The Traveler's Woes

When you are young you think the transporting part of traveling is fun, especially if you are going on a plane. When you are older you tend to be more wise about the inconveniences and the sanitation ailments of an airport.  It is time that I finally realize and admit that airplanes are just not meant for my type of human body. It is rough. I do not mind flying in fact in some ways enjoy it but for some reason it seems that we are not compatible.

Generally speaking, no one really is a fan of airport food either because the overly-hiked prices or the stale, mass produced food.   I absolutely cannot say that I have ever met one person that enjoys standing in the long security line while being stripped by TSA of all their belongs.  Ewww and especially walking barefoot on that floor to get through the conveyor belt area.  Seriously, no fun.

Beyond the security and food personally I am an air traveler mess.  My body freezes every single time I step onto an airplane and I am instantly sick.  It only takes me about 30 minutes in the air before I have a sore throat and severely swollen glands when I am cold.  Therefore, I am forced to always travel with very thick socks and some sort of jacket.  I am thankful when there is a valid winter so that I can have an excuse to carry my Chicago coat throughout the airport.  Not that easy of a task each time I fly along the southern coast midst of summer without looking to alert the retail LP teams or homeland security.  Ugh so I just have to freeze those times.  Blankets don't cut it either.  I need to be bundled from head to toe.

Gosh and what about my curly hair woes.  Whoever individual was that thought it would be okay for us to have only 3 ounces of liquid in our carry-on bottles never had curly hair.  Three ounces of conditioner doesn't even begin to cover one half of my curly head.  Three ounces just might get me by in the shampoo department. Okay and then we have to discuss the after wash products.  Therefore, attempting to go with only carry-on luggage won't fly (no pun intended) unless I can get by without washing my hair for an extended period of time.  Not easy to do if there is a beach nearby. Sigh.  Sometimes it could be useful to just wait and go shopping after I've arrived but when I visit a small town the idea is not always available.

Oh geesh and my hands.  It has become a pain to travel now that my childhood eczema has resurfaced and taken over my hands.  Try adding in special soap and special lotion to your purse/carry-on limit in addition to the itch cream or creams in plural.  Haha maybe next decade I will be better for travel on a plane.

Now for the vehicle...So far I am okay.  I bring along my socks and I can control my own ventilation.  If I am the passenger I know to bring a blanket.  But there is a lot to be said about the various bathroom stops on a road trip.  I have learned to always stop at a chain grocery store with a gas station nearby.  Grocery stores like Publix, HEB, Randall's or Kroger's will likely have a cleaner bathroom than the disgust-o convenience stores.  Luckily, I can multi-task at the grocery store stop and grab some snacks or a road meal at the delicatessen.

I have seen some pretty terrible gas stations in my short amount of time.  South I-55 all through Mississippi and a portion of Louisiana the convenience store owners firmly do not believe in wasting money for hand soap in the bathrooms.  One year in college I drove down to Pass Christian, Mississippi to clean up the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. The caravan group stopped at a Wendy's to get food and use the facilities.  I instantly walked into the one person female bathroom and locked the door.  As soon as I turned around to locate the toilet I saw there were two commodes sitting side by side.  Both in perfect working order ready to be used at the same time.  So apparently in this location it is acceptable for women to share the air while doing their business at the same time.  Zero stall doors.  Haha.  Gross.

You really hope that the bathrooms are the worse things that road-trips can bring.  Try driving throughout the state of Louisiana were they will not commit to cleaning up the road hazards.  Up and down the streets shredded tires lay everywhere from were semi-trucks have blown out.  The department of transportation does not prioritize cleaning tire scraps up in a safe and timely manner along side many other weird things I've seen on the side of the road.  Certainly, you have heard of incidences were people have been killed because of road hazard negligence.  Famous Florida radio DJ Erika Roman died because she ran into a chair that wasn't properly strapped into another licensed driver's truck.  I have TWICE experienced a ladder fly out of vehicle going approximately 60 mph or more at me on the highway.   There is nothing that a bystander can do but swerve around the road and pray the ladder doesn't hit you or another car or that a car doesn't hit you or you hit them while swerving to avoid the rotten egg.  It is rare for a person to experience it one time, let alone twice.  Now when I drive, if there is a vehicle with a ladder strapped to the back I instantly go to the other lane.

With Angela O'

Interstitial Cystitis ~ The Disease I Live With Every Day

This is a very difficult disease.  Even my own family does not understand why I feel the way I do.  Only the person suffering from such a problem understands the ramifications of the flare ups.  I am writing this blog post only to share with those who don't understand what exactly Interstitial Cystitis is and how it affects those like me.  Hopefully, I can get mine under control soon.  I was diagnosed in 2007 with this debilitating disease but even as a teenager in the late 90's I showed signs.   Don't worry as I have spared you of the gory TMI details, but truth be told we deal with way more horror than what I have shared below.

