IC Success Story: Lisa King
Today's interstitial cystitis success story will be a feature on Lisa King in the United States. Read her triumphant story below.
I am so grateful to be here to share my Interstitial Cystitis Journey to healing! My hope in sharing my story is that there is HOPE for healing and that if I could heal my bladder that you too have the ability to tap into the healing power within your own body. I know at times this may seem difficult or unbelievable but I have been through exactly what you are going through and I want to share that although at times it is frustrating because healing may seem slow; you can live pain free and be able to live your life in the way that you desire once again.
My name is Lisa King and I was diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis 25 years ago. Looking back, I always had bladder issues. Even as a child, we would always be stopping on road trips so I could go to the bathroom or I would be asking my mother to take me to the bathroom while we were out and about during the day. When I was in college, I started getting more and more “Urinary Tract Infections” . I actually do not think they were infections but IC flares. I would go to the doctor and they would say, “ You do not have any bacteria in your urine but you do have blood so we will start you on an antibiotic.”
This went on for close to ten years. My mother always had recurrent UTI’s so I just believed that I had the same. Although these “UTI’S” were uncomfortable, I could live and function around them. I then went to a new urologist who diagnosed me with Interstitial Cystitis. I was so happy to have a diagnosis , as are most people living with a chronic condition, and with my new IC diet in hand I knew I was going to be able to conquer this painful bladder syndrome,
UNTIL EVERYTHING CHANGED.
My new doctor performed a bladder distension on me and upon waking up I knew that something was horribly wrong. I was in such severe pain it was incredible. I could barely walk never mind carry my one year old who was not yet walking. The pain was horrific and I could barely get through my days. On the outside it looked like I was living a story book life. I was married to my high school sweetheart. I had two little boys aged 4 and 1 and I was practicing pharmacy and had been a pharmacist for about 5 years at the time. As much as the cover of my story book look perfect, when you opened the pages you would see a mom in so much pain she could barely even leave the house never mind go grocery shopping nor take her boys to the park. You would see a wife who could barely tend to herself nevermind her husband and date nights to the movies or accompanying my husband to business dinners was completely out of the question. I did reduce my hours at work but continued to work and could barely keep up while I was at the pharmacy. I was in the bathroom every 15 minutes. I was in pain, frustrated and exhausted from being up about 10 times per night at the least to use the bathroom.
I stuck to the Interstitial Cystitis Diet and also started taking Elmiron. I had bladder instillations of DMSO or Heparin into my bladder several days per week. I was always in the doctor’s office instead of living my life the way I wanted. I went from doctor to doctor and even at one point a doctor at a major US Clinic in my city told me that I had the worst case of IC that he had ever seen. Despite that fact, I began slowly healing and was back to my version of normal in about 2 years. I then started becoming a bit more lax with my diet and upon catching a cold started taking high doses of Vitamin C ( a total no-no for anyone with IC). At this time I thought my initial bladder flare was a one time occurance and did not realize it could come back again but it did WITH A VENGEANCE.
This time around I was so distraught I was having panic attacks anytime I was in a car when I wasn’t the one driving because I needed to be in control of the bathroom situation. My boys were a bit older and they had activities after school that I had to have someone attend with me so I could stay in the bathroom while my mother, mother in law or husband watched the boys. I knew something had to change and while I was back to sticking with the Interstitial Cystitis Diet and medication I was open to new options for healing and that brings me to what I would like to share with you today.
When I healed my bladder after my second bladder flare I put IC in the past. I wanted nothing to do with it. I was still very cautious with my bladder and did not eat spicy, acidic foods or drink alcohol but I was done. I would continue to follow the IC diet but I was more than happy it was gone. I thanked the experience for making me a better and more compassionate pharmacist and then moved on, UNTIL LAST YEAR.
Last year my sister and I wrote a book called Tiny Life Changes. When I started posting about the book or was a guest on podcasts I would sometimes get comments from people saying things like “ You have a positive outlook because you have never had any health scares or a difficult diagnosis.” I knew this was absolutely not the case because I had lived many, many years with chronic pain. I knew I had to share my story and then I started sharing more and more about my IC journey and how I healed my bladder in order to give HOPE to others with chronic illness. As I started sharing more and more, I realized that it truly is my passion to help other women heal from this painful bladder syndrome. While I follow the IC diet to this day, I have also incorporated many other changes into my routine such as an anti-inflammatory/ alkaline vs acidic diet. I have also reduced toxins in my skin care and environment ( the bladder is a receptacle for detoxing upon urination) and reducing toxins that will irritate your bladder and cause more irritation has been very effective for me to prevent further flares.
