Flare up or IC...

So on Thursday night I went dancing as is my usual habit. Around 11 or 12 I noticed that my urethra was becoming irritated and I felt like I had to pee. Almost immediately I felt that all to familiar pressure and pain in my bladder. I took some pyridium (AZO) and drank some water and went on with my evening. The next morning I called my doctors office only to learn that my doc won't be back until fall and the office they referred me to can't take me till August. I did manage to score an appointment with a doctor for the 11th and I went to urgent care in the hopes that they might do a instillation if I brought the meds.
They tested me for UTI and put me on Bactrim because I tested positive for nitrates. The culture should be back on Monday or Tuesday and that will  tell me for sure if I have a flare up or UTI.
In the mean time my life has become about pain management. Despite the pain I went out dancing on both Friday and Saturday night and tonight I am visiting friends who live about 40 minutes away. All of this is made more difficult by the fact that my bladder hurts and I feel like I need to pee all the time. However, when I am in the restroom I have a difficult time actually peeing. Its damn annoying. I just don't want IC to run my life.

Here is how I am coping. I keep dancing. I am taking all my medications and supplements, I have smoked until I feel better. Though I realized I can't mix tramadol and smoking, because it makes me really anxious and paranoid. That was not fun. I have also used valium suppositories to try and get my pelvic floor muscles to relax. My bladder still hurts too, though not as much as if I hadn't been medicated. Right now I have horrible headache, which oddly enough keeps my mind off my bladder.

I hoping to feel better before the 11th, but I will still go see the doctor and do a DMSO treatment (providded I have the script still) just to make sure that my bladder stays happy. There is nothing that I can do sometimes to predict a flare up, after all I hadn't eaten anything new or been under new stress. Well, except that Monday would have been my 14th wedding/relationship anniversary and this year it will just be independence day. My ex-husband and I agreed not to talk on that day even though we remain friends.

This disease really does just suck sometimes. Okay, I am done bitching off to go live  my life.