I have been told I have IC just recently, in June. Now, I expect to be recovering from IC soon, and in fact I believe I am almost there. Now, I eat what I want. I have minimal pain and frequency day by day. A year ago my doctors thought I had a UTI but nothing grew out in a culture, so they thought I was a hypochondriac. I was sent to the Urologist and was told I had IC. When I learned that nothing could be done to get rid of it I got so frustrated that I did my own research. I couldn't believe that there was absolutely nothing a person could do to get rid of this, that it was "Incurable." There had to be something out there that people were doing. Besides that these symptoms were too much like a massively severe UTI without the blood to not be some form of a bacterial infection...in my opinion... even though the doctors said that it was not one. I always wondered why when my doctor put me on Ciprofloxacin for a week my symptoms dyed down but when I went off of it they came right back with a vengence!
So I did some researching over 2 months and found a website that discussed IC. On this website a new research study was discussed that involved bacteria.
This study found that that about 90% of their research volunteers who have IC actually have gram positive bacteria growing in the bladder and this type can not be found on dry agar plate cultures (the form that is used for UTI's). This was why the people have symtoms of a severe UTI but nothing grows out on the cultures. The majority of doctors only give patients a dry agar plate culture for UTI's. However, this bacteria can only grow on wet surfaces (which is why it grows in your bladder and attaches itself to the wall of your bladder causing inflammation and a break down of the tissues among other things). This culture is callled a Broth Culture. The Website listed only two places in the US. that do broth cultures. When the culture comes out positive for the gram positive bacteria in IC patients they were put on long-term antibiotics such as doxycycline and augmentin (3months-1year and Re-cultured each month until the bacteria is gone). After that the patients recovered from IC and lived a normal life, (and ate whatever they wanted). So I had my sample over-nighted to one of the labs to have this culture done. When I got my results, low and behold I had two types of gram positive bacteria in my bladder. Strep D Enterococcus and Staphylococcus. This is a new IC study so many doctors do not know about it yet but it seems to be promising! This may be a controversial subject for some, but I hope more doctors become knowedgeable about this culture.
Stephanie
So I did some researching over 2 months and found a website that discussed IC. On this website a new research study was discussed that involved bacteria.
This study found that that about 90% of their research volunteers who have IC actually have gram positive bacteria growing in the bladder and this type can not be found on dry agar plate cultures (the form that is used for UTI's). This was why the people have symtoms of a severe UTI but nothing grows out on the cultures. The majority of doctors only give patients a dry agar plate culture for UTI's. However, this bacteria can only grow on wet surfaces (which is why it grows in your bladder and attaches itself to the wall of your bladder causing inflammation and a break down of the tissues among other things). This culture is callled a Broth Culture. The Website listed only two places in the US. that do broth cultures. When the culture comes out positive for the gram positive bacteria in IC patients they were put on long-term antibiotics such as doxycycline and augmentin (3months-1year and Re-cultured each month until the bacteria is gone). After that the patients recovered from IC and lived a normal life, (and ate whatever they wanted). So I had my sample over-nighted to one of the labs to have this culture done. When I got my results, low and behold I had two types of gram positive bacteria in my bladder. Strep D Enterococcus and Staphylococcus. This is a new IC study so many doctors do not know about it yet but it seems to be promising! This may be a controversial subject for some, but I hope more doctors become knowedgeable about this culture.
Stephanie
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