Pudendal Nerve re-growth?
Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2013 6:28 pm
Hello,
I'm new to this site and hope someone will be able to give me some advice.
In February this year I was diagnosed with anal cancer. I began my radiotherapy and chemo in April and this is when the problems began. I started to feel more and more pain from an area around my perineum. This pain was worse when sitting and in the end I had to travel for my treatments in the back of friends cars as I couldn't sit down properly anymore.
The doctor prescribed me more and stronger pain relief as they thought it was my tumour misbehaving, the tumour is only about an 1'1/2" from the exit of my bottom so I can understand their logic. The staff at the hospital obviously thought otherwise and I was admitted straight away when the smell from the swelling became so disgusting that everyone took notice!
It transpired that the problem wasn't my tumour, I had developed a perinatal abscess. Following surgery the surgeon informed me that he had removed an area of gangrene the size of a tennis ball!!! The remaining hole was so deep that doctors were using torches to look into it and it stretched from just below my scrotum, along my perineum and eventually ended to one side of my anus. I spent eight weeks in hospital and I'm still having the wound dressed and cleaned each day by a district nurse.
The reason I'm writing all this is that everything below my perineum was obviously destroyed. My scrotum and penis feels clammy 24/7, I am unable to push in the same way when urinating. I have other problems relating to my penis in that it doesn't "inflate" in the same way when aroused as it used to and strangely enough is even a slightly different shape!! I'm aware that some of these problems may have been caused by the radiotherapy.
I'm assuming that my pudendal nerve has been destroyed by the abscess and gangrene. Could this be the case? Will it grow back and perform its function as normal? Any information would be greatly received.
I'm new to this site and hope someone will be able to give me some advice.
In February this year I was diagnosed with anal cancer. I began my radiotherapy and chemo in April and this is when the problems began. I started to feel more and more pain from an area around my perineum. This pain was worse when sitting and in the end I had to travel for my treatments in the back of friends cars as I couldn't sit down properly anymore.
The doctor prescribed me more and stronger pain relief as they thought it was my tumour misbehaving, the tumour is only about an 1'1/2" from the exit of my bottom so I can understand their logic. The staff at the hospital obviously thought otherwise and I was admitted straight away when the smell from the swelling became so disgusting that everyone took notice!
It transpired that the problem wasn't my tumour, I had developed a perinatal abscess. Following surgery the surgeon informed me that he had removed an area of gangrene the size of a tennis ball!!! The remaining hole was so deep that doctors were using torches to look into it and it stretched from just below my scrotum, along my perineum and eventually ended to one side of my anus. I spent eight weeks in hospital and I'm still having the wound dressed and cleaned each day by a district nurse.
The reason I'm writing all this is that everything below my perineum was obviously destroyed. My scrotum and penis feels clammy 24/7, I am unable to push in the same way when urinating. I have other problems relating to my penis in that it doesn't "inflate" in the same way when aroused as it used to and strangely enough is even a slightly different shape!! I'm aware that some of these problems may have been caused by the radiotherapy.
I'm assuming that my pudendal nerve has been destroyed by the abscess and gangrene. Could this be the case? Will it grow back and perform its function as normal? Any information would be greatly received.
Just to mention that you do have two pudendal nerves and branches, do you think that the problems you have had, has affected both sides? Can the surgeon give you any idea of what had to be removed and how much?