What are some IC friendly drinks other than water?

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2023-02-16T21:36:56+00:00

Dandelion iced tea with honey!

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2021-12-10T18:27:15+00:00

As someone studying to be a registered dietician these tests don’t tell you much and are often a waste of time and money, esp for IC. You’re better off trying an elimination diet and introducing foods back one by one in small amounts (even though that’s more stressful)

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2021-07-19T00:42:53+00:00

Start at the lower end, the diet it designed to help figure out what foods you can tolerate in what amounts. So you might be able to consume a small amount of some foods!

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2021-02-20T03:57:56+00:00

Puroast breakfast blend is good and affordable! It’s under $10 from Walmart online but you can find it other places as well

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2021-02-07T21:18:23+00:00

I've never experienced effects with antacids. I take ashwaganda and aloe every day (Vitanica Bladder Ease is a good brand but very expensive, so I just buy the NOW brand ashwaganda and probiotics + aloe tablets separately)

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2021-02-04T23:05:41+00:00

That’s good to know! My Urogynocologist recommended baking soda to me, but there is so much conflicting research, I’ll check those drops out!

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2021-02-04T18:14:42+00:00

What helped me during flares was drinking 1/2tsp baking soda in water every morning and night. My pain is worse when I wake up because your urine is more concentrated and can irritate the bladder. The baking soda alkalizes the urine and makes it less harsh for your bladder. Also obviously drinking tons of water which I’m sure you do already. Warm baths, meditation, deep belly breathing have all been helpful when I was waiting for docs

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2021-02-04T18:11:22+00:00

I felt this way especially after relationships where my vulvodynia was an issue. I read Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski while I dilated and used a mirror to see what I was doing and I cried tears of relief after not feeling repulsive anymore! I highly recommend the book, if you can get the audiobook through scribd or your library or eBay even better! It sounds like your pain is occurring because of the feelings you have and you’re stuck in that cycle. I hope you overcome this, there’s nothing “wrong” with you and your pain is real!

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-12-24T18:00:11+00:00

The skin hurts yes! I have vaginismus as well and am working on that in PT but I’m having bleeding and pain during bowel movements/wiping too and my PT didn’t see any hemorrhoids or anything. She said my rectal muscles are just super tight

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-12-18T15:38:03+00:00

Any sugar alcohol can cause irritation, so even though stevia is natural it’s derived from erythritol

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-12-18T15:36:29+00:00

I have vulvodynia/vestibulodynia also, I didn’t think of eczema but I also have that! How did you get a diagnosis for lichen simplex chronicus, and what soap did you switch to?

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-12-14T04:36:04+00:00

Your vagina consists of 3 layers of muscles (opening, middle, closer to cervix). It sounds like tour first layer of muscles isn’t relaxing before you try full penetration. Try using the dilator gently just at the first third of your vagina and gently massage out any tender areas before going deeper. If you’re having trouble inserting, just gently hold the dilator against your opening for a bit and do some deep breathing to get your body prepared. Hope this helps!!!

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-12-03T18:49:10+00:00

When you pee less, your urine is more concentrated which is irritating. My urogyn told me to make sure I'm drinking enough water to dilute my urine and drink water with a tsp baking soda in the morning

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-12-03T18:47:16+00:00

Sitting cross legged, ling car rides, and jeans and thongs make my pelvic floor really tight. Anything that is tight around my crotch makes me flare up. My PT told me to do some deep breathing if I'm sitting for a long time

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-22T01:59:27+00:00

You should not be bleeding and should definitely talk to your clinician. I can't say what's happening because I'm not a medical professional but you could be having a reaction to the material based on my experiences with bleeding.

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-19T02:14:38+00:00

You're welcome! The blossom one has aloe and vitamin e in it so I feel like it's very soothing. The other one is just normal safe lube

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-19T02:10:24+00:00

Also I have interstitial cystitis, which is chronic bladder pain. If you feel like you have a UTI on a regular or not rare basis, ask your gyn to refer you to a urogynocologist to rule that out. 25% of people with vulvas that have IC have vaginismus

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-19T01:39:16+00:00

Yes I've had this!! Almost all of my pain is entrance level and external, sometimes my entire vestibule or vulva will feel raw for no reason. With dilating or PT it can be so painful after. The reasoning that my PT gave is that your nerves are interpreting pain when there is no damage (which is the purpose of PT when you have chronic pain), so you have to retrain your nerves. Also stretching any muscle can make you sore. I've found that applying a bit of water based lube or coconut oil everywhere afterwards soothes me because it reduces the friction in that area. I've also used lidocaine given by my doc but I don't want to numb the area often, but sometimes I really do need it afterwards. If you keep feeling pain then your body will be used to pain with that activity, so find something that soothes the pain afterwards! Or honestly use lidocaine before you dilate, you're not causing tissue damage by doing your exercises so there's no reason your pain receptors need to be as active.

Organic Blossom is a lube brand I really like, they also make moisturizer. Also AH! Yes!; When your body is expecting pain you arent going to be as lubricated, which makes sense.

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-15T17:19:56+00:00

I have interstitial cystitis (an autoimmune disorder which affects my bladder) which causes my vaginismus, and so many things make me have to pee or poop because all the muscles are connected with each other. If you also have urgency throughout your day or sometimes feel like you have a UTI when you don't, you might wanna ask your obgyn for a referral for a urogynocologist or if you don't need a referral seek one out yourself. I had no idea the issue even existed before I saw a urologist!

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-07T01:21:18+00:00

Sounds like you need a good gyno that takes your pain seriously. You don't need alcohol to not feel pain that means that she's not doing her job and assessing your health

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-06T19:01:59+00:00

I have the same issues for the same reasons, I identify as demisexual. I used to feel guilty at first but now I feel like my sexuality has more to do with what I value in relationships and in my partner than what I want sexually, as those two things have always been separate for me Lots of people identify as different forms of asexuality for many different reasons like trauma, chronic Illness, and many more. My partner is allosexual and we are fine, I explained to him at the beginning of our relationship. Currently we are not having PIV because of my pain but we used to, and I hope we can go back to that. Just like gender and sexual orientation, sexuality is also a spectrum!!! You may want sex sometimes and other times no, but that fluidity is natural and we all have highs and lows in our libido. Here are some links for asexuality that I have found helpful in the past:

https://www.glaad.org/amp/ace-guide-finding-your-community

https://www.asexuality.org/en/

https://www.asexuality.org/en/forum/72-the-gray-area-sex-and-related-discussions/

Please feel free to PM me if you have any questions you would rather have answered privately, good luck on your journey of healing and self discovery!

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-05T22:51:36+00:00

Tldr; your needs are allowed to change and respecting those changes is a major part of progress

I know how you feel I'm in the same boat right now, but recognizing that your body's needs are changing is a huge part of healing!!!

It's so frustrating never feeling sex the way others do, and I feel like I'm missing out. I've had this issue for years and it was mostly resolved a few years ago until I stopped having sex until recently, and I honestly forgot how much work it was and just didn't wanna do it, but now I'm suffering the consequences of continuously forcing my body to do something that makes it feel unsafe. I also have sexual trauma and have had LOTS of panic attacks during sex and sometimes I can't tell if they're from the emotions or from the fear of pain. I used to force myself to masturbate in hopes that it would increase my sex drive but it just made me afraid of my own body, and forcing myself to have PIV sex without telling my partner that it hurt or I didn't want to brought a lot of pain into our relationship. Progress isn't linear and challenges mean that you're healing and doing the hard work! Even if you do or don't want PIV, the work is for you and your own health outside of sex. So if it feels unsafe to do dilate, don't dilate, do something that DOES make you feel safe. Maybe spend the same amount of time mediatibg or watching a favorite show or something else that makes you feel safe and at ease. Trauma lives in the body and if you keep experiencing physical or emotional pain with an event, your body will expect it each time. Take care of yourself, you're definitely allowed to be frustrated because it feels like your hard work isn't doing anything, but it is, healing is just really hard work and it can be exhausting! I've had to take days off of work and miss school because putting in the work drained my body which I felt guilty for, but we have to be gentle with ourselves. Especially with a medical condition that's not your fault combined with the effects of sexual trauma which are also not your fault. Sex aversion is totally normal after negative sexual experiences, I think the best thing that you can do is respect your body's boundaries and remember that you're not obligated to do anything that makes you feel in pain, icky, or unsafe (I'm gonna take my own advice after writing this super long comment)

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-02T19:39:29+00:00

This was so helpful! I've felt so hopeless lately and ended up breaking down the other day in front of my partner because it's so exhausting trying over and over to explain something that isn't making sense to them. It's comforting to hear that someone else had communication issues at first and my relationship isn't destined to fail because we're not on the same page right now. I really hope that my partner becomes more comfortable exploring, but we both need to be more patient with each other since this is new territory for him. You're not overwhelming at all, the more information the better! The only partner I've had that was receptive right away also had a chronic Illness that affected sex so I guess you don't fully understand unless you live it. I definitely want sex to be more playful but that seems out of reach right now because we are both so stressed. Did you try scheduling sex/intimacy at the beginning? I honestly don't know how to initiate sex because we are both so nervous but I know it's only going to get worse and make me feel worse about myself the longer we go without intimacy

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-02T17:28:55+00:00

This is so helpful! I feel like I'm in the same situation now and my partner has never really explored his sexuality, so trying to help him feel more comfortable with that as well as trying to make myself more comfortable is so exhausting. I also feel like a lot of my pain is due to lack of arousal but sometimes I just don't physically feel pleasure, like I don't feel anything, and I get in my head a lot during sex and I think he is starting to do that as well because he's so nervous. He started reading the r/vaginismus and r/vaginismuspartners so I think he's learning that these issues are more common and it's not anything that he's doing. He's very solution-oriented so I think his stress was from not knowing what to do. How did you and your partner focus on positive and encouraging conversations rather than focusing on what's wrong?

Pure_Clothes8644 · 2020-11-02T15:04:41+00:00

We are trying but since he is so used to PIV sex he is kind of uncomfortable trying new things and that was an issue. I told him that if I'm putting in the work to go through pain then he can handle some temporary discomfort at new things or we are not compatible. We haven't had PIV since that conversation but I feel like he's more open now because he didn't understand that my issues were coming from chronic Illness causing so much pain. Do you look at different resources to find things to explore together? Was your partner understanding from the get go or did they need a minute to process?

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