Pain in the butt??

[crohniekid]

So we are on week to of our super fun EEN diet (yes that was sarcasm). R has been feeling much better except his is now constipated (a switch from the D of the last few months). We recently started him on Miralax (hopefully I spelled that right) to help. A couple of nights ago he had a really big, painful movement and complained after that his bum hurt. DH and I wrote it off to the constipation (started the stool softner the next day). Tonight he was sitting reading a book and had ants in his pants. When I asked him what was wrong he said that his butt hurt. I asked him if it's hurt the whole time and he said no...but that it hurts a lot now and right 'where the poop comes out'. I checked it out and couldn't see anything amiss but now I'm super paranoid of strictures and fistulas (and I'm not even 100% sure what those ARE yet!!!!). Thoughts??? Should I be concerned?? Thanks

 

[Essieluv]

Does he have fevers/chills? He may be developing an abscess. Keep an eye on it and if it gets worse get in to your GI or a good colorectal surgeon.

 

[Maya142]

Does he have blood in his poop? It could be a fissure. If he keeps complaining about it then maybe you could give your GI a call.
Sitz baths could help relieve the pain.

 

[Essieluv]

The best thing I have found to help relieve anal pain is lidocaine jelly. Mine is prescription strength, although I think there may be some OTC options available.

 

[poppets mum]

My kid went through this recently when we missed one dose of Miralax. She was so sore even walking and sitting hurt. She put a little vaseline on and by about a week it was gone. Now I am not saying couldn't be something serious but I think in her case it had more to do with hard compacted poop stretching and maybe tearing the Anus.

 

[CrohnsKidMom]

It could also be an anal fissure developing. My son has suffered from constipation for years and developed a fissure even before we knew he had Crohn's. It causes some pain at times and will sometimes bleed if he has a particularly difficult BM. Zinc Oxide cream helps.

 

[Mehita]

Will he let you feel around down there? Or maybe he can do it with some instruction? My apologies for the description, but my son developed an abscess between his testicles and has poop hole. The thing is, it was on the inside, but the lump had grown large enough that he could feel it from the outside if he pushed around a little. It hurt to sit, sometimes walk and the straining with BM's was uncomfortable.

After he found the lump from feeling around, an ultrasound confirmed it's location, about one centimeter under the skin and it was a good 3-5 cm in diameter and growing. It was also connected to a fistula and draining out his rectum.

Since he seems to be in some pain already, I'd get the area checked out. Now, our GI blew us off for a week because he couldn't feel anything, but when we came back later and said it's getting bigger, he was a little embarrassed for not listening to us the first time. So, keep pushing until you get answers.

If not an abscess, the other thing that the drs brought up was swollen lymph nodes. I could understand a fissure being painful too and sometimes those can happen on the inside where you can't see them.

Keep us posted!

 

[crohniekid]

So the pain comes and goes. It seems to be every three days or so that his rectum hurts and he has trouble sitting...always at night. Since he was newly diagnosed we already have an MRI booked for next week so I'm just waiting on that. His next doctor's appointment is the 26th so I will mention it to him then if things don't get better...or if it gets worse I will call him. Thanks for your quick messages though and I will update if we figure out what it is!

 

[Mehita]

Specifically ask for them to go further south with the MRI if you're hoping to use that as a way to see what might be going on down there. When my son had an MRE, at the time our concern was his intestines, so it stopped just short of the rectal area. When he started to complain of pain in his rectum we immediately looked to the MRE since he just had it two days earlier. Unfortunately, it didn't go far enough and he had to follow up with an ultrasound. The radiologist sort of pieced the two together to come up with a picture of what was going on.