My name is Lesa Taylor – McCabe. I am 44 and I have had I.C. since 1966, that’s 38 years if anyone is keeping track.The Navy dr’s my parents took me to told them my bladder was ” Small” and I would ” Grow out of this”…well, guess what? I didn’t. My dad was career navy and we moved alot. Dad wouldn’t stop the car every 30 minutes so I could pee, so mom brought a Folgers Coffee can for me to pee in. How humiliating. Right there in the back seat next to my brother and sister. I felt like a freak. When I turned 16 in 1976 my mom took me to the Naval Hospital in Tacoma to see a “specialist in urology”. He took x-rays, injected dye into my arm to watch it travel through my system, then they filled my bladder with water and told me to “pee”. This is while I was laying on the table under the x-ray machine, with them watching me! I couldn’t do it, and I finally couldn’t stand the pain anymore and got up and went into the bathroom. This dr told me I had “I.C” and he was going to give me a D.M.S.O. treatment, but he didn’t get it into my bladder. When I got up off the table it ran down my legs and soaked my socks and I reeked all the way home.That was my first D.M.S.O. treatment.

The years passed and I just lived with it, what else could I do? I heard comments all the time like ” How can you possibly have to pee again? You just went”! I made up excuses to go to the bathroom so people wouldn’t think I was crazy. I had to pass on so many things, job offers, trips hiking or boating. My bladder ran my life.

When I was in my mid 30’s I tried another urologist. He too started me on D.M.S.O.treatments, also known in my house as ” Mom is getting the stink treatment again..RUN!” Aafter several stink treatments with little results I quit going. Why bother? It didn’t help. Life went on and so did my average 40 minutes during the day and 6 – 12 times a night bathroom trips. This was my life. I knew nothing different. I often thought that I had been in the bathroom more times than all my family members combined..sad huh? My husband never complained. He would gladly stop whenever I needed to go.

This past July I thought about seeing the dr again. I wasn’t sure why, after all he hadn’t been able to help me in the past, but something told me to go. I had to find a new dr since my old one retired (probably on all that money he made giving me stink treatments, ha ha). The new dr seemed surprised when I told him I had I.C. He said “Oh, what makes you think you have that?” I told him my life’s story. He agreed that yes, I surely did have it and he also told me that he knows of no other patient that has lived with I.C. so long. I hold the “Office I.C. Record” ha ha. I am still waiting on my gold medal.

My new dr told me I was going to be very happy. I said “Oh yeah? And why is that”? He told me about Elmiron. I was excited. We started in bladder treatments that day. I came for them 3 times a week for 5 weeks, and I also take 4 – 100mg Elmirons a day. That first night I slept 5 hours straight!! I have NEVER done that before!! I was so happy. I did Elmiron instills for several months starting at 3 times a week then gradually to 2, then 1. Then once every 2 weeks. I haven’t had a treatment now for 5 weeks.. At last I feel normal, and that is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me! It is truly a miracle…no side effects at all. The first of Feb, the dr started me on Aloe Vera gel, 1/4 cup everyday, and 25 mgs of Hydroxizine at night..it’s working!!! My symptoms are all but gone! I pee 6 – 10 time a day now instead of 40 – 50!!! Sometimes, I even forget when the last time I peed was!!!

So, this is what being “Normal” is like? I like it, a lot! Painful sex is all I have ever known my entire life. It’s a lot better now, but still I get pressure during and afterwards, but no real pain to speak of. As far as the I.C. diet, I never heard of it before I found this website 6 months ago…..when people realize I have lived with I.C. for 38 years they ask me how I could stand it? I don’t know. It’s all I have ever known. I was not “Normal” first and then got it later in life, I have always had it. I tell people to imagine having a bad headache 24/7 for 38 years..sure it’s annoying and painful but you would still find a way to live your life.

When I told my dad how great I was doing with the bladder treatments and medicine, he told me “That’s good honey.” “You just need to get out of that bad habit of going to the bathroom so much.”

Lesa