Hello everyone, I haven’t properly posted in a long time, I wanted to have some improvement before I sent an update. Last year was a really bad year for me with the IC. I had so much pain from September to January that I felt like giving up to be able to find a painkiller that could give me some relief because I was really getting worse after thinking I was improving the year before, but in my heart I didn't want to give up, this is the path I wanted to take, it makes the most sense to me and I want to bring my body back to health not mask the symptoms. It was just very frustrating and exhausting not to see the improvement I had been hoping for after sticking to the protocol strictly for nearly 4 years. I spoke to Matia about this in my appointment in January and we decided to try something new; I came off everything for 3 days to see where my bladder was without herbs and there was no improvement which scared me even more, then we took out all starch, fruit and homemade agave treats and even starchy vegetables, no carrots etc. We added back in SF722 which had caused me so much pain last year and this time I could tolerate 12 capsules a day! It was hard to go back to being so limited with my diet and It took about 3 months to finally get some relief. About 3 weeks ago I started to have true comfort in my bladder for the first time in 4.8 years and the first time in 4 years of treatment. I've gone from peeing 30+ times a day and 4+ times at night (It's so unbelievably exhausting to live like that for 4.8 years as I know you all know) to 16 times a day and 2 times at night. I'm almost afraid to post this as I don’t want to jinx it, but I'm hoping that I've finally started to improve. Matia has been her usual kind, patient and amazing self through all of this and through all my fears and I'm so pleased I didn't give up. I still have a long way to go and as I write this I'm aware of my bladder, but I know around lunchtime the irritation will ease for hopefully the rest of today, I just hope this progress will continue now (and I really hope I can add back in coffee soon, it's what I miss more than anything ;)). I just want to say I know cutting out starch isn't good for most people with IC, Matia said it's rare for people to be able to be able to handle it, but my body seems to be able to handle it really well. I eat more often and I eat more food in general (I mainly eat meat, veg and cashew nuts) but it tastes a lot better to me now and I feel like I'm eating real food since cutting out starch, its weird. My husband has done it, too (when he eats at home) and he's noticed the same thing.

For the people who are struggling to improve I hope this gives you some encouragement as I've been that person struggling to improve for so long and the last 3 weeks of improvement with better sleep has been really huge to me. :)

C