Stress affects our entire body - in and out!
Anemone: God bless u sweetie and may HE heal us all from these painful AF :(

Hey Sweet,
I wondered about the hormone connection too. But I think I just like to blame everything on my hormones! lol!
I know I heal a bit slower now than I used to, though.
I got an electric heating pad yesterday and sat on it while watching tv before bed.
Very NIiiiiiiCE. :D
I had it on the lowest setting too. Can't imagine being able to withstand the hottest setting!
-woi

granny, I pray for that, too.
woi - I used to get away with alot more than I can now. I could eat anything and everything, with no problems at all. Now, I have to watch my IBS and this vicious AF problem.
The heating pads are great - but like you said, I have to keep mine on the very lowest setting - and even at that, it starts to feel a bit too warm, after awhile. That said, they are very relaxing, IMO.

You guys are great. So glad I found this forum

Me, too, Anemone!
I think I'd lose my mind, if I couldn't come here and vent (while sitting on this heating pad)!
I'm sure we'd all rather be out living our lives, pain free - but since we're not (right now, at least), we can come here and talk to other sufferers who understand - and then we don't feel so isolated. Plus, it's nice to share success stories and information.

Hey I got this article from jr,
kinda lays out the connections between stress and our sore bums.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/23/health/23gut.html?pagewanted=all
What a viscous circle!
anxiety->sore bum->anxiety
-Tanya

Interesting article, thanks Tanya

From everything I've read, stress is definitely a factor, which is probably working against my favor. I've been off from work for seven months now, thanks to an unknown neuro-psych thing that brings tremors to my hand, blackouts that can range from a couple minutes to a couple hours,and a loss of comprehension while reading. The meds they've tried have yet to achieve success, and now, in the last month, I've developed another AF, much more painful than my go around last year. If all this were not enough, a herniated disc and spinal stenosis are playing hell with the sciatic nerve on my left side. Like Alfred E Neuman from MAD Magazine was always noted as saying, "What, me worry?" Most days now, at some point, I want to just cash in my chips. Its a hard road to go, but I'd be certain that stress plays some part.

Which pales my problems into insignificance, comparatively speaking.
Sending you positive vibes rasmith..

Thanks for the support. I just awoke (6:45AM local) and went to the bathroom. There was still some light bleeding from my BM at about 9:00PM last night, and although I'm not experiencing sharp pain, my bum is still pretty tender. If all goes according to course, I'll be like this at least half of today.