IC Disease

Approximately 75% of all women will experience a vaginal yeast infection at least one time in their lives.  Once a woman gets her first vaginal yeast infection, there is a greater chance that she will get one again.  One mistake that is common for women to make when it comes to treating yeast infections is many will try to self-medicate.  Another mistake women make is not knowing what the symptoms of a yeast infection are. 

Symptoms

The symptoms of a yeast infection include vaginal:

• itching
• burning
• irritation
• redness
• discharge

For women who develop serious yeast infections, or those who do not get treatment right away, they can have swelling of the vulva and painful, frequent urination.  The discharge that is seen in vaginal yeast infections is a thick, white, cottage cheese type discharge. 

Tomorrow Part 2 will cover the causes of vaginal yeast infections.

I admit that overflow incontinence is a type of incontinence I had never heard of.  I knew about stress incontinence, urge incontinence, and a combination of the two but not overflow incontinence. 

Overflow incontinence is where patients don’t necessarily feel the need or urge to urinate.  Their bladder never empties and they are continuously leaking small amounts of urine.  Overflow incontinence is typically seen in elderly men who have problems with an enlarged prostate.  This form of incontinence is rarely ever seen in women.

Symptoms

Symptoms of overflow incontinence include:

• Bladder never feels empty
• Frequent urination at night
• Unable to urinate even when there’s an urge to go
• Urine leaks uncontrollably

Tomorrow Part 2 will discuss the causes of overflow incontinence.

For more posts about incontinence on this blog, please visit the link below.

Incontinence on IC Disease

There is a new IC study that is recruiting patients to study their sleep quality and Interstitial Cystitis symptoms.  A women’s health nurse practitioner with 10 years of experience treating IC patients and a doctoral student in nursing are asking for your participation in this innovative study.

The study is a 20 minute online questionnaire that is completely confidential.  Those who decide to participate in the study will be asked to answer several questions about:

• Interstitial Cystitis symptoms
• sleep habits
• demographic information

For this particular study, researchers are looking for women who:

• have a diagnosis of Interstitial Cystitis made by a specialist who performed a potassium sensitivity test or bladder hydrodistention.
• are between the ages of 30 to 60.

If you would like to participate in this study, please click the link below:

Sleep & IC Study

I just read an article tonight that talks about how many people ignore symptoms of bladder trouble and that most people are not paying enough attention to what their bladder is telling them.  November is Bladder Health Month and urologists across the country want to make the public aware of many of the bladder problems people face:

Incontinence - More than 15 million people in the United States suffer from stress incontinence or urge incontinence.

Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) - Approximately 40% of women and 12% of men will suffer from at least one urinary tract infection sometime during their lives. 

Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) - People who have an enlarged prostate can suffer from LUTS which causes frequent urination, the need to push or strain to initiate urination, nocturia and urgency.

Bladder Cancer - Approximately 53,000 Americans are diagnosed yearly with bladder cancer.  One symptom is blood in the urine along with frequent urination and pain with urination are also common symptoms of bladder cancer.

Bedwetting - Bedwetting may be caused by many several factors from age to neurological problems. 

Interstitial Cystitis - I was happy to read that IC Disease was included in this article.  To read more of the article, click HERE.

Female IC Disease patients typically will notice a worsening of their IC symptoms around the time of their menstrual cycle.  I know from own experience with PMS is so extreme that I have developed PMDD (pre-menstrual dysphoric disorder) and I have to force myself to get out of bed or to do anything the week before and during the week of my monthly cycle.  Women with IC will experience more fatigue, more pelvic pressure, more cramping, more burning upon urination around their period, but why?  What causes this to happen and what makes our lives so miserable around this time?  Estrogen is the answer.

When estrogen levels are at their highest, it is believed that mast cell secretion increases and this increases inflammatory reactions in the body. 

There are IC patients who say that their symptoms are actually better when their estrogen levels are at their highest and only worsen with the onset of their cycle.  Others complain of a worsening of symptoms at ovulation. 

Please make sure you read Part 1 of this week’s Spotlight On Chronic Illness for Celiac Disease that I posted yesterday by clicking here.  Today’s post surrounding Celiac Disease is the symptoms of this little understood chronic illness.   Symptoms that may possibly affect those suffering from Celiac Disease include:

• Anemia
• Cramping and bloating in the stomach
• Appetite changes and increased cravings
• Back pain
• Constipation
• Dehydration
• Decreased ability to clot blood
• Gas
• Lack of coordination
• Mouth sores
• Muscle cramps
• Extremely dry skin
• Weight loss
• Weakness
• Changes in bowels/stools
• Depression
• Loss of interest in normal routine activities
• Mood changes and/or irritability
• Inability to concentrate

I guess it’s rather ironic that as I sit here writing this post about migraines, headaches and IC Disease, I just finished taking my third daily dose of pain medication for my constant headaches.  I was just reading some information on how common a symptom headaches and migraines are in IC patients and I realized that I have gotten so used to having daily headaches and frequent migraines that I don’t remember what it was like to not have them.

