how about pestisides and other toxins

[unicornsintherain]

I grew up on rural Long Island where the pestiside ddt was used regularly, to the point of almost driving the native ospreys into extinction. Now several years later alot of my family is having health problems... and I am adopted so it is not biological. My mother has a terminal ilness that causes her heart to swell. My sister has cervical cancer at age 26 and I have IC. I also have had problems with three out of four pregnancies. There are also higher incidences of all sorts of diseases in the area. I don't know, but I know that with the higher prevalence of diseases, and the lack of studies done on the actual effects of these pestisides, plus the fact that I would be playing not 500 feet from the farms while they were spraying.....
Another thought.... I have recently found out that another person where I work has been dxed with Ic and I know that there is at least one undiagnosed person.... They never clean the air filters where we work and it is a dust and germ factory there. We only have a work force of about 100 people... that seems like high odds to me. <img src="graemlins/blah.gif" border="0" alt="[blah]" />

[ladyo]

Does anyone think that improper sterilization of the plastic tubes used in cystoscopy can cause I.C.? In "To Wake In Tears", ********* ****** 's I.C. seemed to happen after a surgery where cystoscopy was used.

If equipment used in cystoscopies is improperly sterilized AND if I.C. has a bacterial origin, then there will be many more cases of I.C. in the future. If the bacteria is so small that it only appears in broth cultures, then couldn't it be missed by normal sterilization procedures?

Does anyone feel that their onset of symtoms started after undergoing a cystoscopy for some other problem?

(A note from ICNDonna - Neither the ICN, nor any other IC organization in the world, has recommended this book. It is one patient's opinion.. not backed by research. We recommend "The Interstitial Cystitis Survival guide" by Dr. Robert Moldwin as a more reliable option. My apologies, but, for legal reasons, we must add this to any message posted on our boards which recommends this book.)