Chronic, unexplainable pain

I was diagnosed with IC (and a secondary case of urethritis, which was treated) last March and have found considerable relief from Elmiron and a radical diet change (the IC diet, with a few exceptions that seemed to not cause problems for me).  For the last couple of months, however, I have not always been able to pinpoint the cause of my pain.  (Usually it can be traced back to something I have eaten or the need to have a bowel movement, but at other times there has been no apparent cause.)  On a few occasions taking phenazopyrid has NOT helped ease the pain, which has also stumped me. What are the possible explanations?  What other steps could I take?

[S. Kaul, MD]

Hi there!

Well, without a clinical evaluation it would be difficult to comment on the situation. Possibilities that may need to be considered include chronic low grade infection/ inflammations, foreign bodies such as calculi, ulcers/ erosions, growths/ masses, referred pain from other regions etc. It would be best to have this evaluated by your urologist for an accurate diagnosis and appropriate management.
Hope this helps.

Take care!

[vanfink]

Thanks so much for responding, Dr. Kaul. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it.  Unfortunately, I have exhausted the urologist options in my community.  The diagnosis of IC was from a specialist I saw a year ago in another state, who has since, as luck would have it, retired.  I am frustrated with not understanding who to go to to address IC issues.  How does one find a urologist who has dealt with IC and is willing to work with it?  Better still would be to find a doc who could work on hormone issues (I'm 47 and had a partial hysterectomy over a year ago to address then-undiagnosed IC symptoms understood to be other issues) AND IC at the same time.  Who does this? Who does this well? I wish there were a name for this specialty because then I could search by that name!