Hello lovely people,

Just wanted to share some information and story that made me feel warm and fuzzy and hopeful today. I have been shadowing an acupuncturist for the past few weeks and the practitioner I am shadowing works with three other practitioners in the same office. So today I got to talking to one of them about IC and I asked her (as I ask every practitioner every time I talk to them) if she has treated it and if so successfully. She said that she has treated it successfully quite a bit. I clarified and asked if she had “cured” it (ok I know how dr. Brizman feels about this term but this is literally what I asked so…) and she said yes, absolutely.

She admitted that it is one of the trickier imbalances to treat and that it takes time. I actually started talking to her because I had her look at my tongue which was looking all kinds of funky today (red bumps in the back of my tongue, yellow coating, red at the tip… which is actually incredible because apparently red bumps on the back of the tongue in Chinese Medicine signifies bladder or intestinal inflammation/heat, and the coating is related to dampness in that same area so basically my tongue was telling any practitioner of Chinese Med that I have IC… ANYWHO) she said my tongue reminded her of a friend that she had treated for IC many years ago.

She said it took a long time, this lady in particular took 5 years to heal, but she has since been COMPLETELY symptom free for 8 years. Also, she said this case was particulary complicated because it turned out that this lady actually had a malignant tumor in her bladder and once it was removed she responded more quickly to treatment. However, she said that many of the IC patients she sees are not as complicated as this one. Also, for those of us that are fairly young she said that youth is definitely on our side and means there is an extremely good chance that we can kick this thing in the butt and get rid of it totally. HOWEVER the lady she treated was not super young, I got the notion that she was in her 40s (just kind of did  the math. The practitioner I spoke with seems to be in her 50s or 60s, the treatment lasted 5 years and she’s been symptom free for 8 so 13 years ago… if her friend was around her age then 30’s to 40’s I’d say, possibly 50s).

I’m sharing this story A. because we all love to have our belief that this illness is in fact treatable proven. B. because it proves that even though it is a very difficult process and can last a very long time it can still, and does still, work. C. because I think it’s good for us to realize that there are MANY different practitioners who have success with IC. These people are just more quiet about it. It's not impossible, it happens all the time, and it's difficult to see how lives can turn around so drastically from very very ill and uncomfortable to totally fine and healthy... but there is proof all around us that this happens. This story being one of many success stories.

So I hope that this experience will help us all keep time in perspective, 5 years of treatment is fewer than 8 years and counting of NO SYMPTOMS whatsoever and a totally normal lifestyle. Apparently this woman doesn’t eat dairy still but the practitioner said this is just because she doesn’t respond well to it in general, not because this is necessarily an IC thing.

So much love and hope and healing for all of us.

Love

Han