Content Warning: This post contains detailed descriptions of gastrointestinal symptoms, medical procedures, and graphic health experiences.
For the longest time, I’ve had trouble with my gut. I experienced higher frequency of bowel movements and more prevalent urgency. I would get intestinal pain in the lower gut with excess gas and loose stool. For years, I tried to figure out what things might trigger it, playing detective with my own body.
I cut out milk, convinced it was a lactose intolerance. Ice cream was especially triggering, and I could eat Lactaid ice cream with far less issues—that seemed to confirm my theory. I tried eliminating sugary sweets from my diet for 30 days to see if it changed anything. Not much changed. I added Metamucil to my routine, hoping more fiber would slow down my system. I would see some minor improvements, but nothing that really solved the problem. Still, I learned to live with it. I managed. I adjusted my life around bathroom locations and timing. It became my normal.
When Everything Changed
Five months ago, that all changed when I was hit with Norovirus. This was one of the most disgusting and debilitating sicknesses I’ve ever experienced. It hits suddenly and causes diarrhea and vomiting at the same time. You are basically stuck in the bathroom, unable to move more than a few feet away. Fortunately, the vomiting stops within a day, but the diarrhea continues for days. The constant straining puts a tremendous toll on your system. I thought once I recovered, things would go back to my “normal.”
They didn’t.
After recovering from the Norovirus, I noticed things were different. I was not able to tolerate even the foods I’d been eating safely before. Worse, my digestive system seemed to have stopped working predictably. I began to feel like I was blocked. Days would go by without being able to pass anything, and then suddenly I would pass stool and it would be followed by more diarrhea. The pattern made no sense, and the discomfort was constant.
The Pain Begins
Soon I began experiencing pain near my rectum. Having strained so much during the Norovirus, I assumed these were hemorrhoids. I began treating it with pads and creams, all the usual over-the-counter remedies. Nothing helped. If anything, the pain was getting worse. Finally, I made a doctor’s appointment for May 16th.
My doctor did an inspection and didn’t see any hemorrhoids. That’s when I mentioned I was also experiencing trouble urinating—something I’d almost dismissed as unrelated. She performed a prostate exam, and that’s when she felt swelling. She ordered blood tests and, in the meantime, put me on antibiotics under the assumption that it was prostatitis.
I went home hoping that’s all it was, hoping those tests would come back to support that simple explanation. But as the weekend progressed, the pain started getting more and more intense. I found myself in hot baths over and over again just to relieve some of the pain. It was the only thing that helped. By Sunday night, I’d barely slept.
The Breaking Point
First thing Monday morning, I called my doctor and asked to be seen right away. They squeezed me in, and that’s when we discovered I had a perianal abscess. They sent me straight to the ER to have it lanced.
Let me tell you—when they finally drained that abscess, the relief was instantaneous. All that pressure, all that pain, just gone. For the next week or so, pus continued to drain and I had to be extremely careful keeping the area clean, helping it heal properly. It was uncomfortable and inconvenient, but compared to the pain I’d been in, it was manageable.
I thought this was the end of it. An unfortunate complication from the Norovirus, an abscess that had been treated, and now I could move on with my life.
But this was actually just the beginning. This abscess was the first clear sign of the additional problems I would experience—problems that would eventually lead to a diagnosis of Crohn’s disease.
In the next part of this series, I’ll share what happened after the abscess and the path to finally getting diagnosed. If you’re experiencing similar symptoms, please don’t wait—talk to your doctor.