sure what it was. However I have learnt that I am mostly sensitive to ACID in the food, I can eat certain things, but I just have to then alkalize my urine and dilute it with lots of water.........and there was a RECALL On singilar, to the girl who is on it. You should check it out. TAKE CARE ALL! Bless you all!

[Manders!]

Thank you so much everyone! I am trying to stick to the IC diet now that I am home for summer and it's easier but is still difficult. Most of my friends and family know about my IC so that is easier at times, but they still offer me food I can't have. Sometimes I just want to eat it but I have to think about what will happen later. :tsk: I will definitely try the NoMato pizza sauce though. Thank YOU!!:bow: Being in college, a lot of my friends eat pizza often and it makes me have a terrible craving. I cannot thank you enough for that recipe!!!

Cassie- It helps to know I'm not the only one with IC at this age. I'm sorry you have to go through all of this as well. I hope everything works out and you can continue your school! I was getting to a point where I was barely eating anything at all at school and almost came home. However, my suitemates pushed me through the hard times and helped me get to summer. I am hoping that my roommate and I can have cooking nights when I get back to school.:D If not, I don't know how long I will make it. With stress and diet as my main two triggers, I have to be very disciplined and understanding to keep my head held high. Best of luck! Also, if you ever need a listening ear who is your age and understands what you are going through, feel free to write to me! Good Luck!!:pray: You can do it! :woohoo:

Thanks again for all of the advice!

[BT2008]

I will definitely try the NoMato pizza sauce though. Thank YOU!! Being in college, a lot of my friends eat pizza often and it makes me have a terrible craving. I cannot thank you enough for that recipe!!!You are very welcome!!:) I also wanted to mention that even though I have always, so far anyway, used fresh veggies to make the sauce, I can easily see making a "quickie batch" with canned veggies, except the red peppers, of course. If you do try to use canned veggies, please make sure to read the labels! The manufacturers sometimes slip other ingredients in that can really blow the whole deal!

The vegetable, water, and salt should be the only ingredients for the safest canned veggies that we eat.

Also, every batch of sauce I have made makes more than one serving so I have frozen the remaining sauce in ziplock bags. BUT--this weekend my hubby and I made a large batch of the sauce and canned the whole batch in glass jars! We ended up with eight quarts and four pints of sauce! The process of canning may seem a bit daunting, but it really wasn't all that hard, especially since you don't have to rely on freezing or refrigerating the sauce. If you could do that this summer, then you can take the canned sauce to school with you in the fall, not having to worry about having a frig or freezer, and have quicker pizza whenever you have access to an oven without having to make the sauce each time. Also remember that this is a great base for spaghetti sauce as well.

I truly hope that you can get your fill of pizza this summer without any pain, and that you and roommate can get cooking privileges when the term starts up again.

Much luck to you and as many cyber-hugs as you need to help you through,
~Beth

[valkay18]

Hey Manders!

I am so sorry that you are dealing with all of this at such a young age! It's hard enough for me at age 50, so my heart truly goes out to you! :grouphug:

We have quite a few sufferers around your age (more and more every day it seems :(), so I am sure they will chime-in soon. And I will leave it to them to give you all of the particulars, but I strongly suggest that until then search all of these threads for more info and use the "Search" option for particular questions using KeyWords.

I will, however, help you out on the Pizza Problem. Being in college it might be a challenge, depending on whether you have access to a kitchen, but there is a way to have delicious pizza that you can make yourself. The trick is to use a "tomato-free sauce" with Boboli crust and IC-safe toppings.

There are several recipes for such a sauce, such as:
"Bev's No-Mato Sauce" found here (about mid-way down the page): http://www.ic-network.com/bev/april00.html

And one of our Support Leaders, leelee88, has a quickie Red Sauce made out of Red Peppers, so maybe she will chime-in and give you the particulars.

But you can create your own "quickie version". I just cook chopped carrots, beets, and zucchini until super tender. I also follow leelee's advice and boil red peppers for about 20 minutes, drain the water and cover with plastic wrap for about 20 more minutes and then peel the skins off. I throw all of that into a blender and blend until smooth. I pour it into a pot (or you could microwave it) with minced garlic, salt, and oregano and cook until it tastes like I want it. Then I put the sauce on a Boboli pizza crust, top with my favorites IC-safe toppings and bake! Yummy!

Again, this all depends upon your access to a kitchen, but whenever you can I suggest you try to modify as many of your favorite foods as you can to be IC friendly. For instance, you can use this same sauce--without oregano--for mexican food, using a little bit of cumin instead. Mix it with velveeta cheese and chopped green bell peppers (not hot peppers) for some really yummy Chili Con Queso to eat with chips. To make an entire meal out of it, buy a can of pinto beans, mash the beans up and add a little bit of cumin and heat. Grill or saute some chicken with green & red bell peppers, top with cream cheese and/or shredded colby/jack cheese, and roll it all up in a heated flour tortilla for delicious fajitas. Or just put shredded colby/jack on a flour tortilla, topped with another flour tortilla, and heat in a skillet on med-high for a few minutes to make a Cheese Quesadilla. All are truly Yummy!

