Hello again...pain

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Hello again...pain

Postby hurtinend » 25 Mar 2017, 12:53

I believe I've come full circle.

Years of anal pain, you can search my history....

In the last year I've developed bladder/urination problems....got so bad ended in emergency on New Year's Day - doc told me I had prostatitis, was directly referred to a urologist, had a cystoscopy, was told I had a tilted bladder, and that prostate pain can be confused with fissure and anal pain. Was given meds with horrid side effects (Flomax), didn't help.

Sorry for the rant, I don't know what to think anymore, possibly pelvic pain syndrome.

My life has ended as I once knew it. Daily pain, irritation, now an inability to empty bladder along with the lump of hot coal that lives and thrives down there.
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Re: Hello again...pain

Postby GilmoreGirl » 25 Mar 2017, 14:42

I'm really sorry you're going through this...this kind of pain can just ruin lives.

Maybe you've tried this, but I would suggest checking out a pelvic floor physiotherapist (a specialist, not just any old physio). They deal with pelvic pain all day every day - at the very least they may be able to help you figure out exactly what's happening.

You may also want to ask your doctor for a referral to a pain center at your local hospital. Maybe they can work out a multi-disciplined strategy to help treat your symptoms and make life a little easier.

I'm really hoping that you can find some relief soon

-GG
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Re: Hello again...pain

Postby hurtinend » 26 Mar 2017, 12:46

I appreciate your advice and I will follow up on it. I have recently seen a pelvic floor physio and have some kegel exercises to do.
Pain Management is great advice. A friend has recommended gabapentin. It's a med for nerve pain, worth a try, minimal side effects. My doc must prescribe it.
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Re: Hello again...pain

Postby GilmoreGirl » 26 Mar 2017, 13:54

I might get a second opinion on the physio - kegels are normally not recommended if you have a tight pelvic floor...have they given you any massage or anything to work on, or practiced relaxing the pelvic floor?
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Re: Hello again...pain

Postby dmcff » 28 Mar 2017, 03:48

I'm also not sure what to think. I'm now in my third year of anal pain, of varying intensity, and have still not found a path towards relief or resolution. Have been diagnosed with anal fissure, but can't seem to find a physician or CRS who can definitively tell me what's actually wrong - i.e. why doesn't it heal and just go away. In the second year of the pain I was told by an out of hours doctor at the local hospital that my pain was something that couldn't be treated by physical methods, and advised to seek psychotherapy. I now see a therapist once a week, and have found this helpful, though it hasn't stopped the pain. I have also been on pregabalin (Lyrica) for two years now, and have also found that helpful, though again it hasn't blocked the pain entirely.

I read an interesting article by a practising GP about how doctors respond, or fail to respond, to physical pain in their patients. Why is it so hard for doctors and patients to cope with chronic pain? he asks.

We are naturally solution-focused and the stories doctors like to tell about our work and our patients like to tell about their illnesses is a ‘restitution narrative’ in which illness is overcome and good health restored. We find it difficult to describe alternative narratives and this leaves us and our patients with chronic pain deeply frustrated. Doctors who cannot make their patients better, or even relieve their symptoms, suffer crises of identity and purpose and seek to avoid the situations that make us feel like this.


I had a real struggle with my last GP over this and related issues: he wanted above all to establish that I had some clearly identifiable physical illness - whether it was Crohn's, or UC, or prostatitis, or even cancer - and after several months of seeing me and sending me for hospital tests and examinations became exasperated and even angry that none of these explorations led to any firm conclusion, beyond the fact that I had suffered and was suffering from chronic anal fissures. In the end, after he had begun to prescribe anti-depressants for me, I left him and changed doctors. Now, if I want to actually see my new doctor I have a 4-week wait, though I can talk to her on the phone. It's not really satisfactory, but in some ways it's better than when I was constantly going to the surgery (or the emergency services) with my pain, desperately hoping that some cure could be found.

Gradually I've had to come to terms with the realisation that there may be no cure for this affliction I've somehow contracted. The symptoms and the pain are real - I have recurring fissures, which can be seen and treated with GTN, etc., but the consensus of the doctors and specialists I've seen appears to be that I will have to learn to live with them, and that surgical intervention will do more harm than good in the case of a 72-year-old like myself.

I'm sorry that this is all about myself - but I thought that at least by describing my own experience it might help you with coping with yours. Though there may not be a complete solution, at least there's the knowledge that one isn't alone, and that the pain of the condition, though often miserable, is something that can be survived, thought about, shared, and even confronted.
2014 Anal fissure
2015 CAT, EUA, sigmoidoscopy, 2 MRI
2016 Pain severe then moderate to low
2017 Moderate pain
2018 Physical therapy, pain management
2019-20 Living with it
2021 Still AF
2022 Therapy, meditation
2023 Onward, up
2024 CT scan
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Re: Hello again...pain

Postby hurtinend » 28 Mar 2017, 13:10

HI....it's okay, I understand. I've been on and off this board for many years.

I find most specialists are focused on cancer or something life threatening. I've gone through 2 or 3 diagnosis...fissure, pelvic pain syndrome, prostatitis.

Unfortunately I do get that we have something fundamentally wrong down there. I cannot get rid of that hot lump of coal. The recent urinary difficulties have literally sent me off the edge.

I wish you peace.
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Re: Hello again...pain

Postby hurtinend » 28 Mar 2017, 13:18

oh and to GilmoreGirl:

great point, the therapist told me the exercises are designed for relaxation, not really "kegels". Basically understanding the feeling of the muscles down there, and how they should open and release...TMI
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Re: Hello again...pain

Postby GilmoreGirl » 28 Mar 2017, 13:40

Ok great! Make sure to really focus on that relaxation part between "squeezes", that helped me!

Did they mention anything about doing manual work?

-GG
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Re: Hello again...pain

Postby hurtinend » 28 Mar 2017, 13:48

no nothing mentioned about manual work. They recommended I purchase TENS machine for electrical stimulation of the area. I haven't done that yet.
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Re: Hello again...pain

Postby hurtinend » 01 Apr 2017, 14:11

so the last 2 days...TMI...pain, blood on bm

ended up at walk in med clinic this morning. Doc said I have thrombosed hem and fissure. Prescribed Proctodan Suppositories.

I'm done.
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