ICadvice.com's forum is up and running
Hi everyone,
Firstly, I just want to extend a big welcome to all of the visitors who come across this IC website. It's my hope that amongst its pages you will find information, comfort, help, and ultimately further hope to guide you in your journey with Interstitial Cystitis.
ICadvice.com began its life in December 2004, and since then it's continued to expand and provide a safe and helpful environment for ICers and those affected in some way by IC.
In September of this year a strange event occurred when our site was randomly attacked by internet hackers. This was an entirely unforeseen and very disruptive event, as you can imagine. I do dearly apologize to everybody that this happened. To be honest, our site was simply the next one on what I'd imagine is this hacker's long list of sites, and it had nothing to do with us as ICers or with this site in particular.
We're resilient though, and nearly as soon as the hacking occurred, I was beginning the rebuilding process (from the ground up). A few parts of the old site unfortunately were not able to be transfered to the new site (aka, the site that you're looking at right now), including the old ICadvice forum. Again, I am very sorry about this, and apologize to all those who lost their posts as a result of the attack.
Fortunately most of the other information has been replaced here on the site (articles, medical news, IC friendly recipes, etc), and a few areas are still works in progress. And of course, in the future we'll continue to add a lot of new information too (remember that this site is an ongoing one that will always continue to grow).
I know that this new forum looks a lot different, but I wanted to just let everyone know that it is totally up and working, and that all you have to do to post messages here is to register (it's free) with the site (and be logged in, if you want to post).
If you have any questions, concerns, thoughts or just general feedback about the new look of the site, the hacker attack, or anything at all, please by all means feel free to post them here on the ICadvice forum, or alternatively you can email me.
Please know that ICadvice.com is committed to the plight of everyone who is touched by Interstitial Cystitis/Painful Bladder Syndrome, and that this site would never be what it is, if not for each of you who take the time to visit and participate this wonderful IC community.
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Jessica Cangiano: ICadvice.com creator and administrator
I have IC, but IC doesn't have me!
Hi Jess, I am here, thanks
Hi Jess,
I am here, thanks for all your help on getting on the message board...
Well it is so good to see your message board back up and running !
You are so important to many of your members and your knowledge of IC is just so great for so many
newcomer they are sure lucky to have you here Jess...
Well Jess I just though I let you know I am now a member and so happy to join your message board as well..
lot of hugs, Debbie
Hi Debbie, I missed you so much!
Hi Debbie!!
I sure have missed chatting with you about IC on a message board! Thank-you for joining, and you're more than welcome for help, I'm sorry you had any troubles with logging on in the first place. Thank-you for your extremely kind words, Debbie.
I hope that the forum will become busier, it was a lot more so on the old version of the site, but so few of the old members re-registered that it's caused the boards to be quite slow at the moment. Nevertheless, I feel what's important is that they are here and available for the IC community, even if they don't get all that many posts right now.
Now that I know you're here on the boards, I might just have to post some of my own IC questions that I've been pondering in the months since the the Canada ICN forums were closed.
Thanks again for registering Debbie, it's so awesome to have here!
Healing hugs & happiness to you my friend,
Jessica
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Jessica Cangiano: ICadvice.com creator and administrator
I have IC, but IC doesn't have me!
Hi jess,
Thank so much for the wonderful welcome to the ICAdvice !!
I do hope that your message board get busier , it is really to bad as of the wonderful knowledge that you know about IC ...
I am just waiting to go for my surgery , I went this past Tuesday to Toronto Western it was a long day and I have not felt
good since the visit, I come to find out that my blood pressure is very high , I was just on a 24 hour blood pressure monitor and will
now have to wait for Tuesday as of the long weekend for my results ..
I have been having problem with this since last February but my doctor just kept telling to come back every three and it will check then...
So I have to get it down before surgery so I hope my doctor will do something for me ..
I am feeling alright just very burned out lately and I guess it is from all this time waiting for the surgery ..
I hope you are well Jess and that everything is going good for Tony and you ..
Take care and I will let you know how everything goes after surgery ..
Hugs, Debbie
Thinking of you, my good friend
Hi Debbie,
Thank-you for the beautiful words - I love having you here, you're such a dear IC friend to me and I've really missed our shared forum discussions.
Your words touched me deeply Debbie, thank-you! I've never claimed to have all the (IC) answers or to even begin to know all there is to know (no one person ever could!), but I've learned enough so that I hope my experiences and the experiences of other site members are able to help and provide support to all those who visit and participate on this site. Your presence here is so valuable, and so appreciated Debbie (to all those who are reading this post, trust me when I say that Debbie is one truly wonderful and wise ICer!).
I am sorry to hear that you're having blood pressure issues, that's no good :-( They don't think that it would be enough to postpone your surgery do they? It's absolutely no wonder that you're feeling burned out, anyone is your shoes would be. I think it's amazing how well you're doing and holding up!
You're truly in my thoughts Debbie; I dearly hope that everything goes well with your surgery and that afterwards you feel a whole lot better, my friend.
Tons of healing, gentle hugs,
Jessica
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Jessica Cangiano: ICadvice.com creator and administrator
I have IC, but IC doesn't have me!
Happy you are back!
Hi Jessica!
I'm happy this website is back. It's been awhile and I see that you've had some hacker trouble. I'm sorry to hear that. The old website was a great resource and support. I'm sure this new one will be as well.
It's been two years now that I've had IC. I'm finally going to see a specialist at UCSF tomorrow. Dr. Stoller has posted on other IC sites and has developed something that helps IC. I'm excited and nervous about tomorrow.
I've done well, but had setbacks too. I thought I was cured for a good 5 months, but then I got another UTI and went right back to the beginning it seemed. It was very discouraging. I'm actually doing pretty well lately but would like to find ways to keep it that way. The winter months and stress seem to trigger bad episodes.
I was actually hoping to find some of my old posts where I told my story so I could print that out and bring it with me tomorrow, but I see that isn't going to be possible. Oh well.
Glad to have you back Jessica!!!
Maid4Life
I missed you, Maidy!!!
Hi Maidy,
It's terrific to see you again!!! Thank-you so much for you kind words of welcome and hope for the site, I really appreciate them. It was indeed a rough and rather strange thing to be hacked, but as I'm keen on saying, you just take the "good with the bad", and move onwards.
I love that you've joined us here again, and sincerely hope that things go well for you with Dr. Stoller. I really admire and respect the (pioneering) IC work that he's done, especially in the field of Stoller Afferent Nerve Stimulation/neuromodulation. My heart truly goes out to you, that a UTI broke your spell of IC remission. I can image that it must have felt quite incredible to have even a 5 month symptom-free stretch; I really will cross my fingers and keep you in my thoughts today as you get ready for your visit with Dr. Stoller.
I agree, winter can be tough at times (though with the intense humidity up here in Ontario, summer is worse in my book, it bugs my bladder and my fibromyalgia, and just wears me out something fierce). It's strange though, sometimes I think that going out in the cold actually makes my bladder feel a little better (nature's Novocain, perhaps :D), but the dry air and dampness can also bring their own set of winterly challenges (not the least of which is avoiding some of those holiday foods which spell big trouble for our bladders).
Maidy, I wasn't able to transfer the forum posts from the "old site", and I truly do apologize for that...but, for the moment I do still have the old site running on a different (not public) web server, so that I can (most of) transfer content from it to this new one, and I believe that I may be able to get your posts and email them to you. Then, if you like, you can repost them here.
Thank-you again for posting, I'm super glad to have you back, too!
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Jessica Cangiano: ICadvice.com creator and administrator
I have IC, but IC doesn't have me!