Last week was revelatory and a bit disheartening. I don’t like to say a “downer” because I try to stay on the positive. My ICC (interstitial cystitis) flared all week last week. It was terrible. It felt like a horrific UTI with burning in my bladder and urgency. Thank heaven for my Uribel. It’s the only thing that curbs the urgency and gets rid of my pain. Back before I was diagnosed I was trying to figure out what was triggering my flares, I was unsuccessful identifying many things. But 2 things made me flare: 1. Tomatoes. 2 peaches. I thought maybe low acid tomatoes, orange and yellows wouldn’t hurt me. Since I was still flaring a lot at the time and not able to identify things that made my pain worse, I assumed that orange and yellow tomatoes were not making me flare. That was very exciting to me and I planted low acid tomatoes in my garden. In February I started my ICC study with Idaho State University dietitians. They paid for 10 weeks of healthy frozen meals, then had me report back after doing 10 weeks of meals on my own. They took blood tests in between to measure certain things to see how my body was reacting.then had me report back after doing 10 weeks of meals on my own. They took blood tests in between to measure certain things to see how my body was reacting.

Those meals did not make me flare at all because they had very little seasoning and no acidic or fermented content, which makes me flare. I learned a lot with the stidy even though it was hard to eat the bland food. For the first time in a year, I went weeks without pain in my bladder. It was revelatory and wonderful!

My husband asks me why I didn’t know before tomatoes flared me and I said because I was in pain all the time and didn’t know the difference. My body was combating the constant inflammation in my bladder and didn’t know how to compensate.

In October 2020 I was doing pelvic floor therapy which helped somewhat and at the time she help me do some of my elimination diet but really I didn’t fully grasp and eliminate all that I needed to until I started doing the ICC study with Idaho State University. We just finished last month. So, I now know that I cannot have any type of tomatoes yellow orange or any color or they make me flare. I ate some delicious haystacks the ones with chicken, rice, and usually you have toppings like cheese, celery, almonds, tomatoes, coconut flakes, etc. I ate a whole handful and then again the next day. Same leftovers. Terrible flare and pain! Lesson learned. I had to mourn the loss of tomatoes once but I had to mourn the loss again of low acid tomatoes this past week. I know it sounds silly but it’s like I am losing an old friend. Despite this, I press forward and move on. There are plenty of other things that I can do and eat! That’s what I try to focus on.

Please don’t think that I posted this because I am just trying to whine and complain. I am simply trying to be “real“ on how this really is this auto immune deficiency is real and I know that I got it because I have fibromyalgia. I acknowledge that and as a result I try to move forward with a healthy life and try to be as good as possible about adhering to my diet as I should.