Butt what's this pain?

July 15, 2012 9:24 AM

Had a baby and now I have hemmoroids. Some have been thrombosed. Ouch , but survivable (I once had a fissure so I'm not complaining about hemmis). Now, every time I poo I get a general ache radiating out from my butt. My perineum and vulva ache too. Hurts enough to sit at an angle while I'm driving. What is this new bloom of pain?

Also, my OB has refererred me to a general surgeon for this. Should I be seeing a colorectal surgeon instead? Is this even a surgery thing?

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (7 answers total)

Your OB will know better than any of us here, I hope it works out well.
posted by Blasdelb at 10:03 AM on July 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Yeah, we have no way of knowing what this is. Follow your OB's advice.
posted by Specklet at 12:44 PM on July 15, 2012

Until you get to the surgeon, do hemmorhoid creams help? You could try Nupercainal, it works great for me. Or Tucks cream, formerly Anusol.
posted by IndigoRain at 12:59 PM on July 15, 2012

Forgive me if this has already been covered by your health professionals, but in case not ... the "throne" position is remarkably straining on the anatomy of human elimination and raising your feet helps take the stress off that network of muscle. There's a bunch of specially designed footraisers you can get, but I've grabbed a couple of household single-step stools that are 7" high and they work more than not.
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 1:36 PM on July 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

How many days/weeks postpartum are you? Did you have any tears/stitches? Are you able to do any Kegels yet? Do those donut pillows help at all? How about ice packs? Sitz baths? Even if you didn't tear or anything, it could be that there is still some swelling or inflammation, and/or that your pelvic floor sustained some trauma during pushing.
posted by fancyoats at 1:50 PM on July 15, 2012

I have a friend who had some pretty serious childbirth roids, internal and external. She got the surgery and the recovery was hell (it took a long time to stop hurting - there are a lot of nerves back there), but they eventually calmed down. 6 weeks, IIRC.
posted by plinth at 5:16 PM on July 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Are you sure the current pain is from the hemorrhoids? I ask because I had pain that felt like I'd sat on a steak knife, but it was from a suspected broken tailbone (during pregnancy) and my picking up bad habits to avoid the pain. Physical therapy took care of it.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:56 AM on July 18, 2012