Well, here I am (pelvic/lower abdominal/waist pain and sensitivity)

Hello!

I'm new to this forum and have been on quite the journey the past six months. Here's my story in brief:

I suffered an embarrassing pelvic injury about six months ago, which I'd rather not go into. The odd thing was, at first I didn't know I was injured. I had no pain, just a bit of numbness. Unfortunately I made the mistake of looking up my symptoms on the internet the next day and landed in pudendal neuralgia world (terrible place to be). I got more scared than I have ever been in my life, and within 4-5 days started developing the spreading, burning nerve pain across my whole pelvis, hips, low back, and waistline that I had just read about on the internet.

I'm not sure if it bears mentioning but I'm 29. Male.

I was assessed by doctors and urologists, and had imaging. Everyone said "you're fine" and structurally everything is normal. Doctors told me if there was a soft tissue injury it would heal in a maximum of 3 months.

At 3 months, my symptoms decreased significantly. But they were still bad, and I still had awful flares. I went to physical therapy, and experienced an immediate drop in symptoms after my first appointment, which didn't really make any sense as all I'd done were mild stretches and relaxation.

Also at 3 months, I read The Way Out. But I didn't buy into the neuroplastic pain concept—I still thought I was structurally injured. I tried somatic tracking a few times, didn't feel anything different, gave up.

A few weeks ago, with my doctor and PT telling me I'm well outside of any injury healing timeline now, I decided to revisit the mind-body concept.

I've been reading Healing Back Pain, watching Dan Buglio videos most days, meditating and somatic tracking, focusing on my breath... and the past two weeks have been the best so far of my entire recovery. I've had no flares and some days with very little to no pain, just annoying sensitivity/allodynