Physicians may naturally favor specific treatments. Researchers will favor specific theories. Patients will speak from their own unique experience and cannot give medical advice. As such, we must acknowledge these biases by not depending upon one source for all of our information. Successful IC patients gather information from multiple sources and carefully review the pros and cons of any course of action.
Many patients pursue second and third opinions before pursuing major treatments.
Record keeping The sheer mass of information now available requires IC patients to be good record keepers and information managers. Later in this chapter, you'll find useful record keeping tools that you can photocopy and reuse. A Physician - Patient Team IC patients face a legacy of misperceptions about our disease and emotional state. At one point in time, IC was thought to be a hysterical disease of women. As such, do not blame physicians who are hesitant to care for us.