So here's the full update: I saw Dr. Westesson on Wednesday. He's the doc who does nerve blocks at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester. My new doctor at U of Rochester, Dr Benjamin-Pratt, sent me back to Dr. Westesson for a genitofemoral block after she and I discussed how the seat of my pain seems to be up front, under my bladder. Dr. Westesson and I talked over my case and said he would inject anesthetic only at the genitofemoral site -- along the panty line -- to see if numbing that nerve would take away my pain. It relaxed my muscles but didn't seem to work completely, so Dr. Westesson injected anesthetic to numb the ilioinguinal nerve -- more or less directly up from the genitofemoral site, a couple inches lower than the belly button. Kinda no man's land on the belly. That didn't seem to numb the pain completely either, though it numbed my leg enough to make walking a questionable venture. Dr. Westesson said there's a third possible nerve that he didn't want to try Wednesday but will try at another appointment. So I walked carefully back out into the hospital.
The third nerve I hadn't read about ahead of time, so I'm not sure what he said. Lots of etymology in there. I think it's the superior hypogastric nerve. I haven't looked into it much, but Dr. Westesson said it serves things in the lower abdomen -- uterus, bladder, etc., but not the skin itself. Okay, pause here: he is SUCH a good doctor. He's the first doctor who has listened to my saying, "It feels like the pain is somewhere right below my bladder." He didn't focus on the vestibulitis, the pain in the vestibule. I feel like vestibulitis is a trendy thing right now. It's interesting that if you poke someone's vestibule with a Q-Tip, it can feel like a knife. It's observable. But that doesn't mean it's the root of our pain. I think it's probably a symptom for a lot of us, not root. For me, I think the muscle tension I developed trying to keep my original pain in check caused my vestibulitis. It's something I grew into -- it wasn't there at the onset.
So I was walking slowly back toward the hospital's main lobby, stopping here and there to sit. I passed the bathroom I had used on my way in and went in. I peed, and I had no pain from beginning to end. That hasn't happened since all this started. I could feel that I was peeing, but there was no pain.
I had some pain left floating right below my bladder. At the front of the pubic bone. At the "top" of my vulva. This little spot of pain floating there. So I kept walking back toward the main lobby and decided I would wait and pee again. In the meantime, I coughed and pushed my belly in, surreptitiously poked at my bladder, did things that usually cause a pain spike for me. Nothing. Or hardly anything. There was residual muscle tension, like a framework for the pain, but the center of it wasn't there.
I would have to pee again! Time was of the essence! I paced around looking for another bathroom. I don't even remember where I found one. I hardly remember what it felt like, but I remember this: standing in front of the mirror pointing at the stall looking like I had just conquered Mount Everest. I couldn't even wash my hands. I just stood there pointing.
Then someone came in and I washed my hands.
The window that I was pain-free down there was short. But that night, peeing -- if you haven't gathered so from my blog, peeing is excruciating for me -- my pain was still contained to this little spot floating right at the front of my vulva. Very similar to how it had been when this all started right as September became October in 2006.
I'll go back for a steroid shot. I trust that Dr. Westesson will have insight into all of this -- whether it's one of the nerves he's already tested or it's the third nerve that he hasn't tested yet. Whatever the case,
1) I think we found it.
2) I feel like a frickin' rock star with how persistent I've been at figuring this thing out. I feel like a rock star for asking for the genitofemoral block. For trusting my gut. For ignoring the naysayers and the doubters, doctors and laymen alike, and not letting this thing rest as minor, psychosomatic, overblown, unknown, TMI, inconquerable, or fate. It's entirely possible that steroid shots will not help the nerve recover. But now I have evidence for something I've known to be real all along. I have a doctor's corroboration -- an awesome doctor. And I have ideas. Maybe this is why diet influences my pain so much. If steroid shots don't help, I know diet changes will. I know squat about the nervous system, but I imagine an upset belly would upset the nerves within it.
Okay, that's all for now. I'm hoping they schedule me with Dr. Westesson in the next couple weeks... I'll let you know how it goes. In the meantime, it's time to get back on The Good Diet train... eeek.
