After my surgical procedure a month ago, the urologist said I had "classic IC." He was basing that on the way my bladder reacted to the test. (They fill it with something to high volumes & see if it causes blisters & hemorrhaging (sp?) - simplistic terms.) He also did a biopsy, but that was to rule out worse diseases. Then he said "here's the meds, take them for life."
Fast forward to today - my appt at Hopkins with the director of Women's Pelvic Health. (Fancy title, totally not fancy guy. He was awesome and very down to earth and spent a lot of time with us.) He said that he could make those reactions happen to anyone while they were under (it does cause considerable pain if you do the test awake.) He also said people like teachers & truck drivers drink less in general due to their jobs and train their bladders to be smaller and to hold smaller volumes. So that explained that part of the test result. He also said that he truly doesn't believe someone has IC if they don't have the go-all-the-time problem. (Which I don't.) He said if you're not getting up several times a night then the medicines won't help.
So - he believes it's basically just my fibro manifesting in a different way and that being off my meds for this long made it pop up. He also believes in the mental connection - doctor said there was something wrong with my bladder and that I should drink lots of water. Which I did. Which then makes me have to go more. :) Plus, once someone tells you there is something wrong with a part of your body, you think about that part of the body more.
He said that the 2 meds the other guy wanted to put me on do nothing to help with pain, they just help with frequency issues, which, (all together now) I don't have. Also he told us that normal people heal (get all the way to 0 pain) from bladder surgery in 3-4 weeks and that with my fibro it'll probably take me longer just like every other injury I get. AND...diet and meds are no big deal, I can take whatever I want and eat whatever I want as long as it doesn't get worse like it did with the margarita that one time. He suggested avoiding alcohol & caffeine but other than that eat normal and healthy.
So what did I do? Drank a gatorade and ate a bunch (a BUNCH) of tagalongs. Didn't get to the sour patch kids because it was dinner time. :) Not healthy, but normal. :)
