Hi girlfrompak,
If you have a lot of questions, start your own thread - that way Canadahell can continue to get answers to his posts specifically.
However, I'll just say here that healing can indeed be very slow. I experienced anal pain with walking for several months. I walk about 1.5 miles to work every day, and at that time I could barely hobble along (oddly enough the walk home was usually painless). I even asked my company about getting a handicap pass so I could drive and park close to work. But they were not helpful. Eventually things got better. For a long time I still had pain but not very bad. Now I'm pain free. Totally and completely pain free. I won't lie - it took months. I swallowed a lot of ibuprofen during that time. I also took a hot water bottle to work, heated it in the microwave, and sat on it at work. It helped enormously. Good luck!

JHH -- thanks for that note....great reminder that this sort of thing takes its precious time. I bet if we all knew the end date from the start it would be much more bearable....its the unknown of how long this will last that seems so difficult, for me at least.

Scientist -- thank you too for all of your pearls and experience. Honestly it was reading your journey posts that gave me some semblance of hope that I too might get through this during my early days....though I dont know you in person i will be forever grateful. girlfrompak...i would recommend you read Scientists story.

As for me....still plugging along. I have been using a standing desk at work which is helpful and am mostly pain free. I am now feeling some weird discomfort...sort of prickling sensations down there and some very very minor pain....trying my best to shrug it off.

Best to all,
Canadabum

Prickling, minor pain, weird sensations..........I had them all. They could continue for a while. Here's strength to you; shrug it off, stay positive. I am SO GLAD you are mostly pain free.

Dear Canadabum,

Glad to know you are pain free.. Hopefully those weird sensations will fade away too! Thank you for letting me hog your forum for a bit. I have indeed read and re read Scientists journey and so glad that the status shows HEALED! Truly a light at the end of the tunnel

Scientist: Thank you for your insights.. I just had this one question about the pain while walking cause most journeys I have read have trouble sitting down and I had it the other way round so I was getting scared cause of the horrid stories of pelvic floor dysfunction and skin tags and stuff.
I do feel the healing is very snail pace but the more good days vs bad days is key and hopefully stays that way.

Any more advise or questions are always welcome :)

Dear Canadabum,

Glad to know you are pain free.. Hopefully those weird sensations will fade away too! Thank you for letting me hog your forum for a bit. I have indeed read and re read Scientists journey and so glad that the status shows HEALED! Truly a light at the end of the tunnel

Scientist: Thank you for your insights.. I just had this one question about the pain while walking cause most journeys I have read have trouble sitting down and I had it the other way round so I was getting scared cause of the horrid stories of pelvic floor dysfunction and skin tags and stuff.
I do feel the healing is very snail pace but the more good days vs bad days is key and hopefully stays that way.

Any more advise or questions are always welcome :)

So wish me some luck...I am headed out camping for a little while then a cottage....my daily routines will be challenged and my controlled environments will be gone -- I am optimistic that things will go well and will let you know. My decision is to make sure i stay really hydrated, make sure i continue with fruit/veggies....and i will add some miralax to my morning tea just to make sure i stay regular on the trip (ok...maybe not to the tea, but you get the idea). i must say, I am simply celebrating the fact that I am not terrified to go on this trip...3/4 months ago i would not have imagined it.

All in all I continue to feel pretty good -- though with a low level of what I call "awareness" of something down there. One thing I did notice-- please let me know if this has happened to you and if you have any thoughts -- is that the skin around my anus seems chafed and raw. I felt it and used my trusty iPhone to take a video of my netherworld to confirm (do you think my testimony could be used in a new iPhone commercial The skin actually looks raw and like it has been rubbed off and it appears to be like an abrasion (like a scraped knee)...i am surprised because i have been using coconut oil around that area twice a day and thought that my cheeks were just sliding past each other without any friction...and I did not feel any event of something happen down there...so am surprised.

Anyways...all in all i have been feeling better over time...i am a bit concerned i may have a hemmie but it seems quite small and I have decided to ignore it (as in, not dwell on it). I hope all of you are able to enjoy some summer sun and activities -- one activity that seems to be very very beneficial for me is swimming...spending a couple hours in the pool really seems to set me up for a great day down there...give it a try, it may help you too!

Best to all,
Canadabum

Hooray! This is great news that you are taking some of your life back. I hope you have a fantastic time and can forget even more about your troubles.

Not much help with the skin chafing. I did have some when I was oozing all the time and I do have to keep the area dry but I wonder if maybe the pool or chlorine in the pool could be irritating. Anyway, maybe not. I would love to get in a pool myself, now that I am healed (apparently) I can (as I could not with the infection).

Let us know how things go.

Have a fun time!! I have found that the best thing is to live your life as best as you can and take it easy when needed. Getting away has been really good for my mental health even if things are not exactly the same down there!

I am back from an awesome time away in the country...while on my trip I decided to take miralax to avoid any issues and boy did it help. It was a miracle - soft each time and it really did not matter what I ate. I was soooo thankful and happy to be pain free and care free. Now I am back and I decided to cut back and wean myself off the miralax.

So here is where the violins come out. I have cut back to about a third of a dose in the morning and have found that even though I am eating all veggies and taking magnesium citrate and drinking a ton my stool is getting a bit harder - not crazy hard but enough to make me concerned and puzzled given my near perfect diet.

So tonight I went to the loo and felt that sharp feeling at the beginning and looked down to see some blood on the stool .... Ugggghhh....thankfully I am not in pain but the blood made my heart sink.

I feel like I should rename my thread to "10 months and counting".

Have others (scientist...) had blood this late in the game and healed...I assume I am Not healed given the blood tonight.

I am at a bit of a loss given i eat well and take care of myself diligently...any advice welcome.

I weaned myself off miralax because the bottle says to use for a max of 14 days and I have read that it is not good to get too dependent on this or similar substances. Anyone have any idea how long it is safe to use this for. Have any of you used it for a long time and been able to stop using...how did it go?

While I am not pleased with tonight...generally things have been good for me with continued awareness and some agitation down there but less to little real pain.

Glad to be back on the forum -- best wishes to all.

Canadabum

So glad to hear that you had a great time away but sorry to hear of your relapse. As for the Miralax/Restoralax, I have been on it for years and quite frankly that does not bother me. I have had no ill effects and have had Doctors tell me that I can be on it indefinitely. It is an osmotic laxative and really doesn't stimulate the bowel so I really can't see the harm in using it long term. I have not noticed any lazy bowel effect. Given that you were doing so well, if it were me, when you get to that point again that things seem mostly healed, I would stay on it an extra few months until the skin has some really good integrity and is more resilient. Just my opinion anyway. Hope you feel better really soon!