by ScaredyCat1822 » 02 Dec 2016, 14:33
Hi everyone!
First of all, let me say that 1) my paternal grandfather had colon cancer, and 2) I have anxiety disorder and panic attacks, so I always assume the worst.
For years and years (I'm 44 years old), I have from time-to-time had issues where I would feel a particularly hard bowel movement, and would have bleeding and some small pain. If I was nice to myself, it would heal up in a few weeks to months.
In August of this year, I started having more difficulty with pain, itching, and feeling like things were never healing. I went to my doctor, and he said I had external and internal hemorrhoids. He prescribed a steroid suppository (Anusol HC). I used it a few times, and it didn't really help.
The first of October, I developed an extremely swollen and painful bulge around my anus. It was a thrombosed hemorrhoid. I had to have it cut open and a clot the size of a prune was removed. Afterwards, things felt MUCH better. My bowel movements no longer hurt, and I didn't feel like I was ripping something open with each toilet sitting.
A couple of weeks later, I had a bowel movement that was particularly large and hard. It literally got stuck on the way out. Afterwards, I had pain and some bleeding. I haven't been the same since. I have tried suppositories, creams, coconut oil, Desitin, stool softeners, fiber supplements, increased water intake, and sitz baths, and it seems to keep getting worse. It feels like passing glass when I have a movement, and it lasts about 15-30 minutes afterwards. Sometimes there is streaking blood on the tissue, other times there is not. I can tell if there is going to be blood by the amount of pain I experience as the stool goes through.
Being the worry-wart that I am, I started wondering today, "What if it's cancer?" I got in with my primary care doctor and told him about what was going on. He said it sounded like a fissure. I told him I was worried about cancer. He said this time we would go to a surgeon and get it looked at once and for all. He gave me a digital rectal exam, which was excruciating and made me yell out loud twice! It hurt for a good 30 minutes afterwards. He pulled off his glove and said, "There's no anal cancer in there," and then asked if I had a preference of a surgeon. I said no, and he said he would see who he could get me in with. I asked him, "I know you can't say 100%, but do you think there is something serious going on there?" He said, "No, but we'll let them look at it."
After about 15-20 minutes, his nurse came back in, and said I have an appointment with a surgeon first thing Monday morning! I also got a prescription for more Anusol HC 25 suppositories to use three times a day. My first concern is: what the heck is going on? Secondly, why does he feel I need to get into a surgeon so quickly? I thought they only got you in with a specialist that soon if it was something gravely serious (like cancer).
Does anyone have any helpful advice as my brain spends the weekend coming up with all kinds of scary scenarios? BTW, surgery itself is a scary scenario for me--I don't do well with general anesthesia. Just knowing that someone else had been through something similar would help me tremendously.
Thanks in advance for your input and support!