Blame It on the Pain?

One thing that really sucks about having IC or any chronic illness is that sometimes it is hard to tell when you are getting sick. Ya know, not chronic pain sick, but "regular" people sick. If non-chronic pain people feel nauseous and dizzy they usually know they are getting the flu. Us IC people however have to deal with the never ending madness of never knowing when odd symptoms can strike us from our IC itself or from the plethora of medications that we have to take. 

Just because we have a chronic illness doesn't mean that we are exempt from regular illnesses. It can be difficult because we don't want to look paranoid by running to the doctor with every little ache or pain only to find out it is just a flare of one of our many conditions. But at the same time, we could put ourselves in jeopardy but not seeing a doctor if we truly are sick.

Urinary tract infections are especially tricky for us IC gals as we can feel like we have UTIs a lot of the time and when we are infection free.  Yet once in a blue moon, we will get a real UTI on top of our IC.  Home test strips are really no help.  Many IC patients can set them off with no infection due to the mysterious high white blood cell count in our urine.

This little problem just adds one more stress factor into our already complicated lives.

Where do we draw the line?  Personally, I say when in doubt, go to the doctor. It sucks because we all spend tons of money on our regularly scheduled visits and probably don't want to go to another appointment, but it is better to be safe than sorry.  If you are wrong about your symptoms and your doctor gives you hell about it, I say it's time to get a new doctor.