I didn't have a hemorrhoid after all. I had an epidermal abscess. All hail Dr. Kim at the Kaiser ER in Irvine, who lanced it and drained it a couple of hours ago. Ten days of antibiotics and I should be right as rain.
If I had had any clue what this was, I would have gone in right away and maybe the antibiotics alone would have taken care of it. Next time I'll know.
Well, that's really good news! You can scratch one "affliction of old age" off your list! Which certainly beats the normal process of adding them.
That sounds worse than a hemorrhoid.
It is. On the other hand, it's easily treatable.
Kevin, how would one know the difference w/o going to the doctor?
These can be tricky. Be careful about follow-up. Saying the obvious, you are more susceptible to infection.
Weird, I just read about these in the Mayo Clinic Newsletter. Glad you got treated.
Had one of those years ago. Glad you got it taken care of.
Amazing how a pain in the ass can affect your quality of life.
And abscesses aren't fun either.
there's a reason that "pain in the ass" is a phrase.
Kevin, hope you feel better. Put those purrs to work by keeping purring cats on your lap!
Take care of yourself Kevin. Glad you received a diagnosis!
Emergency medicine to the rescue.
Time for a bidet?
The local anesthetic injection before lancing is no picnic.
Keep an eye out for a non- healing area. Sign of a fistula
Well, Kevin, if you read your comments (at least on that post), you would have seen that a couple of us had a concern about an abscess and recommended that you get it looked at sooner rather than later. My experience as an ER doc was that people that said they had a hemorrhoid often had something else more serious. But given the quality of some of the comments, perhaps you would feel sicker if you did read these on a regular basis.
Amen
It’s always a “ hemorrhoid”
It's noted that you learn by going through it once. As you age the collection of "ah ha" will increase incrementally. But, you now know it is easier just to submit before it gets carried away.
Thanks for sharing . . .
What a pain in the ass, eh?