Around the time I first launched IC Success I found a practitioner of Chinese medicine and Acupuncture named Matia Brizman. I found her through one of her patients online. I was told such wonderful things about how she had helped many to get well from IC, that I decided to conduct a telephone interview with her for this site. The positive energy that this woman exuded was like a magnet. We immediately hit it off and I was impressed with her intelligence, her view on the causes of IC, the methods in which she used to attack the illness and most of all her kind and caring heart.

At the time I my IC had improved a great deal but felt in my heart that I could do more. Sometimes my bladder would still get irritated, especially before my period, and sometimes I still had some minor vaginal irritations. One new thing did develop and that was allergies. I had minor skin eruptions on my arms and once in a while a nasty flaming red rash between my legs near the vaginal area (I would later find out that the rashes were yeast related). Now these were not things that plagued me everyday and the majority of the time I felt fine but I thought that it would be better to address these issues now rather than risk them spiraling out of control and getting me sick again. The trouble was that the less that was wrong with me, the harder it was to figure out what to do to get to the next level of wellness. I pondered on what could be left and what I could do to fix it. Clearly the infection was gone. I felt that in my heart, mind and body. Could it be yeast, I thought? My inner voices whispered candida to me.

I went back on the yeast free diet and started to take anti-fungals again. The diet made me feel good, however the anti-fungals usually gave me vaginal burning within a matter of days. So I fell into a state of confusion. I would question if it were really yeast or something else? I would go on treatment, feel confused and then go off treatment. I repeated this cycle a few times over the course of a few months. Finally I got sick and tired of doing it alone. I had become so accustomed to helping myself that believe it or not it took me about 4 months after meeting this woman that I was so impressed with, Matia Brizman, before turning to her for help.

I began treating with Matia via phone consultations (as a matter of fact, I have not met her face to face till this day). She would talk about my history and my current symptoms and from there she would make a special mixture of herbs for me and send them via Fedex. In addition she also put me on a very strict low-carb, sugar free diet. Needless to say, being a practitioner of natural

medicine, she is completely against antibiotics. She believes that bacterial infections played a role in many IC patients cases but uses herbs to combat those infections instead. In my case she believed my current problems were mostly, if not all, yeast related due to my history with birth control pills and the long-term antibiotics that I used. Often when we discussed my problems, time and time again she would refer back to "those antibiotics that I took". In one breath she was glad that I had gotten well and in another she did not believe antibiotics were the right way to seek recovery. However she is wise enough to accept and respect other people's choices, including mine.

Early on when we discussed my treatment we thought there was a strong probability that I would be done in only a few months since I was so close to complete recovery. Wrong!!! As it turned out I had many layers of candida and toxins in my tissues. One way in which to confirm this is to treat it. When you experience die off you know that there is poison coming out of your system. Especially when you feel better afterwards. Matia would use herbs to slowly drain the evils from my body at a steady pace so that I would not have to suffer too much discomfort all at once. Then every so often WHAM, she would hit it hard. During these times I would experience many uncomfortable die off symptoms, including increased bladder irritation and frequency from the all the cooties passing through my bladder. Sometimes it felt like I had IC all over again and that was a little hard to deal with. Much time had passed by since feeling these symptoms and I had lost much of my threshold to tolerate them. During these times I would use my mind to control my discomfort. I would tell myself that this time these symptoms were a good thing because it was the result of poison leaving my body. In addition my vaginal irritations increased with treatment from all of the evils coming out through that region as well. It was the vaginal irritations that I had to deal with the longest and most consistently during my treatment with Matia. They were annoying but bearable. In addition, other die off symptoms for me included (get ready for this people):

Sore throats, profuse night sweats, itchiness, burning scalp, dandruff, dry skin, acne, thirst, fatigue, sour stomach, snotties in the back of my throat and congestion in my chest, chills, coughing, anxiety, foggy brain, tiny little stomach cramps, depression and last but not least my favorite... mad dog doo doo breath. Although hard to deal with at times, these die off symptoms were bearable and if a particular die off symptom became too intense Matia would pull back on treatment and slow it down.

