When the Healing Doesn’t Come

God uses even the scariest storms to calm us and let us know he is with us. This is the short version of my story; check my blog for the full story.

October 18 is when I first started having pain like a bladder infection, so I would buy over the counter medications to help, it would help for a bit then it would flare up again, there was no indication when it was going to strike me…

Numerous times I went to the ER and complained of a pain in my bladder area, numerous times they told me it’s all in my head…. it would make me feel like I was crazy and not sure what to do, I would end up in pain again in a few days and go thru the same things over and over.
I was starting to believe that I was going crazy and there was nothing wrong with me, UNTIL finally a doctor in the Emergency asked about Interstitial Cystitis and really thought I had this disease… So we started with running tests, all the signs added up, the pain was just like described, that’s when he suggested I go to see a colleague of his. Dr S, so I had seen Dr S previously to get an IUD, this appointment was about 6 months earlier than when this issue started.

Went to see Dr S, he wanted to do an exploratory surgery to see if he could see anything that was causing this pain, he planned to have me in the ER and go from there.
Day of surgery arrived and I arrived at the hospital, was already to get this over with and to find out where my pain was coming from. Hubby waited with me, I don’t remember anything about going in the ER etc., and when I came out I was out of it, I can vaguely remember being wheeled to the car and home to rest.

Dr S did tell me that I had little pin holes in my bladder so he sent me off with medications.

I went to my family doctor a few days later and he had my results, neither of us were happy with Dr S, just putting me on medication that we didn’t know would work or what the next steps for me would be.

Both myself and my family doctor (who was amazing) decided I needed a second opinion…
made sense to me and so we went on the look for one who I would like to talk to about this.
This is when I found an angel of a doctor (she was so helpful, she listened, she gave advice and helped everywhere she could.)

Dr B was her name and she was a life saver for myself and my husband.
She first and foremost listened to me tell my story, how I felt etc…
she then confirmed it was Interstitial Cystitis ( Interstitial cystitis (in-tur-STISH-ul sis-TIE-tis) — also called painful bladder syndrome — is a chronic condition in which you experience bladder pressure, bladder pain and sometimes pelvic pain, ranging from mild discomfort to severe pain., and my journey began….

First thing she wanted to do was to stretch my bladder- that hurt and I wasn’t able to it finish. It was horrible pain and after wards there was blood etc., then she wanted to do another test, it was almost like an allergy test- this one didn’t hurt as much and we manage to finish this one, there was a catheter in place etc., I don’t remember much about it.
She then proceeded to give me a meal plan to follow very closely.. (Interstitial Cystitis, can be controlled mainly by your diet)Salsa, Oranges – anything Orange is a major trigger for me, all fruit except blueberries, anything tomato based, nothing citrus or with acid, caffeine this cuts out a lot of things, but I was willing to try this instead of being on a lot of medication.
This is when the journey of finding the correct dosage of medication began- wow, quite the journey it was…
Brings me up to July when we moved to a new province and I had no family doctor here-my flare ups kept getting worst and worst, there was no relief and there was no one who really knew how to treat me.

The only thing I could do was cry out to God because I knew he could help me, I truly believed he was with me thru this dark valley of my life, I would lay in bed crying in pain, crying out to God and he would always come.
Many trips to the ER lately and it takes more and more to have the pain gone, like in the past few weeks, it took 6 dosages of pain medication {including Demerol, toradol and some other type that I don’t know what it is because at this point, the pain was very bad…}
Then came a urologist- she wanted to start me on bladder instillation’s- I would have to get 52 treatments thru a catheter, the first couple was uncomfortable because I was so inflamed, after the treatments I would be sick and extremely tired, the medication that was given to me did not help me at all.

But I carried on for 52 treatments… a long year of being sick every week from the treatment.
WHY God WHY was my plea.
One of my recent trips to the Emergency room, the nurse that triaged me also has IC, she recommended to my doctor for her to prescribe Peridium, after 4 years I finally feel some relief.

As human I feel like people were tired of me asking them to pray for me, I knew God was with me, because he is always with us, thru every trial we go thr, I would continue to go forward at church for prayer because it was the only hope I had. Every time I would get prayed over at church I felt such peace, I no longer felt alone thru this trial, God has shown me thru people I have met that he is with me.

I know God has a plan for me and a plan for why I am dealing with this, he is in control, I know he can heal me, but what if the healing doesn’t come. We go thru trials and diseases and it is all for a reason I do believe that, it has brought me closer to a lot of people, a lot more faith in him, I believe someday I will be IC free and I will use my story to help others.

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