MindyKatt, MD

Cats, Nature's Pain Distractors

I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge my cat.

It's 5.44am on a Thursday morning and we leave for a fabulous romantic vacation to Victoria in two hours. I've been up since 4.00am with bladder pain. Thought I could handle a green tea. Oh, how delusions of grandeur have battered me down. My own damn fault. Anyhow.

As hard as it is to type while a kitty leans on your arm, this little fur-ball has always been there for me during late night pain sessions. The ones at ungodly hours of the morning where waking your spouse for help would just be plain mean. Even though you know he'd get up to grab you tea and water.

Thanks, nocturnal pur-machine. You're always there at 4.00am with the snuggles and the head-bonks.

Diagnosis

That girl smiling in the painting is me. I was only in what I'd call mild pain when I sat for that portrait, and I was thankful for that. After all, who wants their Disney Vacation ruined by pain? Mild I can deal with.

Flash forward to several days later when we'd met up with the family at a cabin. It got worse (it usually does), and I spent a day or two curled up in bed. I was thankful it happened on vacation, which got me out of a usual mental dilemma when it happens... Call in sick to work, or grin and bear it? Take a chance that painkillers alone will work, or lie still until it passes? It's a scenario I've been in more and more as time has gone by.

I've been dealing with bladder pain for over ten years, and a week ago, I finally got a diagnosis. Interstitial cystitis.

It's a chronic pain condition involving the bladder. There is no specific test for diagnosis. Diagnosis was (for me) a long and patience-draining process of elimination.

On the one hand, diagnosis is a good thing. There are medications, forums, networks and many more resources at my fingertips now. On the other hand, it's scary. From what I've read, there is no cure. There are only coping mechanisms.

So this blog is one of my coping mechanisms. I'm usually pretty private about my health. There is a long list of reasons for starting this blog, but two main reasons have lead me here.

1. Talking Helps

The more I talk about it, the less I feel like I'm crazy. When people start to understand what I'm going through, I feel like a little burden is lifted. I feel a little more normal, and as Martha says, "it's a good thing".

2. Food

Right. Some of the most frustrating causes for a flare up (or sudden increase in symptoms) for interstitial cystitis are the foods we all love and enjoy. I for one am

finding it hard to find safe yet satisfying (emphasis on satisfying) replacements for things like chocolate, coffee, mustard, pickles, ketsup, salsa, the list goes on!

My mission is to explore strange new foods, to seek out new condiments and comfort foods, to bodly go where no IC sufferer has gone before!

And I'll record it all here! Hopefully I will amuse if not inform you... I shall do my best!