So, you are following the diet, you are taking your calcium and magnesium, and you are still hurting.  Be patient, you didn’t make your bladder lining disappear overnight, it’s not going to heal itself overnight.  Your urinary pH needs to get above 6.8 before your bladder will even start healing at all.  So, you need to wait until that happens. 

Once your urinary pH is above 6.8, you should start feeling better if you are avoiding all your bladder irritants, but it probably won’t be immediate.  Because the bladder lining is still recovering, it’s still inflamed and needs time to recover.  Your bladder will stop being traumatized when the pH is above 6.8.  As you know, if you hit yourself over the head repeatedly, the pain will get better after you stop the trauma, but it may take a while until you recover from the injury.  If you are avoiding all irritants and your pH is above 6.8, I would say that you should feel some kind of a difference within 3 days of that happening.  It may take another two or three weeks for your bladder to heal, but you should know it’s working by then.  Every person I have given these instructions to has had significant improvement within 3 weeks.  

If you’re not seeing a result by then, start looking for culprits.  Look for chemicals in your home, looks for substances you put in/on your body.  Drink lots of water, preferably something with a high pH of it’s own to thin out the particulates in your urine.  For some reason, you may not be able to handle certain things on the list.  Stay away from fruit.  Stay away from anything in a package.  Read labels.  Avoid ANYTHING with citric acid on the label; it’s the absolute worst thing you can consume.  If you notice that you feel worse at a certain time of the day, is it after you eat or drink something?  Like that herbal tea that you thought was OK?  You need to be your own Nancy Drew from now on to determine what bothers you. 

What else I have learned:

1. No matter what I do, my bladder will act up two days a month, the 4th and 5th day of my period.  Everyone is different on the days, but pretty much every woman with IC gets a flare during her period.  It’s just another thing that makes being a woman just that much more special. 

2. To tell if something is too spicy to bother my bladder, I see how long the spiciness lasts in my mouth.  If I can still feel the spiciness long after I swallowed, I know I shouldn’t be eating it. 

3. Trust your body and your senses.  If something tastes wrong to you, don’t eat it.  If it’s not supposed to be spicy or have lemon juice in it, but it is/does - don’t eat it.  If you think it might bother your bladder, don’t take any chances. 

4.  You need to stand up for yourself when telling people why you can't eat something.  You're probably never going to eat your Mother's lasagna again.  Tell her not to take it personally.  Your health is more important that hurting someone's feelings over a meal. 

That’s all I can think of for now.  If I need to post anything more, I will. 

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