Some of the [@!#%&] I did to my body that brought on this awful disease...

When I was diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis, I was very confused why me--a pretty healthy gal who didn't even drink soda pop--would get sick from this awful disease.

I ate sweets in moderation.

         I went out to eat but 2 or 3 times a month.

                                                    I made most dinners at home.

                                                                                 I exercised & even completed 3 triathlons.

My doctors and I really thought I WAS a picture of health.

But I wasn't, and I didn't even know that I was @!#%&-ing my body up. I've thought about what brought me to the place of IC long and hard. I put together  a list of things that I did that brought this autoimmune disease on. It took me 4 years to put this list together. But I write to you today having had 60 days with ZERO interstitial cystitis pain and flares. If I have experienced any discomfort, it has been minimal at best. Dare I say it has been what a person with a normal bladder feels? I don't know. I can't remember. But I have felt pretty damn good. 

Shiz I Did To My Body to Bring On IC: 

1a. Vaccines. Sorry to go there right away, but chronologically, it was one of the first things I did to my body that stressed it out. I know, I know. Vaccines do prevent diseases, and I hate hearing stories about people who became sick from serious diseases that are known as 'preventable' due to vaccines. I get it. Vaccines help with stuff. But it doesn't change the fact that my immune system is screwed up, and that vaccines tinker with that same immune system. Perhaps this overloaded my system and made it so that my body couldn't tolerate the rest of the crap I did to my body later on in life (see #2-#8 for further details). In the future, when I have more babies (yes, I still hope to have more!), I will do homeopathic prophylaxis to them. It has the same idea as vaccinating, but without using tracable disease tissue that has been incubated in monkey liver or aborted fetal tissue, and without the heavy  metals and toxins as preservatives. The second someone mentions not-vaccinating, everybody gets emotional and angry. "Herd immunity and making others sick" are words that are being thrown around. Again, I get it. I know why people get emotional and angry. But guess what? IC makes me emotional and angry too. So now, I seek out non-toxic solutions to problems (like vaccinations) in order to preserve my long-term health. Don't trade in short term health for long term health problems, like I did. It seems that the deeper I dig, the non-toxic solutions always have 2 key elements: a) they don't cost a lot of money--and they don't MAKE organizations like BigPharma money, and b) they are non-toxic and safe to me. It's a win-win in my book.

1b. Messing around with my hormones. Just as it is not good to screw around with the immune system, one should not mess around with the endocrine system.  Eating a lot of modern soy (which is in virtually all oils and processed foods), and taking stuff like birth control is a bad idea. I did both! Bah! 

2. GMO's & Pesticides. Holy cow, these suckers are bad. And in the USA it is in everything. How do I know this? Because here, CORN=GMO's. The corn in the States are subsidized by the government making it cheaper to grow. So corn starch and high fructose corn syrup are used in literally every non-organic product sold here. And now, virtually all of the corn made here is of the Monsanto GMO variety (Monsanto is the chemical company-turned-seed-company that makes GMO seeds). Did you know that your gut has assigned specific gut bacteria to 'manage' toxins found in nature? For example, I've discussed how the Oxalabacter Formegenis is a gut bacteria that is specifically created to eat a natural toxin God put in our food, Oxalates {yes, the stuff of which most kidney stones are made---if you're getting these stones, you probably don't have the Oxabact Formeg. bacteria...you've probably killed it off with antibiotics. Join the club of chronic health issues...}. But what about man-made toxins like pesticides and GMO's? God didn't make a gut bacteria that can digest Monsanto's GMO's. So, that wrecked toxic havoc on my body. And that just added to the toxic pie.

3. Sugar. Lots of it. So I ate sweets every week. I don't fear sugar today, but in the way I was eating it before, sugar was toxic. Hold on. I wasn't some crazy candy-bar-eating woman. Before IC, I didn't pig-out on sugar, but I wouldn't hesitate to suck on a Starburst or gobble up a large slice of cheese cake if I ever came across one. Then, when you consider the amount of grains I was eating---which is basically like sugar because it is a carbohydrate and carbohydrates are a hop-and-a-skip away from becoming sugar--I was stressing my system with sugar. This can cause systemic candida. Whether or not your doctor can officially diagnose this in you matters not. If you're on the Standard American Diet, you probably have candida overgrowth. I had lots of yeast infections. Sugar feeds stuff {yeast, et. al.} that weakens your gut flora.  And my gut was not happy. Boo to bad gut. Today, sugar in 'moderation' means that I rarely eat it. No candy and cake. When Laura Ingalls Wilder of the Little House on the Prairie books would suck-and-save a little peppermint stick candy for a month, I realized that I was having too much sugar. Just because sugar today is cheap and easily accessible, it doesn't mean that my wonderful and beautiful body was meant to eat so much of it every day. So today we add a bit of raw honey to stuff. But not much. And I'm happy with that. I don't even crave sugar any more. Go me!

