Neurogenic Bladder/Interstitial Cystits

I live every day with a Nerve-damaged Urinary Bladder and IC. When I was diagnosed, I was shocked! In all the years I worked in the medical field, I had never met a patient young or old that was ambulatory with this condition. Of course, I had encountered it with patients that were paralyzed but never any that could move around and walk. When I was diagnosed 7 years ago, there was very little information on the Internet about both of these conditions. It was hard for me to wrap my brain around having to catheterize myself daily. Generally, I am a fast learner but this was very hard for me to accept, much less do. It took me months to get it right as well as to this day there are factors involved that will still make it hard for me to perform the act. I have put Foley's in others while working and knew the procedure quite well. But, for myself it was difficult, actually a nightmare.

In the time this happened to me, I developed Interstitial Cystitis. Another disease I had never even heard of! IC was also at that time just becoming listed as a disease but scientifically not well-accepted as a diagnosis because there was so little information about it. Here is a link to give you information if you find you are suffering chronically with repeated Urinary Tract issues:
kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/interstitialcystitis

So, here I was dealing with trips to the bathroom 60+ times a day, screaming in agony due to constant bladder spasms, I swear, I felt like I was in Hell itself! I never had even one Urinary Tract Infection (UTI).
This all started on a sunny Sunday morning when I was out for breakfast with my son & husband in May. First, there was intense internal itching and pressure to urinate. I had to go home and didn't have a clue to what was wrong with me For two months, my physician, the E.R., and a urologist just kept telling me it was another UTI. Finally, my gynecologist scheduled me for a CT and it showed my bladder was huge!
Immediately, she insisted I go to the hospital to be catheterized. A night in my life, I will never forget. They removed 1300cc's of old urine off of my bladder. I had more pain for 12+ hours than when I gave birth to my children. Well...the reason you have not seen any blogs this past three days was due to my IC kicking back in and I have been dealing with a lot of pain. Sometimes it will be mild and I can deal with it, often it can be unbearable. If you are a woman over 40 with Diabetes, Spinal Disease in any form and have a lot of urinary issues that can't be explained. I would make a visit to a gynecologist and tell him/her your symptoms. I had both of these diseases and did not know it. Early education would have prevented the pain I went through. My Neurogenic bladder is a result of being Diabetic with Spinal Disease.