Strong possibility of pn issues, love some feedback
Posted: Thu Feb 14, 2013 6:42 pm
Hi my name is Donna, I have had some ongoing issues since August that I feel may be pn. I will describe my symptoms as accurately as possible. Although it will be difficult to be brief, so I appreciate your patience. I also want to say that I am very happy to have found this website and thank you in advance for reading my posts and for any feedback you may have 
I am a very active 44 y.o. female with a great love of the outdoors, I have been an avid atv rider and snowmobiler for many years and absolutely love these as my favorite hobbies. This past summer I had this not so brilliant idea to buy a dirt bike after watching my son on his and have always wanted to drive a motorcycle. So, my husband and I searched and bought me a nice little bike perfect for my size a Yamaha 125. So I began to practice riding on my son's track and eventually felt confident enough to go trail riding. After a long ride, I would feel like I had pulled muscles in my buttocks and a bit of lower back pain, which would always resolve itself in a few days. I believe this came from the kind of seat on the bike, it was not comfortable at all. But I did love riding and being out and about. My medical problems began to surface in August. Out of the blue one day I started to experience vaginal/groin pain and low back pain, not really knowing what this might be, I just tried to rest at night and continued about my usual activities working, helping take care of my elderly mom. On August 12th. we all had planned to go for a ride to celebrate my birthday. Because I already had the above mentioned pain, I was going back and forth with whether i should ride my dirt bike (my original plan), or ride the atv. My son was also going with his bike and I really wanted to show him how much my riding skills had improved, and so that is what I did. I took my bike. At the end of the day as usual I had buttocks pain from the seat and over the next couple days did have the pain i mentioned (feeling of pulled muscles). After a few days that pain went away like it always did but my groin, low back pain remained. About a week later I started to have very bad discomfort in my buttocks. This was a symptom I had never experienced because it was not immediately after a ride per say. As the next few days came about the pain definetly grew in intensity, at this point I was in a lot of lower back pain (coccyx area), buttocks and groin. I also began to have some discomfort in my left foot. Off to the doctors I went he ran many tests including bloodwork and a physical examination. My white blood count was very high and he treated me for a urinary tract infection. When I went back a few weeks later my white blood count was lowering, but I still had the above pain which just would not relent. At this time, It seemed sitting was more uncomfortable than other positions, I had been taking time off of work at this point, (i am a self-employed house cleaner) and my best work was about an hour drive, so I was mostly lying on the couch and getting up to stretch and prepare meals. My doctor eventually sent me for a mri of my back after my left leg actually gave out and I fell to the floor, which showed some bulging discs and narrowing end plates and he set up a consult with a neurosurgeon who came to the area monthly. He saw me for about 10 minutes, looked at my mri told me there was nothing seriously wrong and collected his 200.00 fee and sent me on my way. Also I was seeing a chiropractor and had 12 adjustments with no relief. The pain persisted and I also began to notice i was bloated more than usual and experiencing some pelvic pain, I was sent for a pelvic catscan. They discovered a large ovarian cyst on my left ovary. Now I had a hysterectomy about 10 years ago and the left ovary and fallopian tube was the only thing left in tact. I met with a very nice ob/gyn who recommended that I have laparascoptic surgery to remove the cyst. It would be a very quick procedure and very minimal recovery time. This was in December so about 4 months after this all began. Surgery was scheduled for Dec. 26th. It made sense to me that perhaps the groin pain could be caused by the cyst and I thought perhaps my muscles and/or nerves were working incorrectly and could possibly be causing my other symptoms of back/buttocks pain. I woke up after surgery to find out that when they put the camera in, they could not get to my ovarian cyst because of massive adhesions and scar tissue. The decision was made to call in another surgeon to assist my ob/gyn. They made a cut at my c-section/hysterectomy scar and continued on with an open incision surgery. They told me that they removed a bunch of adhesions, removed the cyst as well as my fallapion tube and 1/2 of my ovary. So I spent the night at the hospital went home the next day with narcotic pain medications to recover. I saw my ob/gyn a week later and we thought my recovery was going well. Because i now had this new pain from the incision, my pain was mostly there and I didn't seem to have as much pain in the usual areas I had been having, but I did still have pain even with the pain medication. On the third week of recovery, I felt good enough to try and go back to work. At week 4 of post op recovery I began to once again experience major pain in my buttocks, low back and off/on groin pain. I was devastated. At this time I no longer was taking the pain medication and was being weened off