(Sorry this is a very long winded post.)
Hey guys,
So I’ve been on this Reddit page for nearly 9 months, as I believe I have IC but I’m not 100% sure and I just need some help.
I’m a 20F in the uk, and I’ve had this condition/issue for the last nine months, from mid September till now, that was triggered by a UTI and this was the second UTI I’ve ever had in my life, but was within a month of getting my first one, and was triggered by solo sexual activity. In the beginning, I have really bad urgency and we go to the toilet like anywhere between four times in five minutes to once every 10 minutes or so, and I would have to go to the toilet literally back to back, but I had no bladder pain whatsoever but I had really bad back pain, and this lasted until about November, which is when I was last positive and since then I have been UTI free, and my symptoms majorly improved after I changed my diet after Christmas and figured out what some of my triggers were, and since then I’ve been able to go out short distances again and eat a bit more freely in someways in the last few months, and start thinking about integrating into society in some ways by going to the gym and just trying to get out more and used to being around people and outside again, now I just wanna note while I don’t have any bladder pain, generally I do have moderate to severe back pain that I would class as chronic pain as it’s always there, but is it different levels each day, and I feel this in my flank area/lower back, under the ribs, along my spine and sometimes radiates up my upper back, which makes me think that I don’t have ic as the main symptom of this condition is bladder pain, which I primarily don’t have unless I masturbate which causes stabbing pain in my belly button, a painful sort of twitching in my urethra, and the odd sort of stabbing pain in my bladder, and only certain foods trigger me, but I don’t get a full flare like I’ve seen people describe on here, I just get increased back pain and and small stabbing pain sometimes in my belly button, but usually this will go away in a few hours or even minutes if I’m lucky, from just downing some water.
This has made me think that I most likely have an overactive bladder, combined with a hypertonic pelvic floor, because it doesn’t seem like my symptoms are aligning with IC (I have avoided all major triggers like anything acidic, anything with artificial sweeteners, anything anything spicy, chocolate, anything containing soy, etc etc… so I still have access to a good amount of food options and treat, but I’ve also cut off a lot of things purely for precautionary as well.) However, about four days ago, I decided to test my sensitivity to alcohol and I had two vodka shots (which I was initially very anxious about anyway, so that probably is a contributing factor to be honest), and I spaced these both out, and I followed this by a pint of water immediately after the shot, and I felt completely fine and I didn’t drink anymore after that just to be safe, and I thought everything was all good, until two days ago, which I just wanna add I got a tattoo two days ago and this was a fairly large one on my shoulder and it only took about an hour and a half, so it wasn’t anything too crazy and I don’t think this contributed to anything as I’ve seen no evidence anywhere to suggest that tattoos and Ic have much of a link, but anyway, in the evening after my I started noticing that I was having painful urination and I immediately for oh maybe I was triggered by the tattoo, and I’m just having a sort of mini flareup and if I just drink some more water it will be fine and go away, which it did initially and then yesterday when I went to the toilet in the morning, the first thing I noticed was the painful urination, and that stabbing feeling in my stomach and feeling like a tugging sensation from my bladder to my belly button, and abdominal pain and a low-grade pain in like my mound area, and immediately I’ve done stressing and thinking I have a UTI or that my tattoo had flared me, but neither of these options made sense as I’m not generally prone to UTIs without a specific trigger, which for me is sexual activity with any sort of like toy, otherwise I don’t get UTIs at all, and the tattoo being the cause is very unlikely, so the only other cause that I can think of for this sudden onset of pain is that I’m having my first proper flareup and not a low-grade one like I have before, and I took two paracetamol for it, which reduced the pain and made it bearable to go to the toilet, but didn’t fully get rid of it, and today I am still in pain, but on a slightly lower level than yesterday, but it’s making me think that I might actually have IC again and not an overactive bladder with Pelvic floor dysfunction like I had believed, and it’s been very hard to distinguish the two, even my doctors are struggling to figure out what one it is, most of them believe that it’s IC and that’s the most likely option or that it could be an overactive bladder with PF issue but because my symptoms don’t align completely with I see it’s very hard to pinpoint, and especially as I do not want to do cystoscopy.
So can anyone help me figure out what this is? Is what I’m going through an IC flare? Does my condition align more with IC or more with an overactive bladder and Pelvic floor dysfunction? How long should I expect what I can only assume is a flare, to last?