ugh

Ever heard of interstial cystitis? Probably not right?  Thats probably a good thing.  I had never heard of it either, at least not until I was diagnosed with it.

So what is IC?  IC is "a long-term (chronic) inflammation of the bladder wall" source.  What does that mean?  Well really the short, not totally embarrassing talk about my bladder version is I did something wrong, ate something wrong, drank something wrong, got too stressed, missed a few med doses, something my bladder is not liking and now it is 4:18 am and I am awake and in P.A.I.N.  


I have been up for the past 3 hours doing my usual IC flair up routine:

1. take a bunch of meds
2. lie awake in bed hoping it won't get too bad
3. accept that it's getting bad
4. take more meds
5. eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich so meds don't cause vomiting
6. drink a TON of water
7. take a hot bath
8. drink more water
9. sit up for hours waiting for the sheer lack of sleep to over power the pain response and knock me back out

It's a fluid process and goes back and worth several times, usually lasting 6-8 hours.  I know sucks doesn't it. 

Let me tell you how much it sucks, I have a presentation in 5 hours, a 1 hour's drive distance away (you try driving with a spasm-ing bladder, so not cool).  I'm guessing class this morning isn't going to happen.  Hopefully my prof is understanding and doesn't hate/fail me for this.  I'm emailing my materials to him as we speak (or type rather).

As difficult of a position as this particular flair up is putting me in, it's really not worst predicament IC has caused me.  A few weeks ago Tony went on a hiking trip with his oldest brother while the girls and I stayed home because of work, school, etc.  I had a flair up one night that week.  Talk about a crash course in parenting.  Keeping a brave face, cooking dinner, helping with homework, feeding children, all the usual stuff, plus being in immense pain is HARD!  Our 2 yr old isn't too difficult to distract but our poor tender-hearted 6 yr old pretty much can't find out anything is wrong or else she worries over it for days.  Literally days.  When I had my wisdom teeth taken out, she checked in with me several times daily for weeks to see "is your tooth still hurting you?  maybe we should go to the doctor"

So sure it might be now 4:42 am and I might have an estimated 2-3 more hours of this but at least my girls and my husband get to sleep on blissfully unawares and I can whimper and eat my pb&j without fear of discovery