diazepam which i had been taking since august for a strong muscle relaxer. Come week 5 I was out of my mind in excrutiating pain, it seemed much worse than before. A real eye opener because I didn't think the pain could get any worse before the surgery to yes it is much worse. I was feeling like oh my god what am I going to do. My job was suffering, my husband and family also was suffering right along with me, but mostly I began to feel very defeated and scratching my head for answers??? Then, I was at week 6 of post-op and all of a sudden I could not have a bowel movement and I was so uncomfortable. After 5 days of not going, I went to the emergency room, I thought maybe I had an obstruction. I was also very very nauseaus. They did blood work, did another catscan with contrast to check for obstruction in my intensines and found none. They gave me some very strong pain medication through my i.v. and nauseau medication that day, which I can honestly say it gave me very minimal relief from this pain. They told me to get some laxatives and that should do the job. That was on a monday, on Tuesday my mother in law sent over a bottle of mirolax I took 5 doses of that and drank a total of a dozen glasses of water and went to bed that night so miserably uncomfortable. I was also experiencing pain in my mid back and under my shoulder blades, pain I still have. Finally the next day (Wed.) about 5 a.m. the gas cramping started and very painful to release the gas but I was eventually able to have about 5 bowels movements (loose stools) and as the day progressed my nauseau seemed to be getting better and I thought wow, well that did the trick. It did for a day or two then I was again not able to go on my own. This has been going on now for about 3 weeks. I have become very concerned about my pain levels and now not being able to have bm's on my own. Last Monday I called my ob/gyn which the e.r said i should do and was told by the receptionist that this is a problem more for the other surgeon and not the ob/gyn. I called them yesterday and the dr. I had is on vacation and has another doctor on call. I explained everything to the receptionist and she said she would look at the e.r. reports and call the dr. to see what he wants to do. Called me back and told me he said to keep taking laxatives and wait for the dr. to get back. As you can imagine I was very upset, I felt like I was being blown off and felt that this is now a serious problem and needs to be taken as such. I expressed that to the receptionist who called the dr. back and he called me personally. I told him I needed to be seen, I am very concerned about my pain and constipation and am suffering a great deal he reluctantly changed his mind and had me come in for appt. at 2:00. He told me on the phone that my cat scan the week before also showed a 6 cm. ovarian cyst and I told him, that can't be they took out the 5.6 cm. in December. I then called the ob/gyn and was very upset and wanted some answers to why i still had this cyst that they told me was removed. The Dr. got on the phone and reassured me that they did indeed remove the cyst and that this must be a new cyst. WOW, can it get any worse. He is a very kind dr. and wants to see me today at 3:30 to discuss this reoccuring cyst issue. Let me rewind to last night as I lay here in complete agony I get online to start trying to find answers again and I end up at the pudendal nerve pages. Wow again I am back hearing the words pudendal nerve which i actually saw online back in August when my symptoms first began. At that time I had many of the symptoms of pn pain and told my husband about it. A week after that on one of my visits to the e.r. my husband and I were arguing because I was so frustrated with not getting any answers and crying, I was so upset and he was pointing out that I was a terrible patient on the computer all the time, trying to self-diagnose my problems and he was upset about this. So it was at that time that I thought maybe he is right and I don't know what is wrong with me and kind of put my suspicion of pn issues in the back of my mind. But, last night when I again was led to pn information, i feel i cannot ignore this possibility anymore because I now have all the symptoms of pn. I am wondering if my original problems that started in august may have been pudendal nerve encroachment from riding the dirt bike and is now worse perhaps pudendal nerve being trapped because of the trauma of pelvic surgery irritating an already existing problem. The surgeon yesterday told me that he wants to do a colonoscopy to rule out any blockages ,colon cancer and things of that nature. My concern is that he might inadvertanly cause more problems if I do have a nerve issue such as pn. I am very much in fear right now as things have gotton to a very serious point. When I go to my ob/gyn later today i am going to bring with me my research on pn and share my concerns and see if he has any ideas. I do not know if he has any experience with pn problems. I live in maine, which is very rural and I don't know where to go from here and what kind of dr. I should see. The costs of specialist is an issue as my finances are poor. So, this is where I am at and asking for anybody reading this post to please please give me your feedback on my story. I know it has become a lengthy story but I feel I needed to tell all to you to receive proper feedback. Thank you so much for reading my story, I am very scared and i am desperately seeking answers.
