I'm Kristen, I'm 25 years old and I have three (fun but not life-threatening) chronic conditions. Well four if you include my ovarian cysts but the DepoPrivera seems to have fixed that. This is my blog. I'm trying to find solutions to make my life better. It's a pretty good life, but I realize that with some time and patience I could make it a lot better.
#1 Interstitial Cystitis
The Low Down:
So...here's the thing. A year and a half ago I was diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis. The cause is unknown the basics are that it is an irritation of the lining of the bladder that causes pelvic pain, frequent urination, and strong urges to urinate.
Lovely topic, I know. But hey, I live with it every day. I've got to say that being diagnosed has made a huge difference. I may not always follow the strict directions the doctors give me, but I know what's wrong and I have tools now to try and fix it.
Step one: Medication
To help with re-coating my bladder my doctor put me on 300mg of Elmiron a day, and in addition I take 900 mg of Gapapentin for pain control. One of the ways that this disease manifests itself in me is with pretty severe pelvic pain. I was put on the Gabapentin originally because of recurrent pelvic pain, and it turns out that the pain was because of my bladder. Who knew!
Step two: diet modification
This is the tough one for me. Top 5 bad foods: coffee, regular and green tea, fruit juices, soda and artificial sweeteners. I haven't done much on this...it's part of my new plan.
Step three: bladder instillations.
These are (in my opinion) nasty buggers. But some research shows that patients tend to have some luck managing their IC with this. Basically it's heparin and lidocaine that I inject into my bladder through a catheter. I did it once at the doctors office, and found that peeing afterwards was very painful and I haven't even filled the scripts for it.
#2 GERD (gastro-esophageal reflux disease) ie acid reflux
The low down:
People with GERD have a "backflow of stomach contents through the esophasgus" Basically the acids in the stomach travel back up into the esophagus and in my case back into my mouth. Sounds gross, I know. That's life. I've had this since I was 6, so I'm pretty used to it.
What I remember is that the sphincter in my esophagus doesn't work properly, so food comes back up. Especially foods that are irritating to me (cucumbers are a particularly bad culprit, yeah I know cucumbers....they seem so harmless and delicious) I've recently been back to a specialist and I'll be having an upper GI (the stick a camera down my throat) to see what's going on in there and if they have any ideas of how to fix it...
Step one: Medication
Despite my reluctance to take even MORE medication, the doctor prescribed me prevacid 30 mg per day for my heartburn. It does seems to be making a big difference, so I will continue with it for the time being.
Step two: Diet modification
Coffee, cigarettes, tomatoes, spicy foods, mints, chocolates, carbonated beverages. It's pretty similar to what the restrictions on IC are. EPIC fail here for me. Similar to the IC modifications it's something I'm working on.
#3 Reactive Hypoglycemia
The Low Down: When I eat simple sugars (ie candy) my blood sugar plummets to unhealthy levels. For a little while I had been recording my food intake and blood sugar levels and once recorded a drop from 112 to 62 in 30 minutes. I've met with an endocrinologist and I'll be doing further testing that I'll report on later to confirm the diagnosis and come up with a plan
Step one: diet modification
Eliminating simple sugars from my diet. Increasing complex carbohydrates (whole grain bread, not white) and proteins. This is possibly the hardest for me (aside from coffee) given my sweet tooth. Another one to work on.
Here's the plan:
Starting with the end of the semester take one month and try, I mean really try to eliminate the foods I shouldn't have from my diet.
My Ultimate Goal:
Not to have to take 7 prescriptions a day. If I can figure out a way to stick to a solid diet I might be able to do this.
I think that's all for now. I'll update more later. This is a journey, I don't know if any one will read this but at the very least I'll be able to write what the doctors say and hopefully remember it for next time.
