I ran into a patient on Wednesday who had suffered from interstitial cystitis. When I last saw her she had been up several times per night to the bathroom, losing sleep, exhausted, and suffering with frequent painful urination during the day. We worked on reducing inflammation, helping her body with stress and removing food sensitivities from her diet. She saw some improvement and at the time I also referred her to a pelvic physiotherapist to physically help with the pain. There was some improvement from this as well and she also saw a chiropractor. The chiropractor was the one who nailed it as far as fully resolving her problem. He determined that the pain was the result of scar tissue and adhesions from her caesarean section 4 years ago and after working on that, her issues are gone, she looks healthy and energetic again. While I didn’t fully fix her, she was appreciative of the improvement she made under my care and that I made the referral in the right direction.
Lessons learned:
- Never underestimate the trauma caused by caesarean section, or any other major surgery for that matter.
- Interstitial cystitis isn’t necessarily a problem with the bladder itself, it can be a problem with the surrounding tissue. I’ve even seen endometriosis cause what was diagnosed as interstitial cystitis.
- Cystitis or inflammation of the bladder can be caused by many things: bacterial infection, food sensitivities, endometriosis, scar tissue, adhesions etc. Sourcing out the root of the inflammation is the only way to effectively deal with and remove the problem.