In 1997, an IC Disease report revealed that almost 25% of IC patients surveyed also suffer from migraine disease.  In the general population, migraines affect approximately 18% of those surveyed.  What I couldn’t find is why there may be a link to the two.  Is it hormones?  Stress?   What are your thoughts?

Being a woman is hard enough, then to add IC Disease on top of PMS….not a good combination.  Ask any women with Interstitial Cystitis what that “time of the month” is like and you will likely get an ear full about the increase in symptoms:  more pain, more pressure, more urinary frequency, and just plain more misery.

I am not even 40 yet but I welcome the day that menopause kicks in and I keep wishing that I would go into menopause early so that I wouldn’t have to deal with the extreme misery of getting my menstrual cycle each and every month.  So what’s a menstruating, miserable IC women supposed to do each and every month to relieve those terrible symptoms?  Here are a few things that I have found to help:

• Break out the heating pad and use it as much and as long as necessary.
• Have pain medication on hand that is stronger than Tylenol, Motrin or Advil to get through the severe pain.
• Take lots of hot showers and let the warm water run down your abdomen and back.
• Take off work if necessary and rest.

IC flares can be controlled if you are in tune with your body and you know what is triggering your symptoms.  You can’t always stop a flare from happening but when you know what is triggering your illness, then you can be prepared to take care of it as soon as it begins.  Below are some common IC flare triggers:

Menstrual Cycle and Hormones

The bladder is very sensitive and the monthly hormonal changes and the menstrual cycle women experience are a big IC flare trigger. I know around my menstrual cycle I can hardly walk without having severe pressure, urgency and frequency. It’s pretty bad. As a matter of fact, last night I wanted to take a walk through our local mall to get my exercise in because it was too hot outside and I couldn’t do it. I tried walking and I ended up using the restroom twice in about a fifteen minute period because the pressure was so bad.

Food/Diet

Diet is the most common reason an IC patient experiences a flare. Read my series on IC Elimination Diet to know what foods you should avoid in order to keep from having a diet-related flare.

Stress

Stress can be a big IC flare. What affects us emotionally results in physical consequences. If your body has a weakness that is where the stress will appear. It is the same for people with IC. If they are experiencing stress, their IC symptoms will likely flare.

Exercise

Certain types of exercise, especially those that involve the pelvic area, can trigger IC symptoms. Riding a bicycle (which I am guilty of!) can really cause IC symptoms to flare because of the large amount of pressure placed on the pelvic region from the bicycle seat. Other exercises that make my IC symptoms worse are walking too fast and I can’t run at all. That is an instant trigger.

Vitamins

Multivitamins are out for IC patients. Most patients that take them find that their symptoms flare shortly afterward. Multivitamins include Vitamin C and Vitamin B6 which are known to make IC symptoms worse.

Sex

I know no one likes to hear that sex is an IC trigger but sadly it’s true. Women will typically experience a worsening of their IC symptoms 24 - 48 hours after having sex. Men with IC experience a severe pain during orgasm.

The IC Network has a great analogy that they use when they describe the importance of managing IC flares early. Here it is:

You walk through your living room with a glass of water and see a flicker of flames at the bottom of your drapes. You walk out of the room and come back ten minutes later with that same glass of water, and see that your drapes are a raging inferno. At what point of time would that one glass of water stopped that fire?? Early! The same is true for managing IC flares and pain.

How true that is. Trust me, I have learned from experience! Catching the flare as soon as it starts can greatly reduce days of suffering and agony. When you first become sick with IC you may not be able to notice the early warning signs of a flare. But once you have been sick a while you learn when a flare is coming on and you can start your treatments immediately.

One thing that IC patients usually have to learn the hard way is that it is okay and it is crucial to stop and rest whenever you feel a flare coming on.  Some people feel that they are letting the disease win and that they are giving in by stopping and resting but that’s not the case.  Learning how to control your flares and symptoms is what you need to do to take charge of your illness and to rule it - don’t let the illness rule you. 

You are not weak, a wimp or flaky if you stop and take a break or take off work for a day or two because your IC symptoms have flared. Do what you need to do to keep your illness from getting worse. By not resting and by not taking pain medication and other treatments when a flare hits, you are setting yourself up for a longer recovery time.

Drink plenty of water to help flush out your bladder - especially during a flare. Moderate your diet and make sure you aren’t eating any trigger foods.