I had some of the same concerns at the beginning of treatment since I was on several medications.  Over the last several months, I have gone off most of my medications as my pain improves.  I still take medication at night.  Your body will let you know when it is the right time to come off your medication.  I would also reccommend reading about your medication on rx.list.com to read the complete list of side effects.     I had eight bladder instillations, which made my bladder much worse.  Matia took me as a patient even though I am a severe case.  If you have any other questions, email Raquel.

Hey! Welcome to the site! I am a patient of Matia now for 17 months and have seen much improvement. I cannot speak personally about pain meds but from what I have gathered- Regarding getting off pain meds I understand that while its preferable for patients to not be on any pain meds through treatment- this can hinder treatment progress in many cases - its just not a good option for alot of people right away. I beleive the deal is - alot of times she works with patients - like strengthening their system and gradually helps folks transition amd  wean down their pain meds so that they can get to a point where they no longer need to take them and can transition soley to the herbs. I don't think she would make you stop something if it was helping you function day to day and  I do not think having distillations disqualifies you from treatment at all- she has helped very severe cases regain their health back! as an aside -in TCM- the bladder meridian runs down the spine! Working with Matia to help regain my body's balence has been super wonderful hopeful and life changing and besides that she is not only kind, brilliant and available its is the best healthcare I have EVER had in my life. Healing to you. Mary  

I had way more than 8 instillations right before I started treatment and I can tell you Matia has already gotten me much better! ... Back when I got really sick w/ IC the Western docs were having me do one or more instillations a day at home!!... at a certain point of continuing with them but getting no relief I felt in my heart this is not right, and Western med is not the path to get me well.  Also, I too started treatment on a medication -- she will slowly guide you to weaning off as appropriate.  Once your body becomes balanced and stronger, you will see that other areas of pain and dysfunction will improve and then you will not need/need much less of the meds until you come off eventually.
You will be in the best hands w/ Matia, she is one in a million.  Good luck to you!

Matia will work with you.  She won't just right away pull you off a medication that is helping.  I wouldn't recommend the installations though, even though I've never had any.  She will probably want you to quit those.

I should add - the instillations made me a lot worse.

Well I did do the Cystistat instill myself as well and while I don't feel it made me worse I don't think it made me better either. I had to keep doing them or the pain would come back i had to do them every week. I don't want to have to do anything forever. It was really expensive too. THe risk of infection was really high. yI always took goldenseal prior to my instill. I never took any of there antibotics at that point. I only stoped taking antibotics when i found out about my ic. I think anytime you need to catherize it is not good. The only reason I tried it was because of it comming from a natural source. I prefer to get at my IC from the root and restore total health to my whole body.