4. Drugs. Drugs. And Antibiotics. If I had a headache, I would NOT take aspirin/Tylenol/etc. I wasn't really a 'pill popper'...BUT I would take Benadryl for any seasonal allergies. And if I had a bladder infection, you bet that I would go to the doctor and get my antibiotics. I should have tried treating it naturally. There are so many cures for bladder infections which are NOT antibiotic related. Google Apple Cider Vinegar and Bladder infections. It seems to work like a charm for people. Then there is the Uva Ursi (herbal) cure. Or a whole host of other things. Unfortunately, by the time I had had so many rounds of antibiotics for those repeated bladder infections (which lead to IC), my body no longer had the immune ability to fight it off via natural remedies. My body was so screwed up that apple cider vinegar wouldn't touch me. Homeopathy IS powerful enough to turn things around, which is why I'm so glad to have this powerful healer in my life, but until homeopathy, I was too far gone for the more conventional natural cures for my bladder infections. Same thing for the seasonal allergies. I should have sought out an alternative to treat the seasonal allergies. But I didn't. There are natural cures, but I never even tried to seek these out. 

5. Not getting my bladder infections CONFIRMED before taking the antibiotics. That was REALLY stupid. Why was I damaging my gut for things that weren't even really bladder infections!? But then I shouldn't have been going to antibiotics in the first place. Refer to #4 above.

6. Not sleeping. I guess this one was partially my fault and partially the fault of little children who have a special knack for waking up at night. But really, why did I stay up until 3 am ALL OF THE TIME doing little crafty projects? Go to bed, girl. Sleep heals. Now I guard my bedtime with a vengeance. And my healthy happy husband is the 'night time' man :)...he gets up and deals with the kiddies. Go hubbie.

7a. Allergy shots. This relates to #1 and #4 above. But I was stupid. I didn't want to take drugs every day for my seasonal allergies, so I thought that a 'natural' route would be to get low-doses of allergens injected into my body once a week. I even did this stupid 'rush treatment' that basically lasted 8 hours of getting injections every 15 minutes. The prep-work for the 'rush treatment' involved lots of antihistamines and steroidal anti histamines. THAT RIGHT THERE should have tipped me off that this was not a good alternative to treating my seasonal allergies. Stupid, stupid, stupid. I can't believe I did this. Dumb girl. I really think this was the trigger that set off my IC. Alas, if I only knew. If I only listened to that little voice in my head that said 'don't do this...it's a little cray-cray'...but dumb me didn't listen to that voice. Smart little voice.

7b. **UPDATE***I forgot to mention this one... Not listening to my body! I really was a pretty darn healthy girl all through high school. Running cross country, eating homemade school lunches (you'd never catch me eating a basket of fries for lunch), and not limiting my food but eating enough was something I always enjoyed. But suddenly things started to slip just a bit. I started to notice the following in my early twenties:
     a) A plantar wart on the bottom of my foot that would NOT go away,
     b) A sudden onset of seasonal allergies, which worsened each year,
     c) A sudden intolerance to dairy products and chocolate
If I had been drinking the amazing and healthful raw milk (I choose A2 milk which is often Goats milk as it is easily digestible), I probably would never have dealt with the milk intolerance, and perhaps it would have kept the other 2 things at bay, for raw milk has a recorded history of minimizing seasonal allergies, asthma, and it has a recorded history of boosting your immunity. But I digress. Notice how all 3 issues above involves the immune system and gut: My body couldn't see and heal the plantar wart, my immune system was suddenly not managing histamines like before, and my food intolerance is a direct link to my immune system attacking milk proteins. Each of these indicate a weak gut flora. And guess what? Your immune system IS YOUR GUT. If I had dealt with these littler things via natural medicine...to UPROOT AND HEAL and not suppress and ignore (as my allopathic doctors had helped me do),  I know I would not have developed my genetically predisposed autoimmune disease, IC. I wonder what your genetically predisposed to developing if you keep ignoring your body? We all have sleeping giants in our genes, people...you just don't want to wake it up and find out what yours is.