I am a very active 44 y.o. female with a great love of the outdoors, I have been an avid atv rider and snowmobiler for many years and absolutely love these as my favorite hobbies. This past summer I had this not so brilliant idea to buy a dirt bike after watching my son on his and have always wanted to drive a motorcycle. So, my husband and I searched and bought me a nice little bike perfect for my size a Yamaha 125. So I began to practice riding on my son's track and eventually felt confident enough to go trail riding. After a long ride, I would feel like I had pulled muscles in my buttocks and a bit of lower back pain, which would always resolve itself in a few days. I believe this came from the kind of seat on the bike, it was not comfortable at all. But I did love riding and being out and about. My medical problems began to surface in August. Out of the blue one day I started to experience vaginal/groin pain and low back pain, not really knowing what this might be, I just tried to rest at night and continued about my usual activities working, helping take care of my elderly mom. On August 12th. we all had planned to go for a ride to celebrate my birthday. Because I already had the above mentioned pain, I was going back and forth with whether i should ride my dirt bike (my original plan), or ride the atv. My son was also going with his bike and I really wanted to show him how much my riding skills had improved, and so that is what I did. I took my bike. At the end of the day as usual I had buttocks pain from the seat and over the next couple days did have the pain i mentioned (feeling of pulled muscles). After a few days that pain went away like it always did but my groin, low back pain remained. About a week later I started to have very bad discomfort in my buttocks. This was a symptom I had never experienced because it was not immediately after a ride per say. As the next few days came about the pain definetly grew in intensity, at this point I was in a lot of lower back pain (coccyx area), buttocks and groin. I also began to have some discomfort in my left foot. Off to the doctors I went he ran many tests including bloodwork and a physical examination. My white blood count was very high and he treated me for a urinary tract infection. When I went back a few weeks later my white blood count was lowering, but I still had the above pain which just would not relent. At this time, It seemed sitting was more uncomfortable than other positions, I had been taking time off of work at this point, (i am a self-employed house cleaner) and my best work was about an hour drive, so I was mostly lying on the couch and getting up to stretch and prepare meals. My doctor eventually sent me for a mri of my back after my left leg actually gave out and I fell to the floor, which showed some bulging discs and narrowing end plates and he set up a consult with a neurosurgeon who came to the area monthly. He saw me for about 10 minutes, looked at my mri told me there was nothing seriously wrong and collected his 200.00 fee and sent me on my way. Also I was seeing a chiropractor and had 12 adjustments with no relief. The pain persisted and I also began to notice i was bloated more than usual and experiencing some pelvic pain, I was sent for a pelvic catscan. They discovered a large ovarian cyst on my left ovary. Now I had a hysterectomy about 10 years ago and the left ovary and fallopian tube was the only thing left in tact. I met with a very nice ob/gyn who recommended that I have laparascoptic surgery to remove the cyst. It would be a very quick procedure and very minimal recovery time. This was in December so about 4 months after this all began. Surgery was scheduled for Dec. 26th. It made sense to me that perhaps the groin pain could be caused by the cyst and I thought perhaps my muscles and/or nerves were working incorrectly and could possibly be causing my other symptoms of back/buttocks pain. I woke up after surgery to find out that when they put the camera in, they could not get to my ovarian cyst because of massive adhesions and scar tissue. The decision was made to call in another surgeon to assist my ob/gyn. They made a cut at my c-section/hysterectomy scar and continued on with an open incision surgery. They told me that they removed a bunch of adhesions, removed the cyst as well as my fallapion tube and 1/2 of my ovary. So I spent the night at the hospital went home the next day with narcotic pain medications to recover. I saw my ob/gyn a week later and we thought my recovery was going well. Because i now had this new pain from the incision, my pain was mostly there and I didn't seem to have as much pain in the usual areas I had been having, but I did still have pain even with the pain medication. On the third week of recovery, I felt good enough to try and go back to work. At week 4 of post op recovery I began to once again experience major pain in my buttocks, low back and off/on groin pain. I was devastated. At this time I no longer was taking the pain medication and was being weened off diazepam which i had been taking since august for a strong muscle relaxer. Come week 5 I was out of my mind in excrutiating pain, it seemed much worse than before. A real eye opener because I didn't think the pain could get