Still in pain after 8 weeks

Hello Watkinab36b5 

I am so sorry that you are still suffering so much; I remember it so well and I used to wonder if I would ever go back to that vague feeling of satisfaction that the routine of emptying my bowels in the morning used to bring.  Please do contact a member of the team that treated you; having a little blood happens frequently in the early days and sometimes always appears if a hard poo is passed.  But it may be that you have a fissure which can be extremely painful (I should stress I only know from what I have read on here, I have no medical training). 

My commiserations, I do hope your pain eases very soon.

Big hug

Irene xx

Hello Watkinsb36b5,

 I’m sorry that you are still in pain after 8 weeks when I’m sure you were hoping for a return to some normality. It sounds really uncomfortable.

 I can only speak from my own experience and say that I also experienced ongoing bleeding on opening my bowels. The pain did decrease however although it took about 12 weeks. 

I am coming up to 10 months post treatment and I mentioned the bleeding to my Oncologist 3 weeks ago in an outpatient appointment. He surprised me by saying that it’s still ‘early days’. He explained that the blood vessels are fragile and bleed easily and that this is absolutely normal. I still have to take stool softeners. 

Your bleeding however is partly coming from open external wounds so I do wonder if that should be checked properly as clearly taking a long time to heal. 

I hope that you are able to get a review and some help as it must be distressing to still be in so much pain. I really hope that things improve for you very soon.

xx

Thank you Irene I’m just going to get through it day by day and hopefully it will get better as I’m doing everything that my team has told me . The worst thing I’m finding is not being able to sit down for 2 to 3 hours after I’ve opened my bowels as it’s so painful 

Thank you so much for the reply it really does help 

Hi Watkinab36b5 ,

Just a bit of reassurance that you’re not along with what you’re experiencing right now. Even 7 years on I remember that eye watering pain only too well. 

My external skin healed really quickly after my side effects had peaked which was around day 11 post treatment but what was going on internally was a bit of a different matter. 

Are you finding it difficult to go to the loo? I had to take stool softeners throughout my recovery to keep things soft enough to make it a little easier. 

A couple of members here have mentioned in the past that they’ve been prescribed creams with slight numbing properties so it would probably be worth having a conversation with either your treating team or your GP. 

I hope you get some relief soon. 

Nicola 

Yes definitely take the stool softeners and drink lots of water and do take cream but I will talk to someone re perhaps a stronger numbing cream on Monday Thank you