(This the story of one of the site's authors)

I am not going to bore you with all the details of my early IC days.  You all know what it is like.  I will say that I have not been symptomatic very long, although it has probably been building for years.

My first experience of IC symptoms was millennium New Year's Eve. A doctor I went to prescribed the usual treatment, which did not help. I then found another doctor, one who actually looked in my bladder.  The other doctor had not.  That procedure seemed to ease everything and my symptoms went away for 6 months, until July 2000.  After that time I went on everything to try to treat my symptoms.

IC was not suspected for a while because I had no, and have never had, pain.

My symptoms were frequency, pressure and urgency.  The urologist was a nice man and would answer all my emergency calls.  He prescribed anything I wanted and tried everything, including starting me on Elmiron.  It all made me worse.  He did a cystoscopy and discovered IC.  No ulcers, but an inflamed dome of the bladder.  He never talked to me about IC and never even spoke to me after the surgery.  He just said I would be OK. 

I was desperate.  I was going to my local pharmacist almost every day for something new, and I asked her if she knew of anyone else with this disease.  She did.  She said she knew someone who had told her that she had found a person who had helped her.  (That person was Angie interviewed on this site). The pharmacist got the number of the person who had helped her for me.  I would also like to tell you that this person came to me through two other avenues.  I was also referred to her by a friend of mine who is studying acupuncture and knew that she dealt with this disease.  I also found her from an online referral.

My practitioner's name is Matia Brizman.  I feel my story needs to be told, because people need to know about Matia and what she is doing.

I had never believed in alternative medicine and I have pooh-poohed it in the past.  I am a straight down the line traditionalist and have always been happy with Western medicine, especially since I had a couple of serious illnesses and have been helped successfully by Western medicine.  The minute I went to Matia I got off all medication which was making me worse and just followed her instructions to the letter. 

Matia is the most amazing person you could every wish to meet, especially for us ICers who have been suffering so badly.  She understands IC like no one else, and her knowledge of both traditional and classical Chinese medicine and how to apply it based on symptoms is second to none.  Matia is committed to helping patients with IC.  She is passionate about it, compassionate and is dedicating her life to helping patients overcome it.  She treats people all over the world, but I feel extremely lucky that I am in the same city as her, Los Angeles.  What a resource!

I think many, if not most of us who have this disease, have a very high amount of candida and bacteria.  She had me tested for that.  I was extremely high in yeast and had some bad bacteria.  I also had chronic fatigue syndrome several years ago, which is another ailment that is connected with yeast.  It took me a year to get over that.  At that time I did nothing and it went away on its own.

The main focus is to ease the patient's discomfort and kill the “uglies” - yeast and bacteria, while building strength so that the body takes over the fight.  This is done creating a mixture of herbs for the patient. Basically your body builds up an immunity to any one medication.  If you introduce multiple entities it gets confused and can't fight them off.  Each one of us is different and Matia is constantly changing the mix for each patient as she carefully watches their reactions.  I am extremely sensitive to everything.  Matia knows exactly what is happening and makes adjustments accordingly to help us make it through the process as comfortably as possible.  Herbs that might bother you at one stage might be just the right mix later on in treatment.  It is amazing, and I have learnt a lot about Chinese medicine going through this and have developed a great respect for it and  Matia.  She truly knows her stuff.

Part of the process is to strengthen the kidneys, and again you do that with herbs.  The main part is an extremely strict diet.  I did not drink anything but water or eat anything but meat, fish, chicken etc., eggs, butter, a yeast-free bread, and Provolone and Munster cheese for 7 months.  Occasionally I had potatoes or rice but I tried and avoid them to keep the carb count low.  Basically, the main focus of the diet is to eliminate yeast and keep irritants from the bladder. 

Acupuncture is the icing on the cake.  I always felt good after that, but it is also very powerful and can open things up.  Matia does different points on different people according to their tolerance level.  It is a fine art. However, it is not necessary for a person to get better.  Many of Matia's patients are long distance and do not receive acupuncture.

If there were a quick fix I would be the first to try it.  I would be running.  There isn't.  This is an extremely healthy and proven successful alternative.  Everyone comments on how good I look, probably from the herbs since they are very nourishing. Herbs in the hands of a master can be a powerful tool.  Matia is that master.

At one point  I retook a test to see how I was doing with the candida and bacteria.  I showed no yeast growth at all and my bacteria count was completely normal.

I am now eating almost normally.  The only thing I stay away from is any kind of processed sugar. I am eating fruit and don't pay a lot of attention to what I eat in restaurants now.

I have asked Matia if you have to believe in this and she says you don't, it will just happen.  Everything she said along the way has happened - slowly for me, but it happened.   Before I started with her I was sleeping in the bathroom and thinking that life was definitely not worth living.  I have been to Europe twice and Australia and I travel all over the U.S. I no longer take herbs for my bladder and I would say I am practically symptom free.  I even started a new career in real estate, not exactly stress free. IC no longer rules my life. 

This disease was a long time building up so I was prepared to give it a long time to work its way out of my system.  Anyone considering this route, and I truly believe you should be open to it, must have patience.  Some get better quickly, but for others it can take some time.  I don't know any one of her patients who doesn't bless the day they found her.

I am trying to get the word out that you do not have to suffer the rest of your lives with this disease.  Matia has a logical, proven treatment to relieve the suffering of IC patients.  She saved my life.