Friday, April 27, 2012

Allow me introduce myself... oh and meet my archenemy!


Welcome to my blog... my guess is you're either reading this because you know me and love me, or know IC and hate IC! 

If you're in the know IC crowd let me introduce myself…
Hi! I’m Deni… I am a 24 year old, wife, mother, daughter, sister, granddaughter, in-law, cousin, niece, friend, and patient. That’s right I said patient… as in “what is the patients date of birth and symptoms”. Not the kind of patient that means I can actually watch the whole deliberation at the end of The Bachelor, because I’m definitely not that kind of patient. My favorite things in life are spending time with my family, watching my 7 month old son grow up, photography, reality tv (Hi my name is Deni and I'm addicted to reality tv... Hi Deni!), playing games, cooking and baking, spending time at my Grandparents cabin, reading, and writing!

For those of you know me but not my old nemesis interstitial cystitis let me introduce you, here is the definition brought to you by The Mayo Clinic website.
“Interstitial cystitis (in-tur-STISH-ul sis-TI-tis) is a chronic condition characterized by a combination of uncomfortable (UNCOMFORTABLE! I bet a man wrote this… sorry keep reading) bladder pressure, bladder pain and sometimes pain in your pelvis, which can range from mild burning or discomfort to severe pain. While interstitial cystitis — also called painful bladder syndrome — can affect children and men, most of those affected are women. Interstitial cystitis can have a long-lasting adverse effect on your quality of life. The severity of symptoms caused by interstitial cystitis often fluctuates, and some people may experience periods of remission. Although there's no treatment that reliably eliminates interstitial cystitis, a variety of medications and other therapies offer relief.”

The symptoms on that same website were a bit more specific than some of you would care to read but to paraphrase they are: chronic pain in the pelvis, a persistent and urgent need to urinate, and frequent urination of small amounts. Also ic can involve retention of the urine and incontinence (Which is so ironic, right? You can’t go when you want to but you do when you don’t want to!) Anyway, the symptoms are very similar to those of a urinary tract infection… but chronic. A lot of what our bodies do involves the nerves and the bladder is no different. The nerves are supposed to send a message to your brain when you need to tinkle but for some reason those of us with IC have a crossed wire or two. So we either think we need to go when we don’t or we don’t know we need to when we really do.
So don’t call me Webster but that was my definition of interstitial cystitis… I’m not sure how medically accurate that was but hopefully that helps you understand a bit! 
This blog will follow my life and reveal my daily challenges of trying to be a normal, stay at home wife and mom while constantly changing from my apron into my armor to battle the fire breathing dragon that is my IC. I hope that through this blog I can provide an update for my friends and family, knowledge for people whose loved ones battle this disease with me and most importantly comfort for my fellow IC dragon slayers! 

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