8. Gluten. Gluten is a toxic protein naturally found in nature that is really really crappy for your body. It literally causes leaky gut. Our ancestors rarely had gluten in their diet. They would make real wheat bread but it would be basically gluten free. Don't believe me? Well, let me just prove it to you then:

        a) Original wheat, before it had been hybridized in the 1940's, had a naturally low gluten count in each wheat berry. But they hybridized the wheat to make the wheat stalks shorter and easier to harvest by machine. When they hybridized the wheat, the gluten content went UP. Way UP.

        b) They would sprout their wheat back in the day. Before 1940's, when wheat became a highly industrialized process, farmers would allow their wheat to sprout in the fields. This took time, but they had the time because harvesting by hand took...time! Did you know that sprouted wheat breaks down the gluten so it is no longer there? Sprouted wheat = pretty much no gluten. Cool, right?

        c) They would soak and dehydrate their grains. I'm cheating here because this technically doesn't relate to GLUTEN per-se, but when you soak and dehydrate grains, you remove the phytic acid, an anti nutrient which literally flushes your vitamins out of your body when you digest the wheat. Not good. 

        d) Then, when they would make their bread, they wouldn't use that grainy store bought yeast that one uses when they make "homemade bread"...instead they'd use naturally fermented yeast. This yeast makes home made bread grow a lot slower...it takes about 24 hours for a loaf to rise properly. But this natural yeast (also known as sourdough yeast) is also really good at breaking down....[drum roll please] the gluten! Cool beans...I mean cool yeast, right?!

In short, gluten is a bad toxin that causes leaky gut and literally opens the door to autoimmune diseases. Gluten = bad. But someday you bet that I will be eating the wheat bread described in A-D above. Can't wait to blog about that someday!

9. Having a closer connection to God. This may be your 'higher power' or whatever it is that you feel most comfortable with. For me, my faith involves a real, loving, living God who knows me. I know, this one may seem a little out there to many of my readers. I will open up more about my spirituality in another post, but let me say this: If I had more carefully maintained a stronger relationship with God--as I had enjoyed in the past--I think I would have been more 'in-tune' and better able to HEAR that little voice in my head. **Sigh. ** But I guess I wasn't all that far away. Because when the doctors offered me crazy bladder interventions like Botox and AntiDepressants, that little voice wasn't so little any more, and it screamed. "DON'T FREAKING DO IT!"  I am sooooooo glad I listened.

One second. Before I finish this blog post I need to run and pee...I'll tell you how it went...

(wait)

I'm back. That was awesome. I voided a few cups of liquid and I feel pretty darn good (I let my bladder get pretty full because I was writing this post. You're welcome.) I'm picky and want to get even healthier, so I still have a little ways to go, but I'm getting there.

My menstrual cycle is coming up soon, and that is typically when things go a little awry, but I recently started a new homeopathic remedy--yes in addition to the other stuff--(it's Sepia 6C mixed together with Conium 3C...it is a Banerji Protocol for hormonal issues). It should hopefully help balance out my hormones more, particularly my adrenal glands.

But don't forget, I did say that I had 60 days pain free. That means that I had one menstural cycle there in the middle that was amazing and I had absolutely no pain! It's a huge step forward, and I'm fully hopeful to be 100% in remission one year from now. That is when I will try to introduce my bread (see #8 above). 

Eat real food. Food heals. I hope my thoughts are helping you. Please post and say hello. A quick hi makes me feel like I'm helping someone out there and that my blog posts aren't a waste of time.

Hugs and health friends,

Paola

A bit of bad news, then it got worse...then it got better.

Hi IC pals,

I've got some bad news to share, but I want to let you know that I'm at an incredibly good place right now. So stick with me. Good news to follow...

If you remember, when I last posted, I was pregnant. Unfortunately at the end of October, I had a miscarriage due to an umbilical cord accident. I thought it was related to the subchorionic hemmorage I had (it was a rather large one), but alas it was not meant to be. The umbilical cord was wrapped once around my baby's neck, and she passed in gestation.

It was obviously a pretty traumatic experience for me. The actual birth (as I had to deliver at the hospital since I was starting my 5th month of pregnancy and I opted out of the D&C) was sad but peaceful. It was a very sacred experience for me and my husband to share.

Well, when it was all over, I realized it was not indeed all over.

A week after the miscarriage, I got a bonafied bladder infection (confirmed with urine culture). I then went on a week of the antibiotic macro bid and I thought all would be fine. I know antibiotics are bad, especially for women with IC, but I didn't know what else to do. I did try to 'kick' the infection via herbs but it didn't work. I tried some homeopathic stuff (cantharis), and it helped, but then I didn't know how to use the homeopathic remedies and I messed it up.

