Hello everyone!
I've been lurking here as a guest for almost a month now, finally got diagnosed yesterday, so I can officially join the club. I don't really want to join this club, but since I don't have a choice, I'm just going to embrace and go with it.
This all started for me in early November. I was taking antibiotics and eating a soft food diet because I'd just had my wisdom teeth extracted. One day, which turned into a stretch of days, some soup, combined with coffee, but really just the soup alone would have done it - diarrhea, burning bottom, etc. As the week(s) went on I thought maybe I had a hemorrhoid. I tried all the over-the-counter stuff: witch hazel, Prep H, Aleve, coconut oil, and an herbal comfrey salve. As time went on it just got worse and worse. I would try to go on rounds at work, and 5 minutes in it felt like my butt was on fire. The pain was intense and by the time the 40 minutes was over I was desperate to sit or lie down.
Then, last week on Wednesday, I had a particularly hard BM and it set off spasms that were breathtakingly painful. I couldn't sit or stand without incredible pain, and I had to leave work early. I spent all day Thursday in bed. Happy Thanksgiving! On Friday I didn't have a BM in the morning so I had no pain, and went and did some errands. I was ready to sit by the time those errands were through! All day Saturday was in the bed, and on Sunday I had to go to work. I was in so much pain all day, I kept trying to arrange my big puffy coat in a way that would cushion me in a way that stopped the pain, but I couldn't find it. I wanted to cry and go home, but I am a manager at an animal shelter and I really needed to be at work.
I still do need to be at work - I have almost no PTO left, and as I've started to realize, a lot of "who I am" is tied up in what I do at work. There's a lot to be done and I feel guilty not doing it. I've been at home in bed all week.
On Tuesday I had an appointment to see my primary doc. He examined me and told me to see a CRS ASAP. He referred me to one and I don't know what the person on the phone said to the person on the phone at the other office, but I was told to go to the CRS immediately. CRS is recommending sphincterotomy, but gave me an ointment with lidocaine and difedepine(?) to try for a few days first.
So today is the first day in a long time that I haven't cried in pain, thanks to the ointment and the sitz baths. I mentioned I was lurking before, and I learned so much practical advice from this forum. I am extremely grateful to those of you who have shared your successes and failures. I'll be keeping a diary in the other section of the forum as I make my way toward healing.
Cheers from the sitz bath,
Beatrix