Since September 2012 I have been suffering with the most recent flare up, very excruciating for the first few weeks.  I spent an entire weekend and a Friday half-day in bed unable to be comfortable in any position.   I remember exactly how this particular flare up started; While at work it felt as if toxins were creeping into my lower back and internal organs.  A stingy, heavy feeling that just washes over your entire abdomen and back and then up your lower throat.  All you feel like you could do is vomit, but the vomiting symptoms aren't there.  There is no regular nausea that you would get with the stomach flu or the after-effects of indulging in too much alcohol the night before, no the room isn't spinning.  It just seems like you only have a mixture of chlorine, ammonia, and other pesticides festering in your body that you just need to get out.  Oh yes the typical bladder infection systems are there too, the burning when going to the bathroom, the stinging before and after the bathroom, the bloated feeling and extreme sensitivity to pressure but none of the typical bladder infection symptoms compare to the exponential IC flare-ups.  The ones that you know there are no medical cure for.  NONE.

Gosh, I remember when I was first diagnosed in 2007 the medical team really didn't have a clue.  Don't get me wrong my Florida doctor practiced what he knew but it was really only to cover up the symptoms.  There was no discussion of correcting the problem or trying to heal the bladder.  At no fault of the doctors, there just was not much to be known at the time.  IC happened to be one of those newer chronic conditions and unless you were in a certain research group you just didn't know.   At that time I was put on a new drug that still hadn't been released to the pharmacy, Urelle manufactured by Pharmelle.  A little blueish-purple M&M-sized tablet that tasted super sweet the moment you put it on your tongue but then would gag you a second later if you didn't chase it with water fast enough.  I would have to go to the doctors office every 3 days or so to pick up a lunch-sized brown paper bag of sample packaged Urelle tables.  It was like two to a pack or something silly.  I was on bed rest for a week just to get my bladder to calm down before I was released to go back to work.  I had no idea what had happened.  All I knew was just one month prior I was suffering from one of my recurrent bladder infections that just would not go away with prescribed antibiotics.   One night John and I decided to throw a PJ party for our friends, fun post-college stuff where we served slightly spicy cheese dip from a crock pot, rice krispie treats, cupcakes, and whatever appealed to the young twenty-somethings.  During the festivities I would get a little bit of a tummy ache so I would try to counteract by eating the opposite of what I just ate.  If I had just had sweet I better eat savory.  Nothing serious but I was still in the young and dumb student handbook of the tummy ailments stage.  After the party was over we went to bed my tummy was definitely worn out but I went right to sleep.  Sometime in the middle of the night I woke up with the sharpest, most riveting stomach pains I had ever had.  Oh gosh they burned and it gave me chills at the same time.  After some time they went away and I just pretended they never happened.  But over the next two months I suffered repeatedly again and again.  We found out later that I especially fell victim if I ate Caeser dressing, my only desired salad topping of choice.  I would be sitting on the couch watching tv or doing a craft project after dinner and then I would get the smallest tummy grumble accompanied by some heat.  Within the next twenty minutes I would be sweating and shivering at the same time.  John would do whatever he could to comfort me but there was nothing to be done but let it pass on its own.  

Early in the fall that year I went under a non-surgical procedure called a hydrodistention with cystoscopy where they take a camera inside you to look at the bladder walls.  Since John had to work, my future mother-in-law offered to take me in for this procedure as I would have to go under anesthesia.   So I signed over my paperwork so that the doctor could speak with her while I was still very much influenced by the sleeping drug.  Unfortunately, doing so made my unknown situation much more worse as stress is also a common factor that triggers flare-ups.  The doctor had explained to my future mother-in-law that he did not detect any tears or scrapes in the bladder wall and that was all that could be done for now.  Sadly, my mother-in-law took it to a whole new level by insinuating that all along I knew there was nothing wrong and that it was in my head and for the next two months she played the meanest games regarding my health and my future husband and so forth.  It only added tears, stress and heartbreak to a situation that my doctor or I did not even know how to handle.    At that point all I knew was that if I continued to take the medicine that was helping my bladder and myself function through the day I would continued to be ridiculed by somewhere very near me.  So I stopped, and somehow after several months of looking miserable from the outside and feeling disgusting on the inside my body started to get better.  Almost a year had passed before I was experiencing the burning again which coincidentally  happened to midst of summer all over.  From then on over the years of 2008 to 2011, I would suffer with awful bladder spasms for weeks at a time where I would then try to encourage the alleviation by popping a few leftover Urelle from the last prescription I ever filled.  

