I am new to this site and have never shared information about my IC on line.  If some of my questions have been covered in the past please bare with me. I am a 53 year old male that has had IC since I was a child.  I was officially diagnosed 7 almost 8 years ago and at the time was so happy that I finally had a diagnosis.  The urologist at the time said that he did not know what I was so happy about, because "most men who have this illness end up loosing their career and marriage then end up taking their life."  He was right about the career and marriage but I don't have any intention of taking my life.

The reason I decided to share on line is that I wanted to know if any body else is suffering with flank and kidney pain as well as the bladder pain. If I'm not able to get to a restroom right away my bladder will spasum hard enough to reflux urine or create back pressure on my kidney.  This causes my kidney to throbe and my side to hurt all the way down into my testicle. I was told that my uritor seal was deformed or damaged on my left side and that is where I get most of my cronic pain from.  Has anybody else out there had to deal with this issue or is it unique to me?

I had a urodynamic study done at Duke University when I started this quest to get diagnosed.  A Dr. Webster was over the department at this time and he had an intern and a nurse perform the test.  I noticed that while the test was taking place the intern and nurse became much more compasionate to me.  For any of you that have been through this test you know how painful and humiliating this test can be.  When they finished they told me that they had never seen bladder pressures as high as mine in a person standing upright.  I asked them to explain and they said that they only saw bladder pressures as high as mine in people that were paralized. Of course they called Dr. Wedster down right away and all he could tell me was that yes the pressures were very high and I would have to live with it and that I needed to work on being less of a type "A" person.  It has been about 15 years since this study and I try not to think back on the care I have receiveed from the so called "experts".

I share all of this because I want to know if anybody else struggles with these bladder spasums like I do?  I am currently having boetox injected into my bladder every three to five months. This seems to help settle my bladder down enough to allow me to sleep without getting up every 30 to 40 minutes, to void, during the night.  The only down side to this treatment has been that when I do get up in the morning to void I really struggle with the flank an kidney pain.  This pain will normally subside by mid morning.  I deal with my flank, kidney and bladder pain by working with my pain managment docotor.

I am very interested in communicating with anybody dealing with similar symptoms.

Regards,

Mike