Self care, a mind set of healing and meditation have been essential in my total healing journey. I know at times this is difficult, I know IC is frustrating, stressful and can cause anxiety. I have been there! If you are open to new ways of healing please read on because these methods truly worked for me and I know they can help you too.
Upon my second flare, I started doing healing meditation. I would take about 20 minutes per day to take time for rest and to visualize my bladder healed and healthy. I would do this every single day before I picked my boys up from school. I still to this day fall asleep at night to this method.
Take a deep breath through your nose and picture a healing light come into your body. The light I picture is yellow but it can be any color. Breath in for a count of three. Let the light swirl into your bladder and visualize your bladder pink and healthy. On the exhale of three breath out of your nose.
This healing meditation will bring oxygen into your body and you will breath out carbon dioxide as a natural detox method to healing. Take your calendar now and see when you can carve out some time for this meditation at least 20 minutes per day. Do not overlook this as an extra thing to do but an essential part of healing. Continually ask your body what it needs. If you need to rest, then rest. If you need to sleep then sleep. As an aside, a 2013 study shows that melatonin improves bladder symptoms and may ameliorate bladder damage so I recommend incorporating melatonin into your night time routine. It will help you sleep and also potentially alleviate bladder pain.
While I consider my bladder to be healed for over 20 years now and medication free for almost 16 years ( I had my youngest son 15 years ago and went off all medication) ; I will be transparent in saying I did have a slight bladder flare last year after trying to go grain free and incorporating way too many nuts in my diet. With this healing technique my bladder irritation lasted about 2 weeks as opposed to more than 2 years in the past of excruciating pain that I had experienced in the past.
As a life coach, I am a big believer in affirmations. I have created a list of affirmations to speak over your bladder healing and health. Affirmations are a powerful tool to help shift your mindset and I also incorporate other mindset techniques with my clients to help them turn their thoughts around from frustration to hope.
A University of Pennsylvania study showed that people who say affirmations have a greater activation in their brain to expect and receive the rewards they are seeking. Use these affirmations daily and visualize your bladder healed, going out to dinner, vacationing, living without pain. Choose affirmations that you find to be believable and then you can step up the level of what you believe as you continue saying these affirmations daily. Tune into your body and trust that you are doing all that is needed to heal your bladder. It can sometimes take longer than you would like but you are moving forward in healing. Trust and believe that for yourself!
Here is a portion of the list of affirmations I have created for bladder healing. Feel free to add to this list with your own.
I am healing.
I am positive I can change my life when it comes to healing my bladder.
I am grateful for the opportunity to heal my bladder.
I am thankful I am moving forward with healing.
I am resourceful when taking steps towards healing my bladder.
I am persistent in taking the steps needed to heal my bladder.
I am resilient and will keep moving forward in my healing journey.
I am inspired to live the life I desire free from bladder pain.
I am motivated to make the changes needed to heal my bladder.
I can do this.
I am capable of taking the steps needed to heal my bladder pain.
I will achieve my goal of healing my body.
I will live the life I have imagined and heal my body.
I will make the most of each day and do something to fill my cup despite my bladder pain.
I will take the steps necessary to heal my bladder even if it is just a tiny step on some days.
I will give myself permission for a redo and get back on course if I fall off course in my healing journey.
I will keep moving forward.
I am worth it!
You are worth it! You deserve to live a long, fulfilled and pain free life! I wish everyone the best on their journey to complete healing. I am happy to answer any questions as well.
Lisa King was diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis 25 years ago. She has been practicing pharmacy for 31 years. She is also a Certified Life Coach and Co-Author of the Amazon Best Selling Book Tiny Life Changes. She is passionate about empowering others to live a fulfilled life and can be reached at The Fulfilled Pharmacist on Instagram and Facebook or Lisa@tinylifechanges.com
To read more interstitial cystitis cures by other patients on my blog, visit my category "Success Stories".
If you are an Interstitial Cystitis patient or long-term UTI patient who has healed, please send your success stories to me on Instagram at @vancouverutigirl so I can publish it to give hope to others! You can choose to send anonymously as well, but I must be able to verify that you are real. This is to avoid false stories from urology clinics pretending to be healed patients. Thanks.
