After the past few days of being consumed with dealing with my IC I decided to post some new developments.
Three days ago (I think that's how long it's been
) I decided to try and go off of the pain killer I was using to survive my IC pain at night. I was/am taking Ultram. I chose it over other things because it's a hydrochloride, not an opiate and I was told there would be no physical addiction or withdrawal issues as my body healed. Okay, first, that was a lie. Thankfully, it's_Gwen knew enough to explain this to me.
My goal was to go without the pain meds to see just where my pain level was/is so I could see how much I am or am not healing after 5yrs of gentle cleansing, diet changes, etc. The experiment didn't go well (pain all night, no sleep) which sent me into a tizzy to fix this. Along with the discouragement that goes with the pain.
Gwen is THE research queen.
She found beebalm is the plant version of oil of oregano which was too strong for me to handle. I was able to find a place on the web that sells the dried flower and I'm waiting to hear back from them. I also went back to my marshmellow root tea which I have done off and on for years. I generally drank it in the AM because I was using water to dilute my urine all day in the hopes it would not burn my bladder at night. Last night I drank 2 cups of marshmellow root tea with 2 tsps (or 1 - I can't remember) of aloe vera juice in it. By the end of the second cup I had total comfort!
Gwen reminded me several times I have to go off the ultram slowly but being tiny capsules I had no way of cutting them in half. My husband had me open the capsules and put each half in an empty 00 capsule. I thereby took 1/2 of the capsules. I started out five years ago taking 100mg and last night took something less then 50. I have no idea how much because I had to guess on what was going into each half. When I took a 1/2 tonight I noticed I still had great discomfort until I got my 2 cups of marshmellow root and aloe in me. Again, instant relief. At this point, I'm using the smaller dose ultram only to prevent withdrawal as the marshmellow root and aloe appears to be working pretty much on it's own. Haven't asked Gwen yet,
but expect to stay on the 1/2 ultram for another 3 or 4 days before completely cutting it out. Hoping that will be enough to prevent withdrawal symptoms or bounce back pain.
So had to tell you folks with IC, marshmellow root and aloe vera are giving me fantastic relief! In the beginning they didn't work but after years of cleansing, diet, etc. it's now enough to do it. If you haven't tried it, do so. And it doesn't taste bad with a tsp. of raw agave.
Right now I'm doing two mugs in the AM and two or three in the PM. I would think that whatever time of day is your worst (or all day long) would be the time to use it. For me it's nighttime.
patti
