Shyamlata Agarwal was Diagnosed with Interstitial Cystitis in 2009

I am Shyamlata Agarwal from Jamshedpur. 

I was around 45 years of age when the first symptoms of IC started to occur, soon after my menopause. It first started with a frequent need to pass urine during the day as well as the night. After one year of the first symptom, I also started to feel a burning sensation while passing urine. For the first two years, I did not go to the doctors since I thought it must be a UTI infection as both the symptoms mentioned above were sporadic (at intervals).

After two years I decided to do something about it as the symptoms were not going away. After consulting family and friends, I got the reference of Dr. D. D. Gaur in Bombay Hospital, Mumbai. Dr. Gaur carried out Cystoscopy and Urethral Dilation on 26/11/2009 and diagnosed me with Interstitial cystitis. The tests and the procedures were painful and I was given medicines to take every day. Almost one year after this when I went to Dr. Gaur I was again suggested for Cystoscopy and Hydrodistention which I got done in Nadiad. I visited Dr. Gaur three more time in the next two years and by May 2012, I decided to stop visiting Dr. Gaur as I was not seeing any significant improvement in my symptoms. Dr. Gaur is a good doctor. Post-2012 I stopped allopathy medicines. My mother was a very spiritual woman and I’d always found the act of praying to be very calming. In this period I started praying more frequently and started a feel a lot better. I cannot attribute the improvement to one particular thing but life was much normal in 2013/14 and 15.

In 2016 the symptoms resurfaced after I’d taken a Sauna bath in a Spa. After one-year things started getting worse and I visited my local doctor in Jamshedpur who once again performed a Cystoscopy in May 2017. At this point, someone suggested visiting Dr. Rajesh Taneja and till date, I’m undergoing treatment by him. One thing that I’ve come to realize is that I’m very prone to UTI, especially when I am traveling and have to use a public restroom. Hence I try and take all precautions when I am travelling and as advised by Dr. Taneja I’ve recently started getting Urine Routine Test done every 15 days in order to track the onset of the infection. During the infection period, life becomes very miserable. I cannot walk/pee and that is a lot of pain in my Urethra. Sometimes there is Urine retention causing unbearable pain and at that time I feel that my bladder will burst any minute. Currently, I’m taking medicines like Comfora, Atarax, Clonotril. I spend 2 hours a day in my mandir praying and sit and meditate every day for 20 mins. I’m also taking Homeopathic medicines. I cannot say that today I feel as good as I was feeling in 2013-14 or before the onset of IC. But I am hopeful that by the combination of my current treatment and my will power to get better I would soon be able to live a normal life.