A few days after the macro bid I developed a severe, painful, burning itch all over my body. I later learned that I now have dermographia--thanks to the antibiotics, and that this is technically an autoimmune disease. It's closely related to histamine issues, which we all know, IC is also a histamine issue.

I spent the month of December at the Mayo Clinic in AZ hoping to find answers. The itching and burning was extremely painful and horrific. I could barely move my body without it itching. If I actually scratched, I would develop hive-like bumps on the site. Any sort of pressure...sitting on the toilet, getting up from the bed, and putting on socks, would cause the burning itch. I stopped washing my hair and I even stopped brushing it expect for perhaps once a week because a gentle comb through would cause the searing burning itch. Even the cold air outside would make me have a total body fit of itching. It was insanity. I don't mean to be too graphic, but when I would have a bowel movement and clean up afterwards: the mere act of cleaning up would cause an insane amount of itching in the buttocks. I wouldn't wish this experience on my worst enemy.

It was terrible. I was convinced I was developing mastocytosis, a severe and life threatening histamine intolerance/mast cell problem that can manifest with this total body itching + IC. Many people with mastocytosis have IC and they itch all over their bodies. I think this debilitating itching, the miscarriage, and watching my health further unravel was a little too much for me to handle, and I started having panic attacks at night. I would wake up completely drenched in sweat *as in I could take off my shirt, wring it, and see droplets of water fall out.

Of course, to make matters worse, I ended up having an 'incomplete  miscarriage'...this means some tissue was left behind from the birth, so I had to have a D&C after all. Ugh.

So, back to the Mayo Clinic. I spent a month of appointments there, and the end verdict was: I'm incredibly healthy. They ran a BATTERY of tests on me, and they all came back normal and healthy. My hormone levels checked out great. They checked me for all kinds of intestinal issues like Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth, Low Acidity in the stomach, fructose malabsorbtion, and more. They also checked my blood levels, thyroid, adrenals, cholesterol, and they checked me for mastocytosis. I even had a CT scan (no I didn't drink the contrast dye!)  They WANTED to do a lot of other tests on me, like the 24 hour oxalate urine test, but if you follow me and my blog, I had already done those  :).  I did pat myself on the back for being almost as smart as the Mayo doctors and for having many of the tests they WANTED to do for me done ahead of time. :) I was literally asked by 6 different mayo doctors "If I was a Scientist" or a "Professor of Science" because "I knew so much and had done so much already." But unfortunately patting myself on the back would cause me to itch, so I didn't even do that.

By the time my trip to the mayo ended, I was not only in 'incredible health' as far as lab results go, but they said they didn't know how to help me.

One thing they told me was that they were glad I hadn't done any of the invasive bladder procedures, like botox in the bladder, pudendal nerve block, and others. They said that the sickest IC patients that they see have done all of these, and that they recommend not 'getting in line' for such invasive procedures especially when they're new. They told me that less invasive is best. They were also impressed that I had managed my IC so well until now. This is definitely just the opinion of a few of the Mayo doctors I saw, but I felt very validated. I'm so glad I have turned so many of these procedures down. This is just my own story. I don't want anyone to feel bad if they have tried some of these more invasive procedures. You have your journey too. We're all trying our best.

Anyhow, my instincts and gut told me that my IC is a systemic problem, not a bladder problem, and this was conformed to me by my Mayo doctors with 100% certainty. They didn't even bother having me see a urologist. They sent me to all the other doctors to help me identify a system 'root of the problem'.

Please remember, this is just MY IC journey. I'm not trying to be prescriptive here. Just sharing my story.

How am I now?

Well, you can't blame me from completely walking away from the medical community at this point. I'm done. I will not see another traditional doctor unless an extreme circumstance warrants it. To me, the Mayo clinic was my last-ditch attempt with the medical community. They have consistently made me worse via drugs and antibiotics. I'm so mad about it. I don't mind being 'under the care' of my awesome urologist, but quite frankly, I think I have more to contribute to my health than he does. So while I am 'under the care' of him...I don't really feel like he's doing much for me as I 'm not taking any medications from him.

Back to my terrible story: I had itched for about 6 weeks with absolutely no relief or improvement in the slightest. I spent 99.9% of these weeks in bed. The .1% involved me using the bathroom and taking epsom salt baths. It had been 2 weeks after they cleared my miscarriage via D&C, and there was no relief. I had hoped it would improve when the 'foreign tissue' was out...I wondered if my body was reacting to the uncleared miscarriage...as if I was 'allergic' to the tissue.

