“I need help with this Pain!”

   Have you ever been there? You are sitting all alone. There is no one home with you and you are in intense pain. You cannot deal with your pain another second. Another minute! Let alone another hour or day! How do you do it? How do you get through the most horrendous moments of your pain? What do you do? How can you be who you want to be, when you are in so much pain? How do you keep yourself from going over the edge? Where is the edge?

Before the IC diagnosis, intense pain usually was a reason to call the doctor, go to the hospital ER or at the very least get off your feet and lie down and rest to see what happens. Now, pain is confusing. You know you are not dying, although the pain seems to tell you that you are. You know intellectually that it will pass, yet this moment seems to last forever. How do you get through these moments of intense pain?

Pain is a time when “anything goes”. Allow yourself that. It’s okay to feel like you are out of control. It’s okay to feel scared. And it’s okay to feel like it will last this way forever. But make it a point to tell yourself it won’t, over and over again if necessary. This is just a flare in your symptom. It will pass. It will get milder. Life will go back to the way it was before this moment of pain. Time will pass and so will your pain.

Once you have taken care of practical matters, taking care of your emotional state is important aswell. Try to provide yourself with a nurturing, gentle environment as part of being good to you.