Lump on the rump

I posted about this in my journal, but I thought I'd post something here and see what you thought...

I had hemorrhoid surgery back in August. I had a lot of pain the first few days, but since they gave me plenty of pain medication and stool softener and gave me a lot of instructions about what to do whle I was recovering, I did really well. Well, as well as you can after being cut on down there. I went back to work earlier than expected, and never had any major problems. The doctor told me if I did have any problems after that with constipation to take Senakot, since it was "natural" and that I could take fiber supplements or stool softeners when I felt like I needed them after I got back to normal. I've had to use them some, but I haven't had any major problems since then surgery, and it's not an everyday thing to need them.

Well... About a week or so ago, I noticed that there was a tender place down there right after I'd gone to the bathroom. I figured I'd strained too much or something, and that I needed to watch what I was eating or take some fiber supplements or something. So, I did what I would normally do after having a bad BM. Well, it hasn't gone away.

oops. Didn't get to finish that...

It is not getting any bigger, but it isn’t getting any better. It didn’t hurt on Sunday, but it started hurting again yesterday and it hasn’t stopped. It's not a throbbing pain or anything, but it's really sore. If it were on the opposite side, I would think it was scar tissue from my surgery, maybe. But then it would have showed up months ago. I know it’s not another hemorrhoid, because it doesn’t bother me when I got to the bathroom, and it’s too far over from the opening, but I have no idea what it is. It feels like the muscle inside my butt cheek is swollen or something. It's kind of hard to explain. It feels like there's something about the size of the end of my thumb that's swollen right on the major muscle part that I'd end up sitting on. If I can get into one position and stay there, I’m OK. But it hurts when I move. It hurts to cough or sneeze because it shakes my whole body. It’s just annoying. I thought about making a doctor appointment with our family doctor, but when I had hemorrhoids, he just referred me to someone else. I’m going to have my checkup with my OB/GYN in two weeks. I was thinkgin that I'd ask him to look at it when I go in since I’ll have that end exposed already, anyhow. I’m just thinking in my mind that it could be something horrible like a blood clot or a cyst or something. But, I didn't start noticing it after I fell on the ice that day and landed on my rear. It was several days later before it started to bother me, but I wonder if I landed hard enough when I fell to cause some kind of trauma to those muscles. The reason I'm worndering this is because I know there's a muscle that "matches" this one on the other side, but it's not swollen or sore.

Anyhow. I'm opening for anything. I'm going to have the doctor check it out, but in the meantime, I have no idea what it is or how to treat it. Should I try to take sitz baths or something to help it? Or have you hard of anyone else having a similar complaint?

Thanks, Elaine! I'll check that out.

Could be. How would I know other than having a doctor look at it? Can you tell using a mirror to look at it?

OK--I'm laughing just picturing myself doing this.