Health Organization for Pudendal Education

Hi I had left sided TG surgery on Sept. 23rd with Dr Conway , the surgery went well, he found that my pudendal nerve was growing through my sacrospinous ligament , and in his words a lot of scar tissue, which all sounded encouraging, and he got my EMG to a 2 !!
The first couple days were fine , they kept the epidural in , but as soon as they removed the epi , I had pain in my RIGHT hip that was so intense , I did not know if it was a spasm , from lying on that side so much in the hospital , so I stopped lying on it, got a bit better but still sore to the touch, I have some burning between my cheeks but short lived..I had to stop taking meds due to nausea , my legs are still a bit weak from surgery but better then after my first surgery TIR.
The problem I am having is the pain that I initially had , hip , leg and back pain on my left side are back, which is very depressing because I am afraid that I had the surgery for nothing and that I might of even made my symptoms worst!!! I woke up crying in pain, just as I have done prior to surgery, I am Scared!!!

Anyone who have had this surgery , did your symptoms go away immediately after surgery of did it take weeks, months???

Jen,

I'm sorry about your continuing pain. I have not had PN surgery but from what I understand, it can take a very very very long time for a nerve to heal once it has been decompressed. Don't forget that the nerve was manipulated a lot during surgery and will need to recover from that, too. (If in any doubt about how much the nerve is manipulated during surgery, take a look at RR's video which he posted under Case Updates some time ago.)

So hang in there, Jen! There is light at the end of the tunnel, even if it seems far away . . .

Thinking about you.

As Lernica said Jen, The nerve would have had to be manipulated, especially if there was all that scar tissue to deal with so 10 days is probably too early to tell much of anything. Easy for me to say as have not had surgery. The fact that Dr Conway found such a conclusive reason for your pain is significant. I hope things go well for you, and you continue to recover.
Take care,
Helen

Hi Jen. I am now 20 days post op and had left TG surgery. It is just way too early to call in my opinion. Your body just went through major trauma. Most of my pain is just from the huge wound they created to get to the nerve. They go through one of the largest muscles in the body to get there.

I have had those moments where I thought "did this work?" and have stopped doing that because I am just not in control of the outcome. All I can do is eat well, move as much as I can, try not to overdo things, listen to my body, find other things to keep my mind occupied and let the thing heal on its own. I firmly believe that moving is healing so I have been walking as much as I can and will be swimming here in the next few days.

Big prayers out to you!!

I am pulling for you.

You are not alone for sure!!

FDG

Hi Jen,
How very encouraging that your EMG numbers came down! I was also one of the lucky ones who had their values come down significantly. As you've read in the above posts, healing does take time. I'm a bit concerned about this, though:

jen9952 wrote:The problem I am having is the pain that I initially had , hip , leg and back pain on my left side are back,

Those aren't pudendal symptoms. Have you been assessed by a PT to determine the cause in those areas?
I was surprised to learn you had an epidural for unilateral surgery. No pain pump?

Lernica wrote:Don't forget that the nerve was manipulated a lot during surgery and will need to recover from that, too. (If in any doubt about how much the nerve is manipulated during surgery, take a look at RR's video which he posted under Case Updates some time ago.)

While a certain degree of nerve manipulation is mandatory for release, not all surgeons perform in this manner.
Hang in there, Jen. Your PN symptoms will subside as time goes on!

Hi Jen,
I believe that these questions should be answered by Dr. Conway and he should take full responsibility to why these symptoms have occurred.

All the best,
Ali

Hi all, Thanks for the encouraging words, I know you are right and that it is way too soon to really tell if the surgery was a success yet , but patient is not one of my strong suits.

Karyn , thank you ,I did have a epidural and a pain ball, the epi was left in for two days at the hospital and then removed, I kept running high fevers of 103 until they remove it, I guess my body did not like it , and the pain ball was left in for a week until my follow up appointment. as far as my symptoms go , they were my symptoms all along, hip , buttock , sciatic leg pain , and low back pain, I never did have CLASSIC PN symptoms , but the MRI showed damage and scar tissue on the left side, so DR Conway said I was a good candidate for TG surgery , which BTW has been sooo much easier to deal with than my first surgery TIR...besides the same pain I had before the surgery and the new right hip pain.... it is not bad at all, the incision barely hurts , I can walk around a lot easier this time, so as far as the surgery experience piece of cake compared to my last . Dr Conway did a great job ...I guess I just have to wait it out ,and hope things calm down.

Ali, thank you,I did discuss the new symptoms on my right side with Dr Conway, he thought that it was from lying on that side too much, so I have been lying on my back, and my hip is still sore to the touch, but better. as far as my left sided symptoms that still remain, I have not had a chance to speak with him about this yet, but I will when I see him next time, hopefully he will have some answers.


I want to thank all that responded, I am really going to try to be hopeful that this works out for me, and hopefully soon , you will be reading my post under success stories


Take care.

Jen

Jen, did you have any piriformis problems before surgery? You mentioned buttock, hip and sciatic pain which could all be due to a tight/spasmed piriformis muscle as I'm sure you know. If you had this symptom before surgery it would almost be inevitable that the p muscle would react to the surgery you have just had.
Hope things calm down soon
Take care,
Helen

Hang in there, Jenn. Recovery can be a roller coaster. Wishing you all the best after all that you have been through.

Don

Hi Jen,
Wow! An epidural AND a pain pump! How did you like the pain pump?
Helen asked a very good question. I was wondering the same thing. I have piriformis syndrome, but I had it before surgery. Unfortantely, PN decompression surgery is not a fix-all.
If you went into surgery with the hip, leg, back, buttock pain ... it's likely you're going to have after, too.
I agree with you about the TG surgery - not that bad! Yes, the incisions were sore for a few weeks, but NOTHING compared to the nerve pain.
Walking was also much easier after surgery, too. Overall, the PN pain is almost non-existent. It's all of the other crap I've got to deal with now. I've made peace with "I'm not done, yet".
Hugs,
Karyn