Where to Start??

Where to start ... well the beginning seems like a good place! I've started this blog to inform and to comfort all those people out there that are living with Interstitial Cystitis (a.k.a Painful Bladder Syndrome). I will begin with my own traumatic tale of life with IC and update regularly with tips, ideas or just general ramblings of how life is treating me. All your comments will be useful and any followers out there if you email me your own thoughts i would be happy to post them too. I just know that its a comfort to know that your not alone and there are other people out there who have the same or similar experiences.

Its been roughly ten years now that I first became aware of the condition, I was going through my teenage years, which we all know can be hard as it is, when I first started to get pain. After seeing the doctors, I sent off a sample (which came back blank) and was given ... you guessed it anti biotics!! This soon became a regular occurance to the extent where the doctor said to my parents that I was a teenager trying to waste their time and get off school!!

College soon came around and so did frequent trips to hospital, A Levels became a disaster, but there was still no explanation to the constant 'flares' of cystitis that I was getting, and a pattern was starting to form. 2 weeks of every month I would get like this and it would get worse with alcohol, this wasnt the best news to a student!! Time off was almost inevitable to the extent that I was off more than I went in, struggling to catch up was the worst and the looks and comments from the teachers didn't help. Some 'mystery illness' was looking bad on their statistics. College was a very confusing time with no answers to explain what was happening. But with help from my family who as dumbfounded as I was I managed to scrape through and get a place at university.

I started to study Law at university (not the best uni as my grades were not up to scratch) however I had managed to get in. Becoming a barrister is my main ambition in life and that was what I needed to focus on. However as my first year drew to a close my condition was worsening and I ended up in hospital with my first Kidney Infection. The urologist was curious as to how I managed to leave my cystitis for so long, but i explained that by now cystits was part of my daily symptoms so there was nothing out of the ordinary. It was only then did the doctors begin to investigate....