AAloha! Not in Hawaii, but a friend who's been staying at my house just left for Kauai, so. I dropped in again, and started reading back from my last post, in Feb. I'm only on #23466, but I am simultaneously out of time to read on the board and sitting down to finish my taxes and research TENS units. ::pause:: I just finished and filed my taxes. Yay!
Askye, I always relate to your posts about your IC and UTI issues. I had a horrible IC flare last Tuesday. It felt like I was getting stabbed in the bladder with a hot knife. Ugh. I was lucky someone else canceled so I picked up an appt that day with the physical therapist who's been actually helpful with the IC stuff (two were not, this one is). What works for me is massage essentially across the bikini line, which relaxes tension over/around bladder. Then TENS stim on either side of bladder and on the lower back. The second stim on the inside of each thigh helps too. I'm looking into getting a TENS unit because she says a good but not fancy one can be had for as little as $40-50. (It just occurred to me to ask for a prescription, see if I can get it covered by insurance.)
After digging around in Consumer Reports (nothing in there) and here and there, here's the best article I've found on what to look for and it links to recommendations too. [link] TENS targets nerves, that's what works. The EMS works on muscles, IC flares aren't a muscle thing.
Have sent you an email too, I'll send you some concentrated blueberry juice. It's the closest I've come to a magic bullet and maybe it'll work for you. I get mine at the farmer's market, but try it, if it works for you, maybe some health food store can get it in for you. Knudson makes one. Trader Joe's carries a good one.
Thanks Java I really appreciate it.
I don't remember if I mentioned Uribel in my post it's a prescription instead of AZO and it works. Really well and lasts longer than AZO. It was covered by my insurance but some plans don't.
The Ivy League educated recently-out-of-a-uro/gyno-fellowshop doc (that finally was of real help to me where her male partners were not so effective) that I see prescribed it and rec'd it, so I have it, but I find that it causes me more pain than it helps. I prefer over the counter Avo, although the doc tells me to be careful with it. She had a patient who destroyed her liver completely by taking too much of it or taking it all the time, not sure which, but the cautionary tale stuck.
Azo, not Avo. Avocadoes are always good though! The Uribel is antibiotic + topical pain relief.
Hey, I'm curious, can you sleep for long periods at night? Curious if it's an issue for you.
I am starting to write down the time every time I get up in the night. I'm up 6 times a night, the longest I'm ever able to sleep is around 1 hr. 40 minutes. I was looking at sleep stuff online and it might not be as terrible as I thought it was, because sleep cycles are about 90 minutes long, and most people have about 6 sleep cycles a night. eta: gotta run! later.
I'm sorry, Laura.
I finished today. I'm barely functional at the moment, but I'm done. And I drank two Pepsis to stay awake while grading, so I'm probably not going to be able to get to sleep for a while. The course coordinator tried to guilt me into staying longer and helping grade another problem, and I stayed long enough to grade one section worth of that problem, but I just couldn't handle any more.
I don't think I'll play the kitty game, either, since I barely take time to be here anymore.
On good days I feel busy, mostly I just feel that I am spinning my wheels, ha ha.
erika is this where I call you "turbo" and like totally get away with it because I'm in the biz and cool? Why yes, I am rolling my eyes at myself now.
Hey Java cat, sorry you have so much pain, but it sounds like you now have a doctor with a clue or two.
Glad you survived, Hil. I hope you get some rest.
Harvey's eighteenth birthday starts in twenty-one minutes.
Happy birthday, Harvey! Now you can vote.
I got some sleep, on and off. I still have more geometry grading to do, and I'm trying to decide whether to attempt that this afternoon or leave it until tomorrow. (The advantage of finishing it today would be that I just realized that an Indian movie that I really want to see is playing at a theatre in one of the Cincinnati suburbs, and if I finish grading today, then I can go see it tomorrow. It's the first mainstream Bollywood movie to have a gay character that's not a punchline or a predator, and it's been getting really good reviews. Unlike another Bollywood movie that's playing right near me, about a married couple where the wife has a high-power corporate career and the husband is a stay-at-home husband, which has been getting terrible reviews, including one that said, "This movie tries to be progressive, but ends up as 'Mansplaining: The Movie.'")
