Hi everyone, I rarely post on the forum, I’m just not that confident in posting stuff. But everyone's posts are so helpful to me, I really appreciate them so much and I want to thank you all for posting on your symptoms.

I'm about 3 months shy of being in treatment for 2 years and thought I would share an update.

When I started treatment we thought it would take about a year for me to heal completely. It's coming up to 2 and I'm still not there yet. I don't want to discourage anyone! I have good days and bad days still. I'm on list 3 and have been for over a year and it's great, there is much more variety and I feel like I can be on this list for a while more without being too frustrated. A few times in treatment I've felt amazing and happy and been sleeping well and I know when I am all better that will be normal life for me. Matia has said when I've told her I'm feeling really happy that that is how everyone should feel all the time if their body is in balance, and that's great to look forward to.

I am so grateful for finding Matia and don't know what I'd do without her, she is always there when I email and I feel so good about things after my appointments every month.

I'm trying to remove all stress from life and have been trying throughout treatment. I surround myself with good people when I feel up to socializing (whcih isn't that often) and I've noticed if I am stressed everything gets worse, if I argue with my husband the pain is instant. I recently started meditating every day and it's been very beneficial, I can handle stress a lot better now and it makes me happier and the IC feels less somehow. I really recommend it if you have any interest in it. I only do about 5 minutes a day at the moment just focusing on my breathing and acknowledging thoughts and letting them go, and just with that I notice a big improvement.

I get disheartened sometimes because I'm still not better or when it all flares up, as everyone does, but I look back at how bad I was in the beginning- I had to pee every 10-15 minutes ALL day and was up every hour at night it was exhausting and I was very depressed until I found Matia. My period was bad each month and my breast so painful for 3 weeks every month, my hair was falling out, I had acne and I had to use laxatives every day, and now those things are so much better. I have normal bowel movemnts every day, my hair is thicker and glossier and more maneagble than it has ever been in my life ( I use Matia's mango shampoo and conditioner, I love it and jojoba oil on the ends when it's dry), my nails are great, I detox through my skin on my face a lot which sucks but one day it will be good all the time. Now I have periods of an hour or 2 on good days without needing to pee, I still have periods of frequency in the day where I need to go every 20 -30 minutes but it's not all day long. I'm still up on average 2-4 times a night, sometimes once a night if I'm doing really well.

I'm only just learning how important it is to rest for us to get better, I thought I understood that before but now I get it! I pushed my self too hard last October and am still recovering from that and I think it set me back a little bit. It's very hard not to feel guilty when I need to just lie around all day too. I always feel like I should be doing this or that etc.

Sorry this is so rambling I just wanted to say thanks to you all for your posts and tell you that even after being in treatment a year and 9 months I have improved and know I will get the rest of the way there and that is what I try to remember when it all feels too much.

thanks,

Claudine