I am so grateful to be here to share my Interstitial Cystitis Journey to healing! My hope in sharing my story is that there is HOPE for healing and that if I could heal my bladder that you too have the ability to tap into the healing power within your own body. I know at times this may seem difficult or unbelievable but I have been through exactly what you are going through and I want to share that although at times it is frustrating because healing may seem slow; you can live pain free and be able to live your life in the way that you desire once again.
My name is Lisa King and I was diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis 25 years ago. Looking back, I always had bladder issues. Even as a child, we would always be stopping on road trips so I could go to the bathroom or I would be asking my mother to take me to the bathroom while we were out and about during the day. When I was in college, I started getting more and more “Urinary Tract Infections” . I actually do not think they were infections but IC flares. I would go to the doctor and they would say, “ You do not have any bacteria in your urine but you do have blood so we will start you on an antibiotic.”
This went on for close to ten years. My mother always had recurrent UTI’s so I just believed that I had the same. Although these “UTI’S” were uncomfortable, I could live and function around them. I then went to a new urologist who diagnosed me with Interstitial Cystitis. I was so happy to have a diagnosis , as are most people living with a chronic condition, and with my new IC diet in hand I knew I was going to be able to conquer this painful bladder syndrome,
UNTIL EVERYTHING CHANGED.
My new doctor performed a bladder distension on me and upon waking up I knew that something was horribly wrong. I was in such severe pain it was incredible. I could barely walk never mind carry my one year old who was not yet walking. The pain was horrific and I could barely get through my days. On the outside it looked like I was living a story book life. I was married to my high school sweetheart. I had two little boys aged 4 and 1 and I was practicing pharmacy and had been a pharmacist for about 5 years at the time. As much as the cover of my story book look perfect, when you opened the pages you would see a mom in so much pain she could barely even leave the house never mind go grocery shopping nor take her boys to the park. You would see a wife who could barely tend to herself nevermind her husband and date nights to the movies or accompanying my husband to business dinners was completely out of the question. I did reduce my hours at work but continued to work and could barely keep up while I was at the pharmacy. I was in the bathroom every 15 minutes. I was in pain, frustrated and exhausted from being up about 10 times per night at the least to use the bathroom.
I stuck to the Interstitial Cystitis Diet and also started taking Elmiron. I had bladder instillations of DMSO or Heparin into my bladder several days per week. I was always in the doctor’s office instead of living my life the way I wanted. I went from doctor to doctor and even at one point a doctor at a major US Clinic in my city told me that I had the worst case of IC that he had ever seen. Despite that fact, I began slowly healing and was back to my version of normal in about 2 years. I then started becoming a bit more lax with my diet and upon catching a cold started taking high doses of Vitamin C ( a total no-no for anyone with IC). At this time I thought my initial bladder flare was a one time occurance and did not realize it could come back again but it did WITH A VENGEANCE.
This time around I was so distraught I was having panic attacks anytime I was in a car when I wasn’t the one driving because I needed to be in control of the bathroom situation. My boys were a bit older and they had activities after school that I had to have someone attend with me so I could stay in the bathroom while my mother, mother in law or husband watched the boys. I knew something had to change and while I was back to sticking with the Interstitial Cystitis Diet and medication I was open to new options for healing and that brings me to what I would like to share with you today.
When I healed my bladder after my second bladder flare I put IC in the past. I wanted nothing to do with it. I was still very cautious with my bladder and did not eat spicy, acidic foods or drink alcohol but I was done. I would continue to follow the IC diet but I was more than happy it was gone. I thanked the experience for making me a better and more compassionate pharmacist and then moved on, UNTIL LAST YEAR.
Last year my sister and I wrote a book called Tiny Life Changes. When I started posting about the book or was a guest on podcasts I would sometimes get comments from people saying things like “ You have a positive outlook because you have never had any health scares or a difficult diagnosis.” I knew this was absolutely not the case because I had lived many, many years with chronic pain. I knew I had to share my story and then I started sharing more and more about my IC journey and how I healed my bladder in order to give HOPE to others with chronic illness. As I started sharing more and more, I realized that it truly is my passion to help other women heal from this painful bladder syndrome. While I follow the IC diet to this day, I have also incorporated many other changes into my routine such as an anti-inflammatory/ alkaline vs acidic diet. I have also reduced toxins in my skin care and environment ( the bladder is a receptacle for detoxing upon urination) and reducing toxins that will irritate your bladder and cause more irritation has been very effective for me to prevent further flares.
