As time passes with patients who have made it through treatment, it is easy to begin feeling like you can do anything and the symptoms wont come back. It is easy to have that drink of wine each night, to eat that dessert on a regular basis, even to take medications like birth control pills.
This last month I had three patients come back who had been without symptoms for years. Each of their stories are different, but the common theme was...."I thought I could handle anything!" These stories involved birth control pills, sugar and alcohol.
I say this, not to pass judgement on human nature, because, it is human to forget pain and suffering and to think of ourselves as invincible, but deliver a reminder that health is dynamic. Health is changing and dependent on how we take care of ourselves. What we eat and drink, how much rest we get, how we handle our emotions, and how we handle our healthcare will all influence the state of this balance. And once balance is achieved, it is much more difficult to shift a person off that balance. So, initially, one might think to themselves that the sugar they are having again is fine, or find that one glass of wine per week was ok so one per night will also be ok, and chemical birth control is easier than other forms of birth control and that should not be a problem since the alcohol and sugar were both fine....until one day...it isn't.
It saddens me when someone has worked so hard to be well and then has to learn the hard way that that work can be undone by not taking care to preserve that hard earned balance.
Part of this kind of work is learning how to take care of your body in a healthier way-changing your lifestyle and life practices. I can tell you from personal experience, it is an evolution that changes everything about your existence. And, it feels so much better to work hard to gain your healthy balance and keep it and feel well physically and emotionally. You are all working hard, so keep these thoughts in mind as you improve!
Dr.B
Comments
Keeping your health
Thank you for your words. It'll help, when the time comes, to have them play in the back of my mind.
Take Care,
I for one always took my
I for one always took my health for granted until I no longer had it. Now I'm praying for the day I have good health again and pray I won't ever take it for granted again!
Thank you for the kind reminder!
Thank you for reminding me to remember...
I really needed to hear this right now. As we feel better, we forget. How this happens I don't understand. Thank you for sharing these stories with us. They really do help. Thank you so much!!
Tammy
Choices
I hope everyone that logs onto this website reads this blog posting. When you have had years of feeling good, it is very easy to forget how you got sick in the first place. I have been dealing with IC for 25 years (half of my life) and for some reason I still have not learned my lesson. I am going to print out this blog post and put it where I can see it every day. Maybe then I will stop making stupid choices!
This is an excellent point.
This is an excellent point. I was better and did well a year ago... whole spring and summer eating what I wanted to and then in the fall really let go. Especially tailgating for football. The junk food, sweets, BBQ, alcohol, and candy corn all added up to throw me off. It has taken me the last 6 months of hard work again to get back in balance. I now view my salads as medicine and could not live without them. Using fruit as my only sweetner (berries or sliced apple or pear on my salads) feels indulgent. I am also using a little apple cider vinegar in place of lemon a couple days a week which is nice variety. Emotionally, I have matured too. I can now live this way without feeling "oh poor me" all the time and I an liking these healthy foods more and more. Some of my old foods now give me the heeby jeebies. I view them as toxic killers and not healing friends. I value the learning experience and the whole new world of natural health. This second time has been hard but not nearly as paralyzing since I recognized the symptoms and caught it early. The pain was way less because I never let things get out of control. My fear level is way down because I now understand how to control things and know that it will be temporary.
Love your blog and thanks for your committment and passion to helping all of us. You have been a mentor/teacher for me personally. God has used your life for good, and I pray we are all able to help those around us in similar fashion. Here is a great song that makes me think of you from Wicked the Musical....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CImGTTuEMEI.
Helpful for me lately- (found at local health food store)
Amazon.com: Get the Sugar Out: 501 Simple Ways to Cut the Sugar Out of Any Diet (9780517886533): Ann Louise Gittleman PH.D. CNS: Books.
Matia, In your experience, what are some other top irritants to your patients with IC besides birth control, sugar and alcohol? I realize everyone is different and has different allergies/sensitivities, but you have a unique vantage point with a broad overview. I remember reading that you have many patients have trouble with cinnamon.
Wendy, I am so glad you asked
Wendy, I am so glad you asked that question, I too want to know what to stay away from when I am feeling better. I read coconut, vinegar and indian spices were not good either. I would love to see more from Matia on what we should do later on for maintainence. Glad you are feeling better again, I was wondering how you were. I've been doing very well!
another one who forgot...
So...me too! Sadly, I thought I could handle WAY more sugar and alcohol than I could. Def. some of the "poor me" syndrome in there too. And I TOTALLY made all those bad choices on my own. Now I am paying for it. What makes me so embarrassed is that I had a choice each and every time I ate sugar and drank alcohol. There are so many people - and most hearbreaking - children who suffer from pain (of all kinds) that they have NO CHOICE about. They can't end it or control it. And I can. And I dont! I should say "didn't" now because I am back on track again but I will have a ways to get back to where I want to be. It is so hard but I'm starting to think after so many years of KNOWING what I should do, there's really no more excuses for me. It's part of the journey I guess...
Life
is a seried of lessons-sometimes, and often filled with lessons we dont want to learn! But, we keep getting faced with situations that teach us until we get it. In the end, I think we are better for it, even if it is not something we chose. It chose us.