Where I’m At in The Next Phase Of My Health Journey

You might remember that a while ago I talked about taking my health journey to the next level. I had pain-free periods, more stable energy and less hormonal symptoms, but if I wasn’t managing everything perfectly, PMS would creep in quickly, along with brain fog and fatigue.

Dealing with bladder pain

However, my biggest challenge with living with bladder pain, and as I made preparations towards the new stage of my healing journey, I began to identify just how much of a problem my bladder had become.

Sometimes it’s easier to make sense of something when you’re airing your thoughts aloud to someone else, and this has certainly been my experience with my health issues. Since working with a pelvic floor physiotherapist and nutritionist, I’ve come to realize that it’s my bladder pain caused by interstitial cystitis that is at the root of many of my current challenges.

My brain fog and fatigue can get bad because I’m not sleeping properly; my bladder keeps me awake with multiple bathroom trips before bed and wakes me up in the early hours with pain, often leaving me with just four hours sleep. My best nights are when I manage to sleep for 7 hours, yet the sleep is broken and disturbed thanks to the pain, which leaves me feel exhausted the next day.

Without a good night’s sleep, my hormones are impacted, my pain signals are heightened and my general wellbeing begins to decline.

Getting help

So I began seeing a pelvic floor physiotherapist and it was once of the best decisions I’ve ever made. Working with her really helped to decrease my bladder frequency, urgency and ability to empty, but as we continued we noticed that though my bladder functionality had improved, I was still getting intense burning and pain inside my bladder wall.

I was lucky enough that my tutor, a registered functional nutritionist, offered to work with me for free – so I was thankfully able to afford my education and the next step in my health journey.

We suspected that histamine and oxalate intolerances were behind at last some of the bladder pain, and I began on a six week elimination diet – which quite frankly was one of the hardest things I have ever done for my health and made me miserable! During this time, a few very interesting things occurred:

• My heart pain, chest tightness and palpitations stopped.
• My IBS issues worsened.
• My bladder pain increased and would subside sporadically for a day at the most.

Whilst lab tests and the lessening of some of my symptoms indicated that I was indeed sensitive to histamines and oxalates, decreasing my intake of them wasn’t enough to resolve my pain, and in fact, at times it worsened. My IBS issues, which I had gotten down to a really manageable place, also began to worsen.

SIBO

For a number of years I’ve now suspected I have SIBO, a common gut health condition which is associated with endometriosis. I am in fact studying a SIBO education course at present, and the more I’ve learnt about SIBO, the more I’m convinced it’s part of the problem. Hydrogen Sulfide SIBO can cause bladder pain, brain fog, body pain, tingling in the hands/feet, fatigue, bloating and IBS – all of which I suffer with and have done so for many years. The damage done to the gut because of SIBO can in turn cause sensitivities and intolerances such as histamine intolerance and nutrient deficiencies (which I tested positive for).

So now the next step is getting tested for SIBO and seeing where that new path takes me...