(no subject)

[holdthesky]

Having worked too hard over the past few weeks, as ever, various medical symptoms have caught up with me. For a few days, I've had a tongue which is sore to the point of saying more than a couple of words is painful (eating comparatively ok). That's on the mend, but I've also, over the past week or so, had significant blood in the loo, sometimes to the absence of anything else, not just streaks, but just dripping neat. (I did put this behind a cut!) As it was bright blood, it's probably from the lower tract and so probably just haemeroids, or whatever, which I've not had, but people tell me it's par for the course now and that the best thing to do is to grin and bear it and not bother the medics. Today it's been particularly bad and I have a strong ache on the right hand side of my back beneath where the kidneys are. I've started shivering in my whole body (hard to type) and feel lightheaded and clammy. It could just be the discomfort of having blood in your lower parts, which I'm told is uncomfortable. My rest pulse is 95, though it's hard to take it when I'm shaking. I don't want to see doctors unnecessarily, and the point of this isn't to solicit that response. I'm drinking tea. I wonder if anyone who has bad periods, or whatever, could reassure me how normal it is? Even if it gets better on its own, it would be good to know how normal it is in these situations.

Funny how shyness to visit the doctor for bottom reasons (for which it would be hypocritical for me to object!) has been replaced with the shame from consulting them over a trivial matter.

Edit: Rest pulse 106, but shivering and ache are receding.

Comments

[rmc28]

I really really don't think shivering, feverishness and pain in the lower back are things to ignore, or things that a doctor would see as trivial reasons to consult, even aside from the bleeding which in itself is enough of a reason to go, to be sure it is "just" hemorrhoids. (And if it is, then you will know, for future reference, and won't need to bother them again.)

The last time I went to a doctor with pain in the lower back, I had a urinary tract infection which had reached the kidneys and gone from nothing to hurting-too-hard-to-think in about 2 hours. I have a certain amount of experience with UTIs, but this one raised no intermediate symptoms and was quite serious, requiring a couple of days of antibiotics to subside, rather than going almost immediately treatment commenced.

I don't like to use up medical time unnecessarily either, but that particular infection would likely have had me in hospital if I'd grinned-and-bore it much longer, and that's a much bigger waste of resources.

Comparison with period pain: I have solid heavy vicious aching in my womb for about 2 days, which gets worse when I move. I don't have shivers, though I do sometimes involuntarily gasp with pain or find myself suddenly feeling hot and breaking a little sweat when doing something that exacerbates the pain. Not clammy, but more of a brief hot-flush.

Your symptoms correlate much more to kidney infection than period pain, in my experience of both. I have not had hemorrhoids so can't compare.

[technoknob]

I have PCOS and endometriosis and very, very bad periods. I've never really had what you're talking about, though. The pain I have is vaginal, near the uterus, sometimes rectal, never near the kidneys though. Lightheaded, clammy, and chills/shivering have never happened to me except to accompany extreme pain waves.

However, my hemorrhoid acts up during PMS and my cycle, and when it's bad then there is bright red blood. Bright red blood usually means a lower bowel thing, because if it spends any time in the digestive tract, it starts to turn darker and/or black and thicker/tarry. And kidney pain is usually sharp and increases continuously.

I know you don't want anyone to say this, but the loss of blood plus your other symptoms really does mean you should go to the doctor. I hate the doctor and avoid it myself, so I understand, but this is probably a doctor issue.

[nanila]

It sounds like a bad UTI, which is unlikely to go away on its own. It's not trivial - you need antibiotics, or at least to have your GP check that you need them.