Now that my pain and bleeding during BMs are worse than they've been all year, I'm having an easier time pinpointing the location of the pain. It is just inside the anal opening, on the left side. There is an external hemorrhoid just below it, but I don't know if they are somehow connected.

When I have a BM, I initially get a really sharp pain at that location, which become duller as the BM progresses. Then, I'll usually see anywhere from a tiny amount to a great deal of blood. The rest of the day, I'll have varying degrees of stinging, or strong, dull pain that sometimes radiates into my left butt cheek and down my leg. Sometimes in the evening I feel perfectly fine. There are no muscle cramps.

I went to see my CRS on Monday so I could point out the spot of the pain. He poked it with a q-tip and it was really painful. He said the spot was just above the hemorrhoid, but that he didn't see anything. He said he couldn't get it to bleed. His diagnosis continues to be that I have pelvic floor or some other type of undiagnosed pain that needs biofeedback, and that the bleeding is unrelated (either internal hemorrhoids or something more serious). He did throw out a theory that it could be related to my previous fissurectomy/sphincterotomy surgery, but I'm fairly sure that was on the right side (I asked them to check). I'm scheduled for a colonoscopy next Friday. He said he intends to get a better look at the anal/rectal region while in there.

At this point, I really don't agree with my CRS. The blood only comes with pain which, to me, rules out something internal. The blood could be the external hemorrhoid, and perhaps he couldn't get it to bleed because it actually didn't bleed during my BM that morning. In my view, something is wrong in that spot on the left that can't be easily seen, and that radiates intense pain at times.

I plan to go forward with the colonoscopy, just to rule out possible major issues and to get a better look at the site of my pain. However, I don't really expect us to find anything out.

Does anyone have any ideas about what this could be?

This sounds really mysterious, and if the CRS couldn't tell what it was then it's really hard for one of us to do so. I really wish for you to get an answer after your colonoscopy. Hopefully it will be worth it to go through the prep and everything else.

Thanks for your reply (and hug!).

Yeah, this is the second CRS that I've had this year, and I've apparently stumped them both. Whatever is going on, it's worse than it's been all year. A lot more blood, more pain and stinging. It seemed like putting a bunch of petroleum jelly down there was helping prevent the bleeding, but not today when I saw the most that I've seen yet. Putting anything down there (hydrocortisone, prep h, zinc oxide cream, whatever) stings like the dickens for hours. The thing that seems to help most is laying down with my left leg propped up, or spreading my cheeks. It behaves like a bad cut, but he says there's no fissure and I don't seem to be having any muscle cramps. It's all stinging with sometimes radiating pain and bleeding.

I need to look through the forum about the prep again. It seemed like people had some good advice about it, but it's been awhile since I looked. The doctor sure didn't make it sound like a big deal. For what I read before, that's by far the worst part.