Self care, a mind set of healing and meditation have been essential in my total healing journey. I know at times this is difficult, I know IC is frustrating, stressful and can cause anxiety. I have been there! If you are open to new ways of healing please read on because these methods truly worked for me and I know they can help you too.
Upon my second flare, I started doing healing meditation. I would take about 20 minutes per day to take time for rest and to visualize my bladder healed and healthy. I would do this every single day before I picked my boys up from school. I still to this day fall asleep at night to this method.
Take a deep breath through your nose and picture a healing light come into your body. The light I picture is yellow but it can be any color. Breath in for a count of three. Let the light swirl into your bladder and visualize your bladder pink and healthy. On the exhale of three breath out of your nose.
This healing meditation will bring oxygen into your body and you will breath out carbon dioxide as a natural detox method to healing. Take your calendar now and see when you can carve out some time for this meditation at least 20 minutes per day. Do not overlook this as an extra thing to do but an essential part of healing. Continually ask your body what it needs. If you need to rest, then rest. If you need to sleep then sleep. As an aside, a 2013 study shows that melatonin improves bladder symptoms and may ameliorate bladder damage so I recommend incorporating melatonin into your night time routine. It will help you sleep and also potentially alleviate bladder pain.
While I consider my bladder to be healed for over 20 years now and medication free for almost 16 years ( I had my youngest son 15 years ago and went off all medication) ; I will be transparent in saying I did have a slight bladder flare last year after trying to go grain free and incorporating way too many nuts in my diet. With this healing technique my bladder irritation lasted about 2 weeks as opposed to more than 2 years in the past of excruciating pain that I had experienced in the past.
As a life coach, I am a big believer in affirmations. I have created a list of affirmations to speak over your bladder healing and health. Affirmations are a powerful tool to help shift your mindset and I also incorporate other mindset techniques with my clients to help them turn their thoughts around from frustration to hope.
A University of Pennsylvania study showed that people who say affirmations have a greater activation in their brain to expect and receive the rewards they are seeking. Use these affirmations daily and visualize your bladder healed, going out to dinner, vacationing, living without pain. Choose affirmations that you find to be believable and then you can step up the level of what you believe as you continue saying these affirmations daily. Tune into your body and trust that you are doing all that is needed to heal your bladder. It can sometimes take longer than you would like but you are moving forward in healing. Trust and believe that for yourself!
Here is a portion of the list of affirmations I have created for bladder healing. Feel free to add to this list with your own.
I am healing.
I am positive I can change my life when it comes to healing my bladder.
I am grateful for the opportunity to heal my bladder.
I am thankful I am moving forward with healing.
I am resourceful when taking steps towards healing my bladder.
I am persistent in taking the steps needed to heal my bladder.
I am resilient and will keep moving forward in my healing journey.
I am inspired to live the life I desire free from bladder pain.
I am motivated to make the changes needed to heal my bladder.
I can do this.
I am capable of taking the steps needed to heal my bladder pain.
I will achieve my goal of healing my body.
I will live the life I have imagined and heal my body.
I will make the most of each day and do something to fill my cup despite my bladder pain.
I will take the steps necessary to heal my bladder even if it is just a tiny step on some days.
I will give myself permission for a redo and get back on course if I fall off course in my healing journey.
I will keep moving forward.
I am worth it!
You are worth it! You deserve to live a long, fulfilled and pain free life! I wish everyone the best on their journey to complete healing. I am happy to answer any questions as well.
Lisa King was diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis 25 years ago. She has been practicing pharmacy for 31 years. She is also a Certified Life Coach and Co-Author of the Amazon Best Selling Book Tiny Life Changes. She is passionate about empowering others to live a fulfilled life and can be reached at The Fulfilled Pharmacist on Instagram and Facebook or Lisa@tinylifechanges.com
To read more interstitial cystitis cures by other patients on my blog, visit my category "Success Stories".
If you are an Interstitial Cystitis patient or long-term UTI patient who has healed, please send your success stories to me on Instagram at @vancouverutigirl so I can publish it to give hope to others! You can choose to send anonymously as well, but I must be able to verify that you are real. This is to avoid false stories from urology clinics pretending to be healed patients. Thanks.