Well, I started trying all kinds of non-traditional and traditional things: I did a juice fast for 1.5 weeks. No improvement. I took antihistamines...1 dose would help me for 2 days and then the itching would come back full force and worse than before!

I then had an incredible voice come into my head: It told me that the itching was a gift. It was a symptom that would push me to find true healing. Don't suppress it. Look for an answer.

At this point, I was so desperate that I was willing to see a freaking witch doctor. All I wanted to do was mourn the loss of my baby girl and I could move forward. The itching had halted my mourning process.

Well, that's when I found homeopathy. Websites like quack watch are not supportive at all to homeopathy. They have their opinion, and that's fine by me.  Homeopathy in general is not popular with people in the USA. However, homeopathy is booming in Germany, England, and various 1st world countries. To me, it's not a fad. It's real and it works for people.  I began working with a homeopathist named Joette Calabrese. She is a student of the Prasanta Banerji Protocols (an advanced form of homeopathy). In a nutshell: the Banerji Protocols are pretty incredible at treating and curing cancer. They've gotten so much attention that the MD Anderson Cancer Center has invited the Banerji's to join them in sharing how homeopathy can heal cancer. Evidence of this claim can be found here and here and here. Of COURSE we haven't heard about this in America. We don't like homeopathy here, so we won't talk about it, not even when people like me have hit dead ends with traditional medicine. 

My results in using homeopathy: My dear IC friends, the results have been amazing. My itching is so much better. I can wear jeans again, move about with minimal discomfort, I can brush my hair, absent-mindedly scratch my face, and there is minimal response and minimal discomfort. And also, the amazing thing is, that my IC is better too! SO MUCH BETTER! I feel like it's getting better each week. 

There are 2 caveats: 

1) the homeopathic remedy has been slow. It's like watching your children grow: from one day to the next, you can't tell a difference, but from perhaps one week to the next you can!

2) The Banerji Protocol is NOT classical homeopathy. It is a very specific form of homeopathy, and it is pretty incredible. I will explain more about how it works in a subsequent post here on this blog. If you know anything about classical homeopathy, the Banerji Protocls may sound like blasphemy to you. I am open to anything at this point, and to me, the Banerji Protocols work.

3) For now, let me share with you what my protocol is for IC + Itching:

a) 5 pillules of Staphysagria 200C once at noon on Thursdays and once at noon on Sundays.

b) 5 pillules of Meddorinum once at Noon and once at bedtime, every day (so 2 doses a day).

c) 2 tablets of Natrum Sulph 6x, once at Noon and once at bedtime, every day (so 2 doses a day).

A-C above are for the histamine/IC issues. I need to take each of these at least 15 moinutes apart from each other  I need to do this for one month and report back to my homeopath. I've been on it for 2 months and I'm significantly improved. It has helped my IC and it has also helped my itching. 

Just recently I was given an additional remedy for the itching:

d) 5 pillules of Antimonium Crudum once at noon and once at bedtime, every day (so 2 doses a day)

If I had IC and severe food intolerances, and if I came to this blog post and read these remedies, do you think I would order them online and start taking them? You betcha! Do you think I would make an appointment with the above homeopath, Joette Calabrese, (she does Skype appointments)? YES!

I've tried so much, and so little has worked. This is working. I hope to find complete recovery through homeopathy.

Best wishes to you in your IC journey, dear gals.

And I will post more about the Banerji protocols soon.

Xoxo,
Paola

P.S. in light of how well homeopathy has been working for me, I stopped Total Body Modification. I think it's amazing for some, but not the quickest path to healing for me.

Pregnant = Happy Bladder

Found out that we're expecting our fourth bundle of joy. Surprise! But it is a welcomed one. I love talking to nurses over the phone.

"And what baby is this?"
"It's my fourth."
[pause] "First?"
[ahem] "No. FOURTH!"
:)

The most interesting find for me regarding IC is that I'm 100% symptom free while pregnant. This happened to me last time too. However, last time, my list of food intolerances grew while I was pregnant.

Perhaps the leaky-gut-healing that I've done thus far will prevent me from increasing my list of food intolerances? Maybe.

Perhaps I will stay in remission after this pregnancy? Probably not.

But I'm learning and journaling the entire way, and I hope my notes help.

Paola
P.S. This DOES confirm though, that for me, Hormones ARE A BIG IC LINK!