This is so embarrassing to share but I'm absolutely at my wits end and just at a total loss of what to do. I keep doing research and just scaring myself even more.
Since february I've (F30) been dealing with persistant pain in my peri-anal area, so bad at times I've been to A&E 4 times and to my GP 5 times. I feel like I keep getting a different outcome every time I see a Dr and I'm absolutely SICK to my back teeth of the Dr sitting in front of me, arguing and disagreeing with what the last Dr I saw has said/advised, it is absolutely demoralising and confusing when I'm in so much pain and just trying to trust what the Dr is saying and get some answers.
First Dr said it was a peri-anal infection - definitely not an abscess, 2nd Dr a week later said it was definitely a peri-anal abscess, then next Dr said nope not an abscess and gave me more antibiotics. Long story short, a Dr I saw a few weeks ago looked at me and said 'why hasn't anyone referred you for further testing?' - I was like, you tell me, I don't know. So she referred me for a bowel inflammation stool sample, a full blood panel and a sigmoidoscopy with strict instruction that if the pain is to flare up badly again to head straight to A&E.
Last Monday I was in a world of pain, so I went to A&E, Dr is grilling me about why I've only been referred for sigmoid and not colonoscopy?? I was like ?? I don't know. She then suggested it could be recto-vaginal endometriosis. She did a rectal exam and didn't note anything suspicious and said it looked 'normal', despite feeling so sore and as if I've been blow torched, blood in my stool, blood and mucus when wiping so she suggested something internal going on. They expedited my referral and I'm having the sigmoid done on the 24th of June.
My blood tests results are just borderline normal on most things, hemoglobin just above normal and ferritin level is only 17 which they don't seem concerned about even though it has tanked from a blood test I had last year which my ferritin was around 50, but I am so tired all of the time, its like a relentless tiredness that just doesn't let up, I'm falling asleep at my desk in the afternoon, as soon as I sit down in the evening, I wake up feeling exhausted after a full nights sleep, struggling to get through my day or keep up with the normal things I do. I ran a half marathon last year and this year it exhausts me just taking the dog for a walk!
Amongst all of this I've had 4 courses of antibiotics, the recent one was a 28 day course that have done absolutely nothing. I've also been prescribed alverine citrate to help with the stomach ache. I've had a hot water bottle strapped to me constantly due to lower back ache and stomach ache. I've had to change the type of underwear I wear due to the pain and sensitivity in the area, I've also switched to wipes instead of toilet paper and I've been using a sitz bath / handheld bidet.
My symptoms:
fatigue and brain fog
loss of appetite
feel full very quickly when I eat so not eating full meals
lower back ache and dull achey feeling all through my hips and pelvis that sometimes radiates through my legs
stomach cramps and pains
blood and mucus in stool and when wiping or in my underwear
extremely sore in the peri-anal area, sometimes it starts as an itch and turns into feeling like I've been blow torched / the area often feels really swollen and the skin really stings, there has been times I've literally sat with an ice pack on it because it gets so hot and sore.
Any ideas what I should do? Anyone been in a similar situation? I've stumbled across information about bowel / rectal cancer online and now I'm terrified and just feel at my wits end with getting the doctors to listen to me. I just want to feel normal again.