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I've been posting on this board off and on for the past two years. I can finally say today that I know the root cause of my IC symptoms: diet (in particular gluten) and stress.
I started having IC symptoms (pain w/urinating, painful cramping, bloating, frequency) over 5 years ago. This was roughly also around the time I had started my PhD studies. I just got sicker and sicker, had dozens of doctors appointments, and no one knew what was wrong. Finally, 2 1/2 years ago, a doctor suggested IC and I started on the IC diet.
My symptoms started to subside a bit, but I was still eating foods that were irritating my bladder and stomach (I was also diagnosed with IBS). Well, in desperation, I removed all cow's milk 2 years ago (I'm *really* lactose intolerant) and then finally last fall, I eliminated gluten from my diet.
Two weeks ago, I was eating a restaurant (something I haven't done much of these past two years) and forgot to check about tomato in the gluten-free dish I was having. The chicken I had was served with tomato sauce and lemon -- I decided I might as well try it since my bladder had been stable over the past while. Result: a *teeny* flare, but nothing that I had to take medication to treat.
After accidentally eating 3 fries that were coated with wheat flour this week (the first time in over 8 months that I've had gluten), I now know with 100% certainty -- gluten has been the culprit of my bladder and stomach pain. Within 1/2 hour of eating those darn fries, I broke out in an allergic reaction (something that had never happened before): my stomach knotted up, my bladder flared, I had terrible gas, my skin started tingling, and my face felt numb.
Like most people, I didn't want to believe that wheat was hurting me -- after all, I've been eating it all my life and gluten is everywhere in our food. Please, if you are reading this and you experience both IC symptoms (with an irritable, but otherwise healthy, bladder) and IBS symptoms, consider removing lactose and wheat from your diet. If you always feel bloated after eating, you might be wheat-sensitive. I thought that I was fine with wheat -- I really did -- until I stopped eating it. After one month, I noticed I felt better. 9 months later, I feel drastically better. I sleep through the night (not always, but most nights now!) and I am able to tolerate things like lemon (I'm easing slowly into the non-IC safe foods ... very, very slowly).
The happier I get, the less stress I feel, the better I am. I've made some tough life decisions to reduce stress (i.e. like choosing to work at home and be poorer, rather than work in an office and have more income). I've come to terms that I can never have gluten again; it makes buying food slightly more labor intensive and expensive, but I feel like I can function again.
Now that am done with my PhD, my stress levels are way down, so my bladder has also had time to heal from all of the sitting and anxiety involved in academic work. If I sit too long at my computer or have a lot of stress, my bladder reacts. I can track my symptoms down to exact conservations and events now. To the hour!
Basically, I don't really have IC (with true damage to the bladder). I have an irritable bladder (which is what my urologist found from my cystoscopy with hydro) -- a bladder that reacts to heightened stress and diet (in particular gluten).
This post has been a bit disjointed, but I hope that I communicated the changes that worked for me (stress reduction and diet change). I still have a lot of healing to do (physically and emotionally), but I finally feel like I have a future again where I get to do things like work full-time, eat out, have worry-free sex, and travel.
Now if I could only get restaurants to stop putting wheat in everything ...
I started having IC symptoms (pain w/urinating, painful cramping, bloating, frequency) over 5 years ago. This was roughly also around the time I had started my PhD studies. I just got sicker and sicker, had dozens of doctors appointments, and no one knew what was wrong. Finally, 2 1/2 years ago, a doctor suggested IC and I started on the IC diet.
My symptoms started to subside a bit, but I was still eating foods that were irritating my bladder and stomach (I was also diagnosed with IBS). Well, in desperation, I removed all cow's milk 2 years ago (I'm *really* lactose intolerant) and then finally last fall, I eliminated gluten from my diet.
Two weeks ago, I was eating a restaurant (something I haven't done much of these past two years) and forgot to check about tomato in the gluten-free dish I was having. The chicken I had was served with tomato sauce and lemon -- I decided I might as well try it since my bladder had been stable over the past while. Result: a *teeny* flare, but nothing that I had to take medication to treat.
After accidentally eating 3 fries that were coated with wheat flour this week (the first time in over 8 months that I've had gluten), I now know with 100% certainty -- gluten has been the culprit of my bladder and stomach pain. Within 1/2 hour of eating those darn fries, I broke out in an allergic reaction (something that had never happened before): my stomach knotted up, my bladder flared, I had terrible gas, my skin started tingling, and my face felt numb.
Like most people, I didn't want to believe that wheat was hurting me -- after all, I've been eating it all my life and gluten is everywhere in our food. Please, if you are reading this and you experience both IC symptoms (with an irritable, but otherwise healthy, bladder) and IBS symptoms, consider removing lactose and wheat from your diet. If you always feel bloated after eating, you might be wheat-sensitive. I thought that I was fine with wheat -- I really did -- until I stopped eating it. After one month, I noticed I felt better. 9 months later, I feel drastically better. I sleep through the night (not always, but most nights now!) and I am able to tolerate things like lemon (I'm easing slowly into the non-IC safe foods ... very, very slowly).
The happier I get, the less stress I feel, the better I am. I've made some tough life decisions to reduce stress (i.e. like choosing to work at home and be poorer, rather than work in an office and have more income). I've come to terms that I can never have gluten again; it makes buying food slightly more labor intensive and expensive, but I feel like I can function again.
Now that am done with my PhD, my stress levels are way down, so my bladder has also had time to heal from all of the sitting and anxiety involved in academic work. If I sit too long at my computer or have a lot of stress, my bladder reacts. I can track my symptoms down to exact conservations and events now. To the hour!
Basically, I don't really have IC (with true damage to the bladder). I have an irritable bladder (which is what my urologist found from my cystoscopy with hydro) -- a bladder that reacts to heightened stress and diet (in particular gluten).
This post has been a bit disjointed, but I hope that I communicated the changes that worked for me (stress reduction and diet change). I still have a lot of healing to do (physically and emotionally), but I finally feel like I have a future again where I get to do things like work full-time, eat out, have worry-free sex, and travel.
Now if I could only get restaurants to stop putting wheat in everything ...
are with you all. May you all find a way to peace and joy in your lives.
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