Interstitial Cystitis Awareness Month

September is the official month for Interstitial Cystitis (IC) Awareness.

According to wikipedia, IC is, "is a chronic condition and diagnosis of exclusion of unknown cause characterized by bladder pain. It may be associated with urinary urgency, urinary frequency, waking at night to urinate (nocturia), and sterile urine cultures...Recent studies have revealed that between 2.7 and 6.53 million women in the USA have symptoms of IC and up to 12% of women may have early symptoms of IC/BPS. Further study has estimated that the condition is far more prevalent in men than previously thought ranging from 1.8 to 4.2 million men having symptoms of interstitial cystitis." 

I am one of those million women.

Back in January I shared about what a day in my life looks like.  You can read about it here.  It's not pretty and yes, it is painful and very real.

I am meeting more women who have IC symptoms, have been diagnosed or know someone who has been diagnosed.

Educate yourself about interstitial cystitis.  You may be helping yourself or someone you love.

Me and Alexandria (27 months old), almost 8 months later.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye Ezraela Eaven Inman (12.31.2013), Momma Loves You.

Image
Last night, January 3, 2014, I said goodbye to my sweet baby girl, Ezraela Eaven.  Ezraela meaning “God is my help”, Eaven meaning “fair radiance”.  I only carried her in my belly (as my 2 ½ year old, Alexandria, would say) for 18 weeks, but to me, her mother, it might as well have been an eternity.    I remember the day I took the pregnancy test that told me she was there.  I remember the tears of joy that streamed down my face.  We kept the news of her quiet for quite some time because we were afraid that we would lose her.   My first visit to the nurse midwife was riddled with anticipation and anxiety.  I was afraid they would tell me the tests I took had been wrong, but because of spotting and cramping they did an ultrasound.  That day I truly fell in love with that little blob on the screen.  I was only 10 weeks along, but she was mine.   10 Week Ultrasound My second visit was more of the same.  They couldn’t find a heartbeat at first, but after a
Read more

When You Go Down a Hill, You Have to Go Up Again

Image
In life you have those very good weeks and then you have those very bad weeks.  Last week was one of those very bad weeks.  If you have read my blog for very long you will know that I have a problem with anxiety and worrying.  Most of the time I am able to work through any fears I have relatively easily.  Since I have become a mother and stay at home mom I have become quite a lot more relaxed than I was when I was working a 40 hour work week outside the home.  Last week was anything but relaxed.  I am not sure what triggered it.  We had a really stressful week with my two year old daughter, Alexandria, a few weeks ago and I know from experience that sometimes it takes a bit for your body to catch up with life's events.  I had also received some bad news about a family member, which made me extremely sad.  I woke up Monday morning and had that flurry of butterflies furiously flapping their wings in the pit of my stomach.  I went to mom's group and any time I spoke the feeling ca
Read more

The Blogosphere Meet and Greet

Image
What Event Wouldn't Be Complete Without a Photo Booth?  (The Lovely Em Dash is on my left) The last thing I wanted to do tonight was go out.  After Alexandria, my two year old, went to bed, all I wanted to do was lay in bed and watch a movie that I got with my .50 off coupon code from Redbox (I was pretty bummed that I wasn't going to be able to use that coupon.  I'll probably think about it often in the next week).  I didn't feel particularly well and I was extremely tired.  Life with a chronic medical condition can do that to you .  But I've battled being tired my entire life (and anti-social), so that really wasn't anything new.  And well as far as I was concerned, the chronic medical condition could go suck it's own toe.  I pulled myself up from my bootstraps and stepped out of my comfort zone to go to the first Louisville Bloggers Meet and Greet.  Stepping out of my comfort zone was something I did on a regular day to day basis when I worked at H
Read more