Dear keenie, Dear all,
The appointment with the specialist in London was very interesting indeed. I have to highlight that he is not some quack, but a very high esteemed professor at a London university. A very polite doctor and a very good listener and diagnostician. He made an ultrasound of the bladder and told me that part of my bladder wall is thickened. Most probably due to an embedded infection which I might have for a long time. That would also explain the leukocytes I had in my urine. He also told me that I might have a histamine problem, which he tested with a blood test. When I left the clinic I was relieved, astonished and somehow in doubt. Could that be right? He said also that all sorts of stress aggravate my condition.
A week later I received the result of the urine culture. Yes, there were bacteria the others have not found because bacteria from a embedded infection take a longer time to grow. And that’s what he is doing. Normal culturing also dismisses all bacteria growth under a certain threshold and research has shown that also lesser bacterial growth gives symptoms. Now I am taking an antibiotic, first for only two weeks to see how I react. But he thinks I have to take it for a month. And then we’ll see. I have another appointment in two months to see if the bladder wall is already thinner.
Maybe I should be be very happy about this result and in a way I am. However, I experienced to much with this condition, so now I wait until I see real results. I am almost pain free now, but I was that also before the visit. I also asked why I have this fluctuation in pain and why in certain stressfull situations the pain starts. And then sometimes somehow disappears also as fast as it came. He said that emotions and stress trigger the immune system and that a chronic inflammation acts very different than an acute one. At least this would explain why I sometimes had periods of pain and really had difficulties to find any psychological reason for it.
Does that mean I don’t have TMS? I think in a way I have TMS. It’s the way I react to stressful situations that contributes in a bad way to my well-being. But if he is right and I get rid of the infection, then I think I will be much more succesful in establishing a better habit to cope with stressful situations.
About the histamine intolerance I am not so sure. I haven’t received the result of the blood test yet. My impression is that how the immune system reacts has a lot to do with the psyche. Of course, if I really don’t produce enough of the enzyme diamine oxidase then this has to be addressed.
If all this turns out to be correct I am mostly angry about those doctors many years ago that treated me wrong. I have to say that the label ‘psychosomatic’ has been used very early and frequently for my condition. They also didn’t
have the knowledge we have today, so this counts as an apology for their lack of diagnosis. My feelings for the urologist I saw the last four years are very different. She could have had the knowledge! I trusted her and She cost me a lot of money. I was so very much appalled by her latest advises (watch a movie, enjoy life!) and how she dismissed my concerns of having a considerable amount of leukocytes in the urine. She simply denied that something like chronic and embedded infections exist at all.
Medical science is as all other science fallible, I know that well. New theories and new knowledge arise and can turn over deep seated presuppositions about diseases. This makes it difficult for doctors and for patients. However, I am really proud of myself that this winter I followed my instincts and looked for a specialist who could rule out that something has been overlooked. I was convinced that something was not right. And now it seems this was a good intuition. I’ll keep you informed.
Please, don’t understand me wrong! I don’t say that TMS doesn’t exist. All I am saying is that in my case it seems there is an underlying infection that has to be addressed.
