Goodbye my love

With a great deal of sadness, I must report that it has come time to say good-bye to the one thing that I can always depend on to make me feel better, the thing that keeps me moving through the day, the staple in my diet - my diet coke.

As many of you know, a part of my every-day living is dealing with pelvic pain - some days, I hardly notice it, others it is hard to ignore. Of course, as (also) many of you know, I have endometriosis, which can explain the pain. However, I have certain symptoms that it hasn't been able to explain. And I also tend to have chronic urinary tract infections that have gone unexplained. And of course, there is the issue of my early and constant contractions while I was pregnant, that were attributed to a chronic urinary tract infection and bladder spasms.

Well, today, as I was, again, dealing with this annoying pain that I am beginning to grow sick of, I began talking to the PA at my office and explaining my symptoms. She was already aware of my UTIs as she has been the one to write my prescriptions for the last couple. And so of course, within just minutes of talking to her about it, she suggested that I might have a condition called interstitial cystitis. Why have NONE of my other doctors even brought this up? I do not know. But she brought up a list of symptoms for this condition and as I read through the list, I could check off each one.

The downside to this story that has taken me way too long to tell - I cannot have ANY carbonation. Of course, with just my luck - carbonation only worsens the inflammation in the bladder and makes the symptoms worse. So after some lecturing from the PA and the doctor, I have had to come to accept the fact that I must say adieu to this dear friend of mine.