The Beginning

Yes, that's right.  My name is Amber G. and I have Interstitial Cystitis.  There I said it, IC.  Even typing the words hurt!  This is my story from the beginning.  I was diagnosed with IC on April 23rd, 2010.  I remember the date because I had been struggling for so long with trying to get a diagnosis.  I had been to so many doctors who did not know and some who just did not care.  Although I have only been diagnosed for a year, my IC story actually began 14 years earlier.  I was 12 years old and I was in junior high.  I remember specifically that it was new years eve and I awoke to find that I had wet the bed.  I was so scared and embarrassed that instead of waking my parents I quickly and quietly changed the sheets and went back to sleep.  Never telling anyone this secret.  At school, I started to have to go to the bathroom after every class, never getting any relief.  The pain and embarrassment would keep me in a 2-year prison.  I thought that I could never tell my mom, so I suffered in silence.  I thought that it would get better but it never did.  Looking back I should of told someone sooner than I did, maybe the outcome would of been different. I guess I will never know.  Finally, I caved after years of silent pain.  I told my mom.  I remember being scared to go to the doctor.  My first urologist, whom we shall call Dr. Loving, was a woman.  She was very down-to-earth and easy to talk to.  She did some tests to see what my bladder capacity was and if I was completely emptying my bladder after going to the bathroom.  Both of which were fine.  I explained to her that it felt like I had to go to the bathroom all of the time and she told me that I needed to retrain my bladder. So over the next couple of weeks that is what I did.  I would wait 10-15 minutes after it felt like I had to go to actually go to the bathroom.  And Dr. Loving even gave me a sublinguil to take to ease the pain of holding it.  Looking back I think that it was just a placebo, something to trick the brain.  After a while I felt 100% normal again.  I thought I was cured!!!  I was discharged from Dr. Loving's care and went on with my life.  But little did I know that one day all of my childhood fears would come back to haunt me once again.......