Hi All,

I've not been on the forum for a little while now and just realised I'm a few days off my 1 year with IC (I got it on Christmas last year of all days!).

I've been on Matia's treatment for 4 months now and have come a long way from where I was a week before I flew overseas to LA to see her. My IC was fairly moderate and on and off to start with but I still couldn't go an hour without having to pee and had an irritating sand paper like pain in my bladder almost all the time, I worried about how I would go about daily life and work and shed a lot of tears for weeks. I'm now on list 3 of the diet and can tolerate some of list 4 and as long as I stick to it and look after myself I'm symptom free 99% of the time. Apart from being the token freak fussy eater on the table all the time I feel like I almost have my old life back!! Just wanted to share a bunch of things I've done through my treatment that have helped as well as thoughts, ventings and advice you might relate to below.... 

*Stick to the diet! Ice cream and cake is not worth prolonged pain. Just get the healing over and done with as fast as you can and stick to the damn diet! :)

*So often I've gotten random symptoms and worried I'm the one freak patient who has this symptom that may never go away. It WILL go away and more than likely someone else out there has the same symptom too.

*I've eaten tons and tons of celery and asparagus (I eat a little sandwich bag full of celery sticks almost every day). Celery is an anti-inflammatory and asparagus is meant to be good for your bladder too.

*Plain kettle potato chips are my one and only guilty eating pleasure. Sometimes when I'm dying for junk food I've been naughty and eaten a whole big bag in one sitting

*My friends ask me if I've planned my first IC free meal yet. I can't help but think of a tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream.

*I rarely ate red meat before IC. It now makes my bladder feel better!

*Every time symptoms flare up I freak out that I'll never fully heal. Whenever my symptoms feel like they're not there I feel like I can take on the world

*IC has made me a huge natural therapy advocate and taught me so much about my body and nutrition

*As is often the case I lost a fair bit of weight after starting the IC diet. To treat myself and make myself feel better for not being allowed to eat the usual yummy stuff I bought myself a cute pair of denim hot pants (which I would never usually have worn) for summer because I figure if I can't eat junk food and have a glass of wine I'm at least going to flaunt my new booty!

*I hate hate hate being the token fussy eater at a restaurant at someone's dinner party but have found out which of my friends are the understanding ones now! One of my girlfriends even started keeping bottles of water at her house just for me when I visit! :) 

I have so many more I could share but don't want to overwhelm this post.... so last but not least - IC has made me grateful for the simple things in life and made me realise how much I took the basic things like health for granted. Instead of whinging about little things like traffic I'm thankful I can sit in traffic again without needing the bathroom every 2 minutes. I'm thankful that Dr B has been here to help me in my healing and thankful for this forum and for having all of you to share stories and support with! It's made the process less lonely! I look forward to completely healing and can't wait to hear all your stories as you all get better too! :)

xx