New user (with questions)

[Matt89]

Hi everyone,

my name is Matthias and I'm 26 years old and from Vienna, Austria. My story started about 8 weeks ago when I had a stool with the worst pain of my life EVER (way worse than every dentist visit). I was first diagnosed an anal fissure, took medicine and 1-2 weeks later went back to another hospital because obviously the pain didn't disappear during bowel movements (also blood was still often involved, but only small amounts). My new doctor thought it was just a bad stool inside that caused pain, so she gave me a laxative but the pain remained. 2 or 3 weeks later I came back and she finally diagnosed PN. I am on pain medicine now (Neurontin 900 per day) and waiting for my next appointment on Jan. 20th.

Right now I am still in pain during bowel movements (not as much as the one movement where it started, but still a lot). What has changed is that now - throughout the say - I also experience itching and burning (more like a thin needle spiking me actually) several times a day - not bad and not all the time. The worst thing of the day is still the bowel movement by far.

I did tons of research the last weeks and got plenty of great information (also on this site - thanks for that!). Still there are some questions left:

-) Are there any figures on percentages in terms of chance of healing by medication or nerve block alone? I somewhere read 5 to 30% for nerve blocks but nothing about medication? I would just like to have a serious, rational outlook about my future - is it most likely that I will carry it on forever and have to deal with symptom treating for the rest of my life? I'd really like to see the "average prognosis" although I do know that the range of development is huge.

-) On the main page I wrote something about bending being bad. Does that also include lying with feet elevated since the angle of the thigh and the torso also change when doing so?

-) From what I read most people with PN fight the most with the pain throughout the day. I haven't read that much about a) bowel movements being that much worse and b) seeing blood during that. So might it still be some other disease? Notice I also have 2. grade hemorrhoids (maybe they lead to blood stool?)? By the way I feel no discomfort urinating or during sex or orgasm. The pain and itching is all in the anus and perineum area.

-) I am doing exercises for pelvic release on my own now (2x10mins per day like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZtb6ZDDQ2g) - as much as I read, this can be advantageous in case I have PN (but not PNE)? Is there anything I can do wrong/damage with that or are there other additional things I can do?

Thank you so much in advance!

Greetings,

Matthias

[janetm2]

Matthias,
I can provide some info and hopefully you will hear from others as well. Bowel movements are one of my issues since my pain is most often rectal. I think there may be more folks mentioning pain in perinium, vaginal, etc so they may not be as affected by bowel movements. Anyway I have had constipation issues which also aggravates the nerve and a bowel movement can cause my PN to flare. I have added stool softeners and miralax to get that under control.

The needle pain is a nerve symptom. I have had shooting nerve pain suddenly for short burst with high pain. Fortunately they are quick but kinda scary.

I can omly suggest monitoring your exercises in case they start to aggravate the condition and you can slow down to what you can handle. The crazt thing is some thing you do today may seem fine and the pain happens days later.

Wishing you the best in keeping this from taking over. The FAQs off the homepage and other info around the site may help with other ideas to try.

Janet

[solarmom]

Hi
Yes the rectal pain can be the nerve but if there is still blood it seems like there may still be some damage that your body hasn't healed yet. Are the hemorrhoids internal? My pain has been primarily rectal plus sitting but I know it was from lifting. Do you get any relief from NSAIDs, heat, ice? I take gabapentin but found the pain has changed over time so that these other standard anti inflammatory methods now help after Bm.

[Matt89]

JanetM2 thank you for your reply, it feels so good to be understood. I'll keep on doing my exercises and see how it will turn out

Solarmam thank you for your reply as well, my hemorrhoids are internal (grade 2). What do you mean by having them from lifting? I was lifting weights for over 10 years too. Did you experience the pain during exercise first? Or during a bowl movement and you think that the lifting was the important factor that led to that?

Thanks in advance!

All the best!