In 2010,  we moved to Texas and we were fine.  Who knows why, because we weren't on insurance and God knew we couldn't take on any doctor bills? Or possibly because John and I would go days without eating meat in our lunches and dinners?  Who knew? I sure didn't but I was thankful that I wasn't suffering.  Then in the summer of 2011 with record high temperatures soaring in Texas my pain started all over again.  I went to the local general practitioner and was treated for bladder infection that did not respond to the antibiotics.  Finally, the GP looked up what my old urologist prescribed and gave me a one month script of the Urelle.  My health insurance hadn't kicked in yet so I was going to pay out of pocket.  120 pills was going to cost me over $350!  Little did I know the prices would get worse over the years.  Luckily my health insurance was going to kick in like 4 days time, so I picked up the only pills the pharmacy had available (10 or so) and waited it out till the co-pay picked up the rest.    The weather cooled down and so did my IC but the spasms didn't stop when winter came.  

In the summer of 2011, only a few months before I permanently moved to Austin to live with my husband my suffering started again.  The same bloating, pain, back cramping, etc.  Nothing new, the same old pain.  Only I couldn't sit straight up in the office chair.  Great.  Back to the general practitioner as it was a tiny town and no urologists were around.  Besides even if there were some I didn't just want to be sent to a referral doctor.  I needed to do my research and find a doctor who was passionate about finding the correct balance for my body to fight this.   That is when I met Dr. Singh  also known as The IC King in Austin, Texas.  Thankfully he has been able to shed much more light on this disease (some call it a syndrome) for me.  He has helped me pin point some specific foods that trigger flare-ups (as to why I can no longer red sauce, a tomato allergy!) but more importantly he has helped me understand why and what I need to watch out for.  Now of course I am not cured and am still suffering from one of the worst flare ups that I have ever had but he has definitely helped me.  

Just this summer my husband was laid off in the round of mass lay-offs that hit the Game Developer Industry, the hardest city hit...Austin.  There went the health insurance again and unfortunately it meant that the one medicine that I figured out that literally cured my issue (or at least controlled my symptoms while readily consuming it) was going to jump to over $980 per month.  Yes that is right, the one thing that helps control this disease/syndrome is $1,000 a month because of our darn U.S. pharmaceutical companies greed.   So in September when the Elmiron (Pentosan polysulfate sodium) completely ran out of my system I was chucking down my throat two tablespoons of baking soda and 8 ounces of aloe vera juice every day along with using a constant 3xday supply of Pyridium.  Pyridium you shouldn't be on long term, it only covers the symptoms so that there is less suffering but what was I supposed to do?   Eventually I had to quit the baking soda as I was having dizziness and nausea just from that.  I have since learned to increase my aloe vera juice intake whenever I feel that my body has become too acidic.

Today I am still suffering from the same flare up but luckily for the time being I was able to get some Elmiron  in hopes that the bladder can start a healing process.  Of course it still requires  narcotic-like pain relievers when I am at my worst and constant consumption of aloe vera juice.  I don't think I will ever be able to stop drinking that nasty liquid.  I have to do 6 shots each day minimum and then chase it with a tiny sip of peach nectar to get the bitterness out of my mouth.  Regardless it is all awful and tonight I feel like my body is doing a 180 towards the darkside but I just have to deal.  I am now researching the great possibility of gluten intolerance and animal protein intolerance (which means a meatless diet) with the IC and Sjogrens, another syndrome/disease I have, both Auto-Immune Disorders.  There has been some small talk that gluten has been directly related to IC flare-ups, just in a different way than the typical GF individuals that the body has proclaimed its revolt.  In addition, I am hoping that will kick the mind-bending cramps that I get the week following the mensies, which have been off and on since 2006.  I know that it is not the typical problem for most women.

I included some links and more information below so that you get a better understanding what is going on.  But the biggest misconception in all bladder chit-chat that I would like to clear up is that cranberry juice is absolutely horrible for you.  If you have ever suffered from reoccuring bladder infections do not take the stuff.  It is way to acidic for your body and it will cause more damage than good.  

What I am currently researching regarding IC ??

- Gluten Intolerance?

- Sugar Intolerance?

- Alkaline Forming Foods
- Acid Forming Foods in the Digestion Process

http://www.ic-network.com/whatisinterstitialcystitis/

http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseases/pubs/interstitialcystitis/

http://wellbladder.com/bladder_symptoms__gluten_sensitivity

http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/1001/p1199.html

"Interstitial cystitis is a chronic, severely debilitating disease of the urinary bladder. Excessive urgency and frequency of urination, suprapubic pain, dyspareunia, chronic pelvic pain and negative urine cultures are characteristic of interstitial cystitis. The course of the disease is usually marked by flare-ups and remissions. " ... "Referral to a support group should be offered to all patients with interstitial cystitis." ~ from http://www.aafp.org/afp/2001/1001/p1199.html