IC Awareness Daily Fact #27 – Pain of Interstitial Cystitis As Severe As Cancer Pain
While pain is not always a symptom in IC, for the men and women who have it, it can be agonizing, as if razors are cutting our bladders. Yet, for years, patients have been told that it’s all in their heads and that they just need to ignore the pain. Hogwash!! Would you deny a cancer patient pain care?? Of course not. The pain of interstitial cystitis has been rated equivalent to cancer pain and deserves urgent, compassionate treatment.
Each patient faces three challenges:
(1) They must learn to differentiate the type of flare/pain they are having. (i.e. the bladder wall vs the pelvic floor vs. other organs in the pelvis). Bladder wall flares are treated very differently than pelvic floor flares.
(2) They must learn to catch and treat flare/pain as early as possible, ideally with self-help strategies, OTC products and, if needed, more aggressive pain therapies.
(3) They must try to prevent future bladder and pelvic floor flares by following key self-help strategies (i.e. diet modification, etc)
Learn how in the ICN’s Bladder & Pelvic Pain Resource Center!
By Jill Osborne|2017-01-31T11:02:41-08:00September 27th, 2014|Awareness, Our Blog|Comments Off on IC Awareness Daily Fact #27 – Pain of Interstitial Cystitis As Severe As Cancer Pain
About the Author: Jill Osborne
My Google Profile+ Jill Heidi Osborne is the president and founder of the Interstitial Cystitis Network, a health education company dedicated to interstitial cystitis, bladder pain syndrome and other pelvic pain disorders. As the editor and lead author of the ICN and the IC Optimist magazine, Jill is proud of the academic recognition that her website has achieved. The University of London rated the ICN as the top IC website for accuracy, credibility, readability and quality. (Int Urogynecol J - April 2013). Harvard Medical School rated both Medscape and the ICN as the top two websites dedicated to IC. (Urology - Sept 11). For many years, Jill served on the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Panel (US Army) where she collaborated with researchers to evaluate new IC research studies for possible funding. Jill has conducted and/or collaborates on a variety of IC research studies on new therapeutics, pain care, sexuality, the use of medical marijuana, menopause and the cost of treatments, shining a light on issues that influence patient quality of life. An IC support group leader and national spokesperson for the past 20 years, she has represented the IC community on radio, TV shows, at medical conferences. She has written hundreds of articles on IC and its related conditions. Jill has a Bachelors Degree in Pharmacology and a Masters in Psychology, Jill was named Presidential Management Intern (aka Fellowship) while in graduate school. (She was unable to earn her PhD due to the onset of her IC.) She spends the majority of her time providing WELLNESS COACHING for patients in need and developing new, internet based educational and support tools for IC patients, including new live IC Support Group Meetings via Youtube and the “Living with IC” video series. Jill was diagnosed with IC at the age of 32 but first showed symptoms at the age of 12.