any worse before the surgery to yes it is much worse. I was feeling like oh my god what am I going to do. My job was suffering, my husband and family also was suffering right along with me, but mostly I began to feel very defeated and scratching my head for answers??? Then, I was at week 6 of post-op and all of a sudden I could not have a bowel movement and I was so uncomfortable. After 5 days of not going, I went to the emergency room, I thought maybe I had an obstruction. I was also very very nauseaus. They did blood work, did another catscan with contrast to check for obstruction in my intensines and found none. They gave me some very strong pain medication through my i.v. and nauseau medication that day, which I can honestly say it gave me very minimal relief from this pain. They told me to get some laxatives and that should do the job. That was on a monday, on Tuesday my mother in law sent over a bottle of mirolax I took 5 doses of that and drank a total of a dozen glasses of water and went to bed that night so miserably uncomfortable. I was also experiencing pain in my mid back and under my shoulder blades, pain I still have. Finally the next day (Wed.) about 5 a.m. the gas cramping started and very painful to release the gas but I was eventually able to have about 5 bowels movements (loose stools) and as the day progressed my nauseau seemed to be getting better and I thought wow, well that did the trick. It did for a day or two then I was again not able to go on my own. This has been going on now for about 3 weeks. I have become very concerned about my pain levels and now not being able to have bm's on my own. Last Monday I called my ob/gyn which the e.r said i should do and was told by the receptionist that this is a problem more for the other surgeon and not the ob/gyn. I called them yesterday and the dr. I had is on vacation and has another doctor on call. I explained everything to the receptionist and she said she would look at the e.r. reports and call the dr. to see what he wants to do. Called me back and told me he said to keep taking laxatives and wait for the dr. to get back. As you can imagine I was very upset, I felt like I was being blown off and felt that this is now a serious problem and needs to be taken as such. I expressed that to the receptionist who called the dr. back and he called me personally. I told him I needed to be seen, I am very concerned about my pain and constipation and am suffering a great deal he reluctantly changed his mind and had me come in for appt. at 2:00. He told me on the phone that my cat scan the week before also showed a 6 cm. ovarian cyst and I told him, that can't be they took out the 5.6 cm. in December. I then called the ob/gyn and was very upset and wanted some answers to why i still had this cyst that they told me was removed. The Dr. got on the phone and reassured me that they did indeed remove the cyst and that this must be a new cyst. WOW, can it get any worse. He is a very kind dr. and wants to see me today at 3:30 to discuss this reoccuring cyst issue. Let me rewind to last night as I lay here in complete agony I get online to start trying to find answers again and I end up at the pudendal nerve pages. Wow again I am back hearing the words pudendal nerve which i actually saw online back in August when my symptoms first began. At that time I had many of the symptoms of pn pain and told my husband about it. A week after that on one of my visits to the e.r. my husband and I were arguing because I was so frustrated with not getting any answers and crying, I was so upset and he was pointing out that I was a terrible patient on the computer all the time, trying to self-diagnose my problems and he was upset about this. So it was at that time that I thought maybe he is right and I don't know what is wrong with me and kind of put my suspicion of pn issues in the back of my mind. But, last night when I again was led to pn information, i feel i cannot ignore this possibility anymore because I now have all the symptoms of pn. I am wondering if my original problems that started in august may have been pudendal nerve encroachment from riding the dirt bike and is now worse perhaps pudendal nerve being trapped because of the trauma of pelvic surgery irritating an already existing problem. The surgeon yesterday told me that he wants to do a colonoscopy to rule out any blockages ,colon cancer and things of that nature. My concern is that he might inadvertanly cause more problems if I do have a nerve issue such as pn. I am very much in fear right now as things have gotton to a very serious point. When I go to my ob/gyn later today i am going to bring with me my research on pn and share my concerns and see if he has any ideas. I do not know if he has any experience with pn problems. I live in maine, which is very rural and I don't know where to go from here and what kind of dr. I should see. The costs of specialist is an issue as my finances are poor. So, this is where I am at and asking for anybody reading this post to please please give me your feedback on my story. I know it has become a lengthy story but I feel I needed to tell all to you to receive proper feedback. Thank you so much for reading my story, I am very scared and i am desperately seeking answers.