When do bowel, bladder, sex organs problems start?

[Hugh]

While I don't have any apparent bad effects on bowel function nor on bladder function and my sex organs seem to be working OK, I wonder if these sorts of problems develop very gradually over years or rather quickly (say within the time span of a year). I suppose it depends on what was the cause of the nerve damage and where the nerve is damaged and how badly the nerve is injured or damaged.

This past April, I had an odd thing happen to the bowels. I started to have evening time nausea (without throwing up). This went on for a few days and then I had bad pain across the entire width of my lower abdomen. I went to the emergency room where the doc said my ab has to be X-rayed. When he had the results, he called me over to the computer to show me that my entire colon was packed with stool-- he said I was severely constipated. But I can't recall that my diet nor water intake had changed at all in April-- both seemed to be the usual same intake I have--> a good amount of daily fiber and a moderate amount of water intake. The lower ab pain I was experiencing was from all that stool packed into the colon. Without offering me any explanation for this problem, he sent me home with Miralax, a chemical laxative which I took for 3 or 4 days 'til bowel movements started again. And, as I recall after stopping the Miralax, the stool from each bowel would either all be floating or some would be floating. Mine had always sunk before this April problem. I called a nurse who said that stool float because too much gas is getting into them. Also, maybe during the 3 to 4 day use of the Miralax and certainly after ending the Miralax, I'd have as many as 3 bowel movements in a day when normal before this was usually just one/day. After weeks of seeing them all float or some of them float, the sinking kind were back. But I think it was on this past Friday when I started to have the evening nausea again and I noticed in two bowel movements in the last 2 days that one stool was oddly standing on end as if it were trying to float. Knowing that the pudendal nerve controls the bowels, I'm just wondering if I'm starting to have some kind of constipation problem start, one that will require me to pay close attention to evening time nausea and being prepared to take Miralax again. I don't want to be X-rayed every time this ab pain problem happens, if it happens again. Yesterday I did start using the Miralax just in case.

Would a colon become so backed up and packed with stool with the back-up starting at the colon's end by the rectum or from the end by the small intestine? Or does this sort of bad constipation (a kind causing lower ab pain) begin at some point in life and tend to happen due to age?

[calluna]

Lots of issues here.

I started my PN journey with a situation identical to yours - except that I thought they had the wrong Xray as I'd been having a BM three times a day. I was not able to empty the bowel properly due to prolapse, and although I knew I was having problems I had no idea that things had actually got backed up like that. When the colon was full, my insides basically all came to a halt and it was very uncomfortable. The pain is because the bowel walls are overstretched, the nausea is because the bowel is full and your body is telling you not to eat. Why it happened to you - well, I'm sure that the emergency room doctor was right not to hazard a guess. You'd need to have this properly investigated.

'Floaters' - well, this is normal, it is what you want. Whether you get this or not depends on what you eat - specifically fat intake and fibre intake. I hadn't heard this idea about gas in the stool. But everyone has a different sort of normal, and if it is an indicator for you that things aren't right, then that's pretty useful really.

Miralax/movicol is what is known as an osmotic laxative, it works by bring more water into the large bowel. If you've got impaction (as when we had our respective xrays) it can take something akin to dynamite to get things back to normal. The bowel has been overstretched, that takes time to get back to normal too, and 'normal' BMs can end up going past impacted stuff that is still stuck to the sides. So you may not have been as clear as you thought, it can take a bit of time.

The pudendal nerve doesn't actually control the bowel, it innervates the lower third of the rectum - if I've remembered that correctly. Constipation can cause PN problems because the full bowel puts pressure on the nerve.

I'd say, for the time being keep taking the Miralax as needed, you know what the pain and nausea means. They use this stuff on stroke wards, it is safe for continued use.

And go see your doctor right away, you need to find out why this is happening to you. A change in bowel habit should be investigated promptly. This isn't normal at any stage of life. Remember that the nerve may not be damaged at all, this may have an entirely different cause.

[carolynm]

Ditto that from Calluna...keep using the Miralax (once a day) and see your doc to discuss.

