Cathie:

Hi, here's a link that explains the test.

http://kidney.niddk.nih.gov/kudiseas...index.htm#take


Roxie, I have a question. When you say pain, are you talking about the pressure part of what you are experiencing?

I'm not referring to pain upon urination, I'm referring to the constant pressure "down there". I had that over 10 years ago, (probably more than 10). I had every test done known to man, and it all came up negative.

I remembered having chest spasms in my 20's (they would come and go). I knew when one would be coming, then the left size of the chest would "squeeze", and I'd yell out, then all would be fine. Drove me nuts.

But I was also extremely neurotic in those times. I just was, I was severely phobic, I stuttered. Yeah, I held a good job, but I had lots of fears.

I now believe those spasms were my body reacting to my fears.

Then, (and I was going through all kinds of stuff with my son, well, when my bladder started doing it's thing, I thought i would lose my mind. I walked around day and night with the "pressure", down there. I once marched into my doctor's office saying "please do something before I shoot myself". He immediately put me on the table, a nurse came in, the doctor palpated me, saying, well you are a bit hard (or something to that effect, really can't remember". they inserted a catheter, and a bit of urine came out. They said: "we are sending you for an ultrasound". Now I used to urinate just fine, during all this time. Never had a problem voiding. Never. I just had the "urge" to go all the time. Drove me absolutely nuts. Didn't take anything because they didn't know what to give me.

I had a trans vaginal ultra sound. I had cystocopies (the urologist was a lovely man who didn't hurt me one bit). I had this test, and that test, EVERYTHING WAS NORMAL. They didn't treat me like a nut job either.

But this was all the time. There's no quality of life, when all you want to do is pee, and then when you do pee, you produce a normal amount of urine, then you feel like you have to pee again. Like I said, drove me nuts. And this was YEARS BEFORE I HAD PN (in my toes). YEARS!!!!

I did go to a woman's gyno place near my home, told them what I had and they gave me samples of Detrol. Never forgot that. It worked for a few months. Then it stopped working.

So one day, I was in my primary dictor's office and I said 'what if it's spasms, what if there's really nothing physically wrong with me, but my bladder is 'SPASMING DOWN THERE??"

He looked at me and said "what if I prescribe you muscle relaxers"?? I said 'go right ahead". I mean, the only thing that had worked was the Detrol but then that stopped working so I stopped taking it.

So my doctor gave me a prescription for SOMA. I filled the prescription. I had the bottle in the bathroom, and I was about to take the pill. I said "take a nice hot shower, then when you get out, you'll take the pill".

Well, Roxie, I'll never forget what happened. I stayed under the hot water for a long time, letting it flow over my body. It was really hot. All of a sudden THE SPASMING STOPPED DOWN THERE. Just went away. I remember a feeling of such relief, I can't begin to tell you.

I never took ANY OF THE SOMA. Never did, never needed to.

Now I can only attribute this to it being my body responding to all the stress I was under.

They never did find anything wrong with me, physically, and believe me I went to various gynos, urologists, this doctor, that doctor.

But the day that my doctor prescribed the SOMA for me, (and because I knew it was on that bathroom shelf), and I went under the hot water, well, this tells ME that MY spasms were caused by my being under such stress, I can't begin to tell you. I remember talking to the doctor about Interstitial Cystitis. Some guys didn't believe it existed. And that's funny, because there's a whole organization devoted to people with IC, so how can it not exist. I remember asking a urologist. "Do you give the test for IC". and he gave me such a look and said 'are you kidding, we don't do that barbaric thing any more".

Oh, one more thing. I never had another chest spasm either. I cannot remember when the last time I had one of those. At least 15 years.

Now my story has nothing to do with your problem in your bladder. My story (and this is just my opinion but it makes sense). My body reacts to stress by spasming.

It also reacts (with PN burning in my feet), whenever my son calls.

I'll be honest, I'd rather have ANYTHING going on in my body, if I never have to endure those bladder spasms again.

I have a neighbor who lives across the street from me. She's 72, looks 50 and goes to work every day. She had the same thing. She even had a dropped bladder and they put some gadget in her that HOLDS IT UP.

And I had another neighbor who was about 40 when she started having the same thing that I had. THE EXACT SAME THING. They had to practically give her morphine for the pain (the pressure I mean). It drove her nuts.

The pain meds worked. Then it went away.

And we all didn't live in the same area when we had these problems. Mine started way before I moved here. My neighbor lived here all her life, and the one who had to go on pain meds, well she lived in a completely different part of the country when she got her spasms.

So I don't know what's going on with woman but I think stress in our lives makes our bodies react with painful spasms.

To me, when I got under that hot shower and I knew that there was a pill (muscle relaxer), right on the bathroom shelf, ready for me to take it, well my whole body just relaxed. I'll never forget that feeling. I went into that shower all tensed up, and when the hot water hit my body, my whole "down there feeling", just melted away.

If anyone has a better explanation for what happened to me, I'd love to hear it.