Heating pad blotches now have a name -- erythema ab igne

Erythema ab igne. Do not ask me how to pronounce it, but typing it into google images will show you the all too common images ICers see on a daily basis on their inner thighs due to heating pad usage. However, the ones covering the entire leg likely was caused by something other than just a heating pad.

"A middle-aged man presented with intractable abdominal pain from chronic pancreatitis secondary to excessive alcohol use in the past. The pain was unrelieved by thoracoscopic splanchnicectomy and regular opioid analgesia, and he had been using a hot water bottle for years to obtain relief.
The reticular, nonblanching hyperpigmented discolouration of the skin is characteristic of erythema ab igne (Figure 1). This is a useful diagnostic sign in pancreatitis,1 but may also be encountered in patients with abdominal neoplasms such as gastric and hepatic tumours.2
It can occur at any site exposed repetitively to infrared radiation in the form of non-painful heat, such as the shins of old people who sit in front of fireplaces in temperate climates or the abdomen and thighs of kangri (a small portable earthen firepot) users in the Himalayas.3
Erythema ab igne is not always an innocuous cutaneous feature as the mitogenic effects of heat can lead to thermal keratoses and skin cancers; mainly squamous cell carcinomas." -- (http://journal.nzma.org.nz/journal/121-1276/3124/)

Evidently it can cause cancer. But, eh, not like we have much of a choice. This fellow had bad stomach pains. This is how you know your patient isn't faking it.

Is Cyclosporine the cure to IC?

I can't say either way. It turns out my symptoms are from pelvic floor dysfunction, which comes packaged with IC. So, by the time I started the Elmiron had healed my bladder. There is still a lot of enthusiasm for this therapy, and should my IC return I wouldn't hesitate on using the medication again. I say go for it. I had no bad side effects.

The cyclosporine was the main purpose for this blog, but I'll continue dictating life as an ICer. I have pictures of the leg blots left by our heating pads I wish to give to my Uro for free use as well as to the ICN so people won't freak out when they see them. My uro said it doesn't harm you, it basically makes you look ugly in a place most people will never see. I plan to cover mine with a tattoo if I can ever defeat this disease.

I used my wheelchair today at school for the first time. Freak cold front came through with the storms. It was an interesting learning experience. Wheelchairs = hard outdoors, but fun when going downhill (and I'm immune to the flooding in my lower-than-ocean-level-city. 6 inch puddle coming up? No problem! ). I kinda used it as a skateboard, using a foot and my hands to help out unless I was hitting a puddle. The issue is the jostling walking causes and not having cushion under my tush, but it solved both those issues and I could still use my legs to help push along the uphill areas. In class it was much more comfortable to my bladder than hardwood straight backed chairs. I could recline to my hearts content.

It's also a great arm work out, which I badly need.

I haven't been posting much because I've generally been feeling better plus school is getting very hard. It's my final semester. I'm worry what I'm going to do for a job once I get out. I need to work summers at least if I hope to claim disability if things turn out for the worse and I always need a plan A, a plan B, and a plan C. Right now we're trying on starting a home computer repair business.. but when you live in a rice patty.. there's not much of a customer base. I could probably make more selling the animals in my yard since PetSmart seems to carry the majority of them as pets (red eared sliders, green anoles, gardner snakes, etc).