Thank You Redditors, You Gave Me Relief!
Hi everyone, I want to share a bit of positivity and truly thank you all for sharing your stories on here. Without you, I would have never found relief. Maybe mine will be able to help someone as well!
I started experiencing urgency in 2023 (I was 20) and talked with my primary care doctor about it who prescribed me some sort of med that would help. I never ended up taking it bc by the time I picked it up my symptoms were gone. I was able to ignore the symptoms for a while as they really weren’t that unbearable and they would happen months and months apart.
By the end of 2024 I was having episodes at least monthly and they were getting super painful. I was peeing just drops every hour and it burned so bad. Every time I had the feeling for needing to go to the bathroom I had to run or I would pee my pants (and it did happen). It ruined my life especially as a college senior, I never wanted to go anywhere and I felt hopeless.
I finally was able to be seen by a urogynocologist in May of 2025 and was diagnosed with IC. I found this Reddit and felt still really hopeless learning how broad the diagnosis is and seeing all of the people affected by it. I started with instillations which actually made the condition worse (I started waking up more frequently at night and it caused massive pain - even worse than a normal flare). My doctor said that was super rare. And I started taking meds and supplements for it.
In August 2025 I ended up in the hospital twice. Turns out I actually got a UTI which I didn’t realize bc I spent majority of the year with the same symptoms. It had spread to my kidneys and I had to be on some long term antibiotics.
In December 2025 I randomly came and visited this page, as I often did, and the first post was a woman talking about having nerve damage in her leg from a car accident which was causing her symptoms and pain management helped so much for her.
I felt hopeful for the first time in a longgggg time because back in 2021 I had torn my adductor muscle in my inner thigh while weightlifting and it had never healed right. When walking extensively, up and down hills especially, it would bother me quite a bit. I brought this up to my urologist but it was brushed off very quickly. At this point I was sick of being ignored and dismissed. I was sick of going to doctor’s appointments and answering the same 100 questions to 100 different people. I was sick of doctors saving little facts about me to connect more but somehow getting them wrong every time.
I found my own physical therapist thinking that if I could heal the injury then I could get rid of my IC. Or at least I could hike again. I ended up with a wonderful woman who also specialized in pelvic floor therapy which was an amazing mixture. My first session she completely agreed with me and we made a plan. I “graduated” PT in 3 months. I had a flare up after my second session that was particularly intense but that was back in late December. I don’t remember what a flare feels like at this point. Honestly I forgot this all happened until I found the draft of this post in my notes waiting for me to hit 6 months of being symptom free.
I had symptoms for 3 years. I got an IC diagnosis on my 22nd birthday and I am free on my 23rd.
Doctors suck. No one knows your body better than you. Seek answers. Advocate loudly for yourself, always, and FUCK IC.
I frequently think of all the people on here still suffering. I hope you find relief and I hope someone can benefit from this the way I benefited from you all.
Much love <3