Father doesn't believe I have IC

[soymilk]

I live with my dad, and sometimes it's very frustrating. In exchange for not paying rent, I'm supposed to help out around the house and cook dinner, and sometimes he gets very frustrated at me when I'm hurting. I understand that it's very generous of him to let me live here since I can't afford my own place right now, but when I'm struggling with my IC and he says things like this...

"I don't know why you can't get a second opinion."
"How do they expect anyone to live on this diet?"
"You're too young to have a condition like this."
"Your doctor doesn't know what he's talking about."
"Isn't there some sort of cure? I don't know why you won't go back to the doctor."

...it's not helpful, it just makes me angry!

[Briza]

My advice is to not speak about your health, the diet, etc., with him. I know that is hard especially when you are living with him. It's taken me a long time to come to terms with the fact that no one ever says the right things when I'm hurting, particularly family. It's definitely one of those grin and bear it things. But I suffer a lot less by keeping my mouth shut. When we suffer from chronic illness we go thru the typical stages of grief over the loss of our good health--not talking about feeling bad with my family is I guess my reaching the acceptance level.
Don't know if this is helpful but finally dealing with things this way is saving me a lot of heartache.

[waterflow]

I know how you feel. I have gone through the same thing with some of my family members and I live at home too. I found that people who did not believe me in the beginning never will and I just tune them all out. Granted it has taken my years to finally get to this point and at times it still does hurt but there is nothing I can do to change how they think about it. Unless they walked in my shoes they will never understand.

[ChrisNes]

I thought this article interesting

Interstitial Cystitis

Interstitial cystitis often referred to as bladder pain syndrome ("IC/BPS") are terms used to describe the result of the body's own immune system attacking (the autoimmune attack) and damaging the walls of the bladder. This autoimmune condition can be severely debilitating.

Autoimmunity, is the failure of the immune system to recognize cells of “self” from cells of “non-self.” In other words, autoimmunity is the inability of the immune system to discriminate between the cells of the body, and the cells of a foreign invader. The level of ability, or inability of immunity to recognize or discriminate can vary with the autoimmune afflicted individual, and, these levels can fluctuate from day to day, from month to month, and from year to year, due in large to the two primary causes described below.

Deficiencies of vital immune modulating components in the food supply, and stress in general (both psychological and physiological) are the two primary causes of this “inability to discriminate,” leading to immunity’s “misfiring” or “autoimmune attack”on the cells and tissues of the body (the-self-attacking-self response of a struggling immune system).


In Interstitial cystitis, the mis-guided attack is focused on the bladder walls. The body identifies the cells of the bladder wall as a foreign agents. The resulting attack yields common symptoms such as pain, painful urination, discomfort, dysuria (burning sensation in the urethra when urinating), nocturia (the need to get up in the night to urinate), urinary frequency (as often as every 10 minutes), pain with sexual intercourse, and bladder ulcers.


The traditional medical community states that “the cause remains unknown,” while in the same breath, they acknowledge that the body's own immune system attacks (the autoimmune attack) and damages the cells of the bladder wall as described above. The system seems to play this “cause remains unknown” game with over 100 autoimmune conditions all of which are the result of the autoimmune attack on various, and at times, multiple systems, organs, glands, tissues, and cells of the body.


The obvious solution is to restore the compromised and misfiring immune system, subsequently eliminating the autoimmune attack at the root source.

Understanding that Autoimmunity is the Root-Cause
Examples in general:

When Autoimmunity attacks the joints, the industry term used is "Arthritis."
When Autoimmunity attacks the colon, the industry terms often used are: "Ulcerative Colitis," "Proctitis," "Diverticulosis," and "Diverticulitis."
When Autoimmunity attacks the muscles, the industry term used is "Fibromyalgia."
When Autoimmunity attacks the pancreas, the industry term used is "Diabetes"
When Autoimmunity attacks the tear ducts of the eye, and/or the saliva glands of the mouth, the industry term used is "Sjogren's Syndrome."
When Autoimmunity attacks the thyroid gland, the industry terms used are: "Hashimoto's Thyroiditis" and "Grave's Disease."
When Autoimmunity attacks the layers of the skin, common industry terms often used are; "Eczema," "Psoriasis," and "Rosacea."
When Autoimmunity attacks the small intestinal tract, the industry terms often used are: "Crohn's Disease," "Celiac Disease," "Leaky Gut Syndrome," and "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome"
When Autoimmunity attacks the stomach and digestive environment in general, the industry terms used to define the resulting consequences are: "Gastritis," "Ulcers," "Irritable Bowel Syndrome," "Acid Reflux," "GERD," "Hiatal Hernia," and "Barrett's Esophagus."
When Autoimmunity attacks multiple areas of the body simultaneously, industry terms also exist identifying the particular combinations of the assault, such as "Lupus," where we commonly witness the attack hitting the joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart, and lungs.
Therefore, one may understand from these examples, that the Root-Disease is Autoimmunity, attacking various areas of the body, causing tissue damage (inflammation, damage, malfunction, and pain). The diagnosed disease-industry term, such as "Arthritis," (or any above or below) is simply a term identifying a potentially painful and damaging "condition," which is merely a consequence of the Autoimmune attack on a specific area of the body.

"Autoimmunity often attacks multiple systems, organs, tissues, and cells of the body simultaneously. I refer to this assault on the body as "The Shot -Gun Effect of Autoimmunity." Millions suffer with multiple Autoimmune conditions. In almost every case, the suffering person is unaware that their conditions and symptoms are all Autoimmune driven. The medical doctor has no motive to educate or discuss this with the patient, for they are trained to treat symptoms only and have no reason to discuss the Root-Cause. They are taught by the system that the Root-Cause, Autoimmunity, is "incurable," and in most cases are unaware that various conditions and symptoms alike are Autoimmune or Autoimmune related."

There are over 100 different Autoimmune conditions, and hundreds of Autoimmune symptoms, caused by the Autoimmune attack on the various organs, systems, and tissues of the body.

The Bottom Line
“The modern-day medical bureaucracy will not address the Master Disease, Autoimmunity. Eliminating the Master Disease via the restoration of proper immune and digestive function, would render an estimated 85% of the current pharmaceutical drug base obsolete, thus rendering the subsequent profitable surgical consequences unnecessary as well.