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Not sure this is the right place - couldn't find a forum topic among the treatment options, where it could fit!]
I have severe IC.
The day my new urologist did the cystoscopy, he started me on three things:
heparin/lidocaine/sodium bicarbonate instillations ('invesical'?), Uracyst installations (those both in the hospital), and a prescription for Ranitidene.
Apparantly a milder form of Ranitidene called Zantac is available over the counter?
I looked it up and Ranitidene is a drug usually used for stomach ulcer - I think that it reduces acid in the stomach so the ulcers aren't so irritated and can heal. So, I can see how it might be interesting to try it for IC - if you reduce the acid with stuff in the stomach, presumably that means lower acidity in the bladder?
So my questions are:
I haven't seen Ranitidene discussed in the forums. How common / uncommon is it to have it prescribed for IC?
Has anyone read / heard of any research that demonstrates that Ranitidene helps IC? Any convincing numbers?
Has anyone with IC noticed Ranitidene made a difference with the symptoms? And if yes, how long did it take til it took effect, and what differences did you experience?
What side effects, if any, did you get from Ranitidene?
One person in here said that she ( / he) had drowsiness too severely and went off of it. I have had severe drowsiness since being on it. I mentioned it to my GP and she said that isn't a normal effect of Ranitidene... that maybe that patient had a one-off drowsiness experience, but that my GP prescribes it all the time and doesn't hear that. I called the pharmacist, and he said the same thing - not a common effect.
I mention that because I have had a significant backslide in the past week or so and i can't figure out what's causing it. One of the two big backslides is somnolence. I'm back bed-bound again, too heavy to lift my head. Ranitidene is one of the changes I an think that happened during this time. So I'm thinking I'll just go off the Ranitidene as an experiment to see if that changes.
Then I wondered about Naproxen, I'd been advised to try that to see if it will help with the second big backslide which is that the pain is up. Maybe Naproxen makes grogginess. I guess I'll try not taking that for a while.
I had the Methadone doses put up because of the pain increase (from 3 to 5 ml. per dose) but that was a while before the heavy somnolence hit. And it doesn't make sense that the pain is up, if the Methadone is up.
It's all so so confusing.
When I switched from morphine to methadone just over 2 weeks ago it was dramatic success - the pain was covered, plus there was a massive improvement in my clearheadedness.
That week I started installations - three days in a row (I'd had 2 heparine/lido ones previously, as tests). My pain seemed to go up, and increase, and after 2 more the next week I was worried that they were worsening my pain and the urol. instead of decreasing the hepo/lido instillations, cancelled them completely. Now with the pain still up in my body, I'm thinking that maybe if I'd stuck with the instill's, after a month of them things would have improved with treatmnent - and I've screwed that up maybe and won't know.
So what had caused the pain to be up the past week and a bit? And what has triggered such a massive change from clearheaded to stoned and bedbound?
I find it so so difficult to figure these things out, and so frustrating.
I have severe IC.
The day my new urologist did the cystoscopy, he started me on three things:
heparin/lidocaine/sodium bicarbonate instillations ('invesical'?), Uracyst installations (those both in the hospital), and a prescription for Ranitidene.
Apparantly a milder form of Ranitidene called Zantac is available over the counter?
I looked it up and Ranitidene is a drug usually used for stomach ulcer - I think that it reduces acid in the stomach so the ulcers aren't so irritated and can heal. So, I can see how it might be interesting to try it for IC - if you reduce the acid with stuff in the stomach, presumably that means lower acidity in the bladder?
So my questions are:
I haven't seen Ranitidene discussed in the forums. How common / uncommon is it to have it prescribed for IC?
Has anyone read / heard of any research that demonstrates that Ranitidene helps IC? Any convincing numbers?
Has anyone with IC noticed Ranitidene made a difference with the symptoms? And if yes, how long did it take til it took effect, and what differences did you experience?
What side effects, if any, did you get from Ranitidene?
One person in here said that she ( / he) had drowsiness too severely and went off of it. I have had severe drowsiness since being on it. I mentioned it to my GP and she said that isn't a normal effect of Ranitidene... that maybe that patient had a one-off drowsiness experience, but that my GP prescribes it all the time and doesn't hear that. I called the pharmacist, and he said the same thing - not a common effect.
I mention that because I have had a significant backslide in the past week or so and i can't figure out what's causing it. One of the two big backslides is somnolence. I'm back bed-bound again, too heavy to lift my head. Ranitidene is one of the changes I an think that happened during this time. So I'm thinking I'll just go off the Ranitidene as an experiment to see if that changes.
Then I wondered about Naproxen, I'd been advised to try that to see if it will help with the second big backslide which is that the pain is up. Maybe Naproxen makes grogginess. I guess I'll try not taking that for a while.
I had the Methadone doses put up because of the pain increase (from 3 to 5 ml. per dose) but that was a while before the heavy somnolence hit. And it doesn't make sense that the pain is up, if the Methadone is up.
It's all so so confusing.
When I switched from morphine to methadone just over 2 weeks ago it was dramatic success - the pain was covered, plus there was a massive improvement in my clearheadedness.
That week I started installations - three days in a row (I'd had 2 heparine/lido ones previously, as tests). My pain seemed to go up, and increase, and after 2 more the next week I was worried that they were worsening my pain and the urol. instead of decreasing the hepo/lido instillations, cancelled them completely. Now with the pain still up in my body, I'm thinking that maybe if I'd stuck with the instill's, after a month of them things would have improved with treatmnent - and I've screwed that up maybe and won't know.
So what had caused the pain to be up the past week and a bit? And what has triggered such a massive change from clearheaded to stoned and bedbound?
I find it so so difficult to figure these things out, and so frustrating.
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