[paininmybutt]

I guess mine started after I went to have my testicle removed because for some number of years nobody could find an answer, and I felt as If I had been kicked between the legs 24-7. The nausea had already prefaced the bowel issues, but it became all in hindsight as the nausea sight for me was at the splenic flexure. It was at this site my bowel now cramps 24-7, and I utilize oxy to virtually anesthetize the site so stools and gas will pass. It affects me from the flexure through to the rectum, and this is confirmed by my personal research of the nervous system controls. Lately I have been feeling pain in my right side after TG and 2 years. Injections helped in obturator internus, but when pain started developing in the right I stopped to keep further pelvic instability from forming. At least this is what I thought was going on. Now that the right testicle is beginning to feel pain my bowel from the spleenic flexure forward into the small bowel has begun to experience seizure. I can reposition my pelvis to an extent to release the bowel to function, but Oxy is my primary. The problem with Oxy is dosage is all over the map, and sometimes I have to come down off for a couple of days just to restore effectiveness. I hold back any chance I get so I can maintain a habit of doing so. I communicate with my wife when I feel down, and she begins asking daily questions about intake. Never had a problem with abuse so far. I put the tablet in my mouth and suck on it. I find it spreads the effects more evenly, and it decreases the likelyhood that I will overdose if the tablet somehow hangs up in my bowel. I have been on dosages as high as 240mg daily, but was only able to hold that dosage for about two months and my joints swollen and in pain forced me to back down to under 100mg. I might get three times a year where I can function with an increasing dosage, but generally I am lounging at home and in pain 40% of the time at a 3-4, between 11am, and 3 pm at wich time I prep for sleep in 3-5 hour bursts. Depending on my success I may have a functional day, or I may spend the next two days trying to iron out a restful sleep of generally 3-5 hours, the rest of the time I am 7-8 in pain. I have three children with busy schedules, and as you can see I rarely pull off a standard day. It is by chance I found any schedule that worked even once in a while. Weather changes also have a great deal of affect on my success of having enough rest, being able to eat, or even doing the laundry. Luckily we have streamlined, and simplified our lives so that we can easily catch up if I have a couple of bad day's. I am just asking my wife: I began having testicle pain in 2004-5 I had my testicle removed sometime in 2010, and the bowel problems right after that so,..about 5 years for me without going back into paperwork.

[calluna]

Hi there - so sorry to hear that things are so difficult for you and that you are in so much pain. Pain levels as high as that are really horrible.

Could I just ask - what is Oxy?

[paininmybutt]

calluna,... Oxy,... is Oxycontin. Usually when someone is released from surgery you recieve something for pain. Oxycodone, or Percocet, Loritab, etc., are all general measures of Narcotic. Generally Oxycodone is given in dosages of anywhere between 5-10Mg of narcotic (10 generally being the highest), and 325Mg of acedemenaphine (tylonol). Please forgive my spelling tonight. To give you an idea of pain levels/thresholds: I have had these lower dosages in it's narcotic/acedemedaphine mix, but for long term pain management of individuals who are in real trouble doctor's will prescribe just the narcotic. I have had sinus surgeries that are suppose to be worse than childbirth. I believe it. That pain pretty much maxed out 10/325 Oxycodone. As the scabs peeled away from the inside of my sinuses it literally felt like someone was pulling my brain out through my nose. I remember screaming as hard as I could just to give myself something to focus on besides the pain. For the pain I have had with PNE that 5-10Mg dosage of relief is generally 100Mg to keep me taking care of myself (not "pain-free" mind you). If my activity increases it can move up to 180. After my transgluteal approach I had a period of time (5 Months?), where 240Mg was necassary. After 45 days my joints began to swell so much that the pain the narcotic was causing began to be high. By 90 days it was so much it was heads and tails what was causing more pain: PNE, or Oxycontin. It is hard to look at this in hindsight as when you are going through it you really engage your pain from one breath to another: even with the narcotic. I really do not know how individuals take these long term narcotics very long without ending up in a casket. The delivery they use is a gelatinous tablet that absorbs so much water that it gums up your digestive system. I drink vinegar strait from the bottle to maintain my body's ability to digest, and offset the effects (yummy ). Some days my entire diet is vinegar and honey in water. I believe this is the only thing that has kept me alive. I suck on the tablets so they will not get me high (more yummy ), and deliver a more uniform dosage of pain relief. I take 3000Mg of Gabapentin daily not because it really does anything for my pain, but because it smooths out the effects of the narcotic, and again keeps me from getting high. I never use to take anything for pain before this, and to keep up hope I try daily to deny myself any measure of relief possible to hopefully make it easier when I have to back away from the narcotic altogether. I guess I assume a lot on this site. I suppose pain has been so normal for me most of my life that, well,...I have to think backwards. I have posted less posts than I have fingers. I am just now learning that there are a whole rainbow of pain levels here. I suppose I am on the higher end for pain. I suppose there are not so many individuals as myself. I pray you never get to know God like I have,...