I treated with Matia for just over two years (so much for me getting away with a few months). Now please don't be concerned about the length of time it takes to get well. There were times that I was not feeling well for days or even a couple of weeks during periods of intense die off, but for the majority of the time I still felt really good and I lived my life completely.

I had days and even weeks during treatment where I did not feel a single solid symptom. Nothing!!! So I did not sit around waiting for it all to go away. I did not allow waiting for complete recovery to consume my life in between. I did not tell myself that I would only be allowed to do things once I got completely better. That would have driven me mad. I lived a happy and healthy life in between. I did all the normal things, and for me that included taking 10 mile hikes and going to the gym 3-4 days a week. Plus I can tell you, out of sight out of mind. The better you feel and the more consistently you feel completely normal, the less you even think about the existence of IC. Your life goes back to normal and if you allow yourself to do so you do move on. IT'S SO WONDERFUL!!!

One thing that was true for me (and you may want to note this for yourself in case it is the same for you) is this. The better I got the harder it was to get even better. At times I stayed at the same level of wellness for months until I finally made more progress. Recovery felt so close yet so far away. It still amazes me to this day, how long it took to continue to get better than I already was. So if you are symptom-free and are still in the process of working towards a complete recovery do not be discouraged with the time it can take. Learn to have patience and understand that you cannot force your body to recover. You can help but understand it will do so in its own time.

Today I have no symptoms but still work with Matia to increase the strength of my bladder. In addition I continue to exercise and eat right. I believe that every one of us has areas of weakness in our bodies. Unless we have a family history of certain illnesses, most of us don't know where those weaknesses lie until something goes wrong. For me I now know that my bladder is an organ in my body that will always need attention and care to keep illness from striking it again.

Except in terms of continuing to help others, I do not think about IC. I do not fear a relapse of IC because that is no way to live. I did not do all this work to conquer this illness only to live in fear. If it ever does happen again I will deal with it then. I take comfort that my friend Matia is out there to help me should I need her, and I know in my heart that I would fight like hell should I have to face it again. I am not afraid of it anymore and my mind is free.

If you are wondering if I regret taking long-term antibiotics I don't. They healed my infection and did A LOT to get me better. It was what I knew at the time and I perceived it as the best option for fighting IC related infections. I am grateful that they worked for me as well as they did. They did however contribute to a lot of yeast in my system and it took me a long time to get rid of the problem. I felt so bad before antibiotics that even with the yeast problem I still felt A LOT better once they healed that infection. For that I have no regrets. However, since I have experienced Matia Brizman's treatment program I feel that if I had it to do all over again I would have her treat me for the infection (and everything else) from the start instead. I know how powerful her herbs are and I believe that one could treat IC related infections under her care successfully without incurring the massive yeast problem that can come with antibiotics. In addition working with her will take all the "guess work" out of your hands that exists when treating yourself.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to believe that you will get better. If you tell yourself that come hell or high water you are going to get well than you will. Anyone that I ever spoken to who got better was hell bent on getting there. Be relentless!!! It is very normal to have your moments where you feel discouraged, negative and sorry for yourself. You are only human and that is a normal part of the process. I believe that relentlessness and a positive belief system is part of the reason Matia is so good at what she does. She does not give up on her patients and if a certain treatment is not working she will try over and over until she finds what will.

We all have tragedy and pain to face in our lives, and no one is exempt from that. Though I feel very strongly that we can either allow our pain to grow our souls and make us better human beings or we can allow it to destroy our lives completely. That choice is before each and every one of us in every painful experience we face in our lives. IC is a horrible disease that causes many so much pain and heartbreak, so I will not try to say that it is a good thing. Though I will say that my painful experience with IC did result in some good in my life. I grew as a person and recognized just how short and how precious life really is. There were many things that I did not appreciate before I got sick, and now that I am better I know not to ever take them for granted again. Sometimes in life a taste of the sour will give us a greater appreciation for the sweet.