The IC diet is actually very friendly if you can cook your own foods. If you have a freezer as well, you can make a large batch of the sauce without oregano or cumin, and freeze it in large ziplock bags. Then you have the base sauce that you can add spices to whenever you want spaghetti, pizza or mexican food.

I also make a IC-friendly "Faux-Ranch" salad dressing using cream cheese as a base instead of mayo: blend cream cheese, dill, parsley, and chives together, adding a little milk until creamy. You can use this for a salad dressing, or for a veggie dip. If you don't like ranch dressing, you can mix olive oil with tarragon, or other spices and make an oil dressing that goes well on salads. You can also add pear or blueberry juice to the oil dressing and change the tastes around. Additionally, you can go to the IC diet section for even more ideas.

If you don't have a kitchen on campus, but have friends who do, maybe you could use their kitchen on occasion to cook something that you are craving. Learn how to cook for yourself as much as possible. Also, get in the habit now of reading the labels on all processed foods! There are some really wicked ingredients in most everything that it ready-made, and these ingredients can really cause us a lot of problems.

Again, my heart goes out to you my dear, but following the IC diet as closely as possible is an excellent way to keep from getting so many flares. We are all here to help you in anyway that we can, so call on us whenever you need to!

Hugs,
~Beth

Hi Beth! I make the no-mato pizza sauce too, but have never covered the pepper with plastic wrap prior to peeling. Does this make the peel come off easier? Do you wrap the pepper up or just put the wrap over the pan?

Manders - I am so sorry you have to deal with this while in college. Like college isn't hard enough! Papa John's has a whole wheat crust that does not have any of the bad ingredients in it. You can order that with just cheese (no sauce) and any veggies you want. It still tastes good, even without the sauce. I eat it all the time! Be sure and request the whole wheat crust though. I also make up a batch of that fake ranch dip at the beginning of each week because it has really become a staple for me! You can dip the papa john's pizza in it. Yum! You could also bring that ranch sauce to the dining hall and make yourself a salad, assuming they have a salad bar. I find that I have to bring my condiments when I go out to dinner somewhere because most restaurants do not have any sauces I can eat.

Hang in there! If you stay on the diet and keep taking the meds, things should get better!!

[BT2008]

Hi Beth! I make the no-mato pizza sauce too, but have never covered the pepper with plastic wrap prior to peeling. Does this make the peel come off easier? Do you wrap the pepper up or just put the wrap over the pan?Hey Valerie,

Yes...if you cook them for about 30 minutes, drain the water, and then put plastic wrap tightly over the pan (I switch to a large glass bowl) for about another 30 minutes, then the skin just pretty much peels right off! Of course, there is always the occasional pepper that just will not cooperate!! Must be the teen-aged peppers! :lmao: But, for the most part, the majority of the skins come right off!

~Beth

[bamagirl]

I know you wanted to talk with people around 19 but if you go to single life and IC there is a topic for 20 year olds. I am 39 so I am just an old lady compared to you. lol.

[jenjen05]

Hiya. I'm 24.

I have a recipe I use for a terrific white pizza if you'd like it. It's just pizza dough, garlic and olive oil base, ricotta cheese, mozzarella cheese, and mushrooms. It's very good. Making the dough is a pain though unless you have a breadmaker that can do it like I do. You might want to look into one, you could take it to college with you. I have the Zojirushi Home Bakery Supreme. It'll make you pizza dough, a fresh loaf of bread, cakes, meatloaf, blueberry jam, etc. Tons of IC safe stuff. And all you have to do is dump in the ingredients and it mixes and cooks it all for you. Clean up is a breeze too.

[StayySayy]

Hello,

I am new to this blog forum but not the site.. I am 18 years old and was told I have IC about 2 weeks ago... I am very confused to why sometimes I feel fine and sometimes I don't.. I have also lost a good amount of weight due to being scared to eat but lately I have been eating more and feeling pretty good.. I am on a few support group sites that have helped me but I have to say this one has been my back bone.

I hope your feeling better and I am always here to talk if you need someone to just talk too.

God bless!
Stacey

[rgreen]

It is hard no matter what age you are to deal with this, but I am 20, so I am close to your age, I am also in college and working, so I know the stresses of it and if I could be of any help or support in any way, shape or form, please do not hesitate to PM me! I'd be more than happy to talk to you!

[amylr]

Hey,

Im 18 and recently was told I have IC as well. Ive had all of the symptoms for years, but always thought I was just crazy so I didnt tell anyone until things got too hard to handle. I actually wish I would have spoken up sooner, because Im sure I just caused the problem to get even worse by trying to "ignore it", making even more damage. Like you, I was a freshman in college (last semester) when I found out.