Lucy-Lu and I Have More in Common Than an Address

This article on the Interstitial Cystitis Association site talks about the remarkable similarity between cats with Feline Interstitial Cystitis (FIC) and humans with Interstitial Cystitis (IC). This comes as no surprise to Your Honor as her younger feline friend, Lucy, has had a bout with this syndrome. In fact, the medicine given to Lucy when she first had problems is just a much smaller dose (1/10th to be exact) of what I am currently taking.

It's amazing how life is--I end up with a cat that has a random syndrome that I have. The odds of that are probably not that great, yet I managed to overcome them. It's too bad I can't use my odds of that at the casino.

That is a picture of Miss Lucy to the right. It's one of the many times she has posed for the camera that I'm sure I'll share along the way.

Back to the article...This was the major finding:

Dr. Buffington thinks that bladder abnormalties aren’t necessarily the root cause of IC, they’re the result. And it may be just one of many organs in the body that are being affected by a ramped-up or overly active fight-or-flight mechanism that results in nervous system, endocrine system, and immune system abnormalities. He and his research team have focused on what’s called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which controls those fight-or-flight reactions in response to stress.

This is particularly interesting to me as I have a number of endocrine system-related issues. I just know one day they're going to find out that this is all connected. And I'll finally have an answer to a question that's burning inside: What in the hell is wrong with me?