13 weeks post treatment

Hi Aslu24 welcome to the forum. Ouch, that sounds pretty painful and very uncomfortable for you. Its a hard area to try to keep dry to allow healing to take place. I'm imagining that the sensation of discomfort is the area being stretched to enable you to open your bowels. I know it may seem like a long time at 13 weeks post treatment but it can take months for us to heal properly. It's awful isn't it we get the op have the treatment and think that's it, but it's not and we are all a little immunocompromised from the treatment. Hopefully with time this will improve but don't hesitate to pick up the phone to your after care team and have a chat or speak with your GP even for some further reassurance if that makes sense? 

Hello AsLu24

At thirteen weeks later I was still carrying round a cushion to sit on, in fact even now two and a half years down the line I have a definite limit as to how long I can sit on a hard chair.  The pain and irritation went on for quite a while too, when you think of what you have had done to your bottom it is hardly surprising.  And it's not as if you can stop the traffic in that area either.

And you poor thing having an abscess, I have had one in that area (a long time ago BC) and I remember how painful it was, and my Mum would always say 'you are run down'.  I think that sums up how many of us feel after the intensive treatment and our bodies can take quite some time to recover.  I hope you are being kind to yourself and not trying to do too much too soon.

Sending a gentle healing hug - I hope you feel better soon.

Irene xx

Hi AsLu24 ,

It’s really difficult I know but we all heal at different rates, the abscess sounds horrendously painful! It’s also that time of year when there’s lots of bugs around so if your immune system hasn’t yet recovered from the bombardment of the chemo & radiotherapy you are going to pick up things much easier. Hopefully things will improve for you soon, maybe have a word with your treating team about some supplements in the short term. I used to have a shot of raw goats milk kefir every morning as it’s an amazing probiotic but was advised to stop this while I was immunocompromised as the bacteria is live bacteria (hence in normal circumstances it being so beneficial for our gut) it feeds all that good bacteria in your gut which is where our immune systems stem from. I began having kefir again 6 months post treatment. 

Are you still using plenty of cream on the irritated skin? Also even now, 6 years on, I can’t use any shower creams down there, I can’t use even fragrance free feminine washes etc., my radiotherapy team said even those kill off all of the good bacteria we need to keep everything down there healthy so I still only was with an aqueous type cream. 

Hope you’re feeling better really soon. 

Nicola