Because Someone Has To

We need a female version of Lance, with IC of course.

I often wonder if people outside of the IC world think I am nutty. I mean really, why on earth would someone start a blog about a bladder disease? Do you want the short answer? Because someone has to. Women with IC are not represented. Prostate cancer has Lance Armstrong to speak for them. Parkinson's disease has Michael J. Fox. IC has no one, no one famous at least. There is not one celebrity out there willing to stand up and be the spokesperson for IC. 4 million Americans reportedly have IC, so you would think at least one of them would be a person in the spotlight, but so far no one is coming forward and offering herself up to be our leader. So until that time, regular people like me need to stick up for us IC gals.

Luckily, I am not alone. Although we lack celebrity representation, there is a large number of women not afraid to show their IC support on Facebook, Twitter, forums and more. Even though not one of us alone can have the same impact as someone like Lance Armstrong, together we can make an impact. We have a long and hard road a head of us, but what the public fails to realize is that having IC makes you tough. IC hurts. IC has no cure. People with IC fight everyday to live life, so we will continue to fight for media coverage, fight for awareness, fight for better medications, fight for a cure. 

No matter how much parts of the medical world want to ignore us, there are 4 million people out there in this  country that can support each other. So those of us who want to try and make a voice for IC patients everywhere are standing here together working to do the best we can to raise IC awareness with no funding, no charity walk and no celebrities. 

So that's why I blog about IC. Because someone has to. And I just want to take this moment to thank all the other ladies who have blogs and Twitter accounts and websites that fight for IC awareness. Together we can make a difference.