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i was wondering how everyone elses flares are. do any of you go from barley any burning at all to alot when eating or doing something u shouldnt? or do most of u already have maybe a level 5 all the time and it goes up when flaring?i know everyone is different i was just curious how everyone fluctuatues during treatment. im also having a hard time telling if food bothers me b/c i never feel anything untill 6 hours it seems like and thats usually in the evning when i feel worse anyways.
burning levels
This is tough to explain. It seems like for me my burnning levels - what is a level 5 for me now is not what it once was-right now I feel like I am doing really well. I am at a level of 1-2 where I can feel the boundary of my bladder and maybe a tiny bit of itrritation and some light vuvladynia if I shake things up and get active- I'm slightly aware of my bladder but it doesn't really hurt or burn until I feel like its full and then it feels uncomfortable and there's pressure but empty I feel good. I feel my bladder when I run or walk very fast and vigorously. Probably in about a week I may blow up into a flare- either its hormonal or my formula needs a tweak or my body is changing and that might push my levels of pelvic and bladder pain up to a 5 -7. before matia I was at alike a 10 level and + ! right after I began the herbs/probiotics I dropped down to like a 4-5 as a normal "better" level but with flares periodically happening all the time like happens in the beginning and that would bump me up to like 7-9 level. make sense? now a level 5 or a level 6 flare is kind of hard for me to handle but I do. I have just lost some tolerence for the pain. I too had a hard time at first distinguishing what was flaring me and what was just a bad flare day but as you gain more knowledge and "knowing" of your body as well as tolerence for more foods at a consistant level it gets easier to tell when things are bothering you. I know now within about 1 hour or less if what I ate was not good for me. its werid cause sometimes foods from list 2 which I have been on for a while- like for some reason I can't eat celery. it bothers me. but spinach and avocadoes are totally fine. spelt bread was fine at first but ongoing it has seemed to be too much. but maybe one month from now it will be fine. things can change and fluctuate so much. I have to pay CLOSE attention. that is why this process feels like I am in a battle and can be such intense work. its the attention to detail this treatment requires but now its becoming second nature at the same time. I hope I can continue to be this loving with my body after my treatment with Matia is over. Its good that these skills are getting ingrained in our lives. sorry for the ramble- lots to think about.
thanks mary!
ur so right about the our pain tolerances changing. before i found matia i too felt to me a level 10 pain and i would have given anything to feel the way im feeling now in my bladder. but now my pain has significantly decreased its still really painful. i told matia about the 6 hour thing and she says mostly likely its not b/c of the food. i still wonder but, does anyone feel worse at night no matter what? i can go through most days with maybe like 1-2 pain then by nighttime it goes up to maybe a 4 i cant figure it out
burning nighttime
Torey when I am having my bad times, my nights are always the worse for some reason. Usually it starts about 3-4 hours into my night. This has baffled me too. I wonder if we notice it more at night because we are wanting to get some sleep.
Nighttime
I too generally feel worse at night. This has gotten much better recently, but I remember my gynecologist thought it was because at night your focus is on your bladder. The day has "calmed" down and you have no other distractions drawing your attention away from the discomfort/pain. It's easy to just be aware of your bladder and nothing else at night, and this combined with the fact you are tired doesn't help (at least I know when I'm exhausted my symptoms are exacerbated).
Pain Levels
You ladies are so right when it comes to your pain levels changing. I too can relate to exactly what people are saying and especially the food scenario. I have just huge intolerances to foods, that at this point I can only eat cauliflower and broccolli with a small amount of starch and my meat. Like yourself I can tolerate a certain food group for a while and then hello it seems to bother me something chronic.In terms of the pain, I think I handled it better when I had a level 10+ also, now when I get sore I feel like I want to curl up into the fetal position and forget about the world. I think during the day you sometimes tend to forget had bad things are when you are so occupied. I don't work, but I have a house to run, children to run around after and a house which we are building. I dont have time to think about my bladder. However when the children are in bed and the dishwasher is going and there is rubbish on Tv, what else is there to do but think about my bladder. It is so refreshing when I am having a shit day, that I can log onto this forum and there are so may wonderful people a million miles away but still holding your hand through the bad times.
Sleeping position
My pain is worse at night as well. I have also noticed that is often worse when I lay down for a nap. Sometimes I wonder if it is related to my sleeping position since I sleep on my stomach. I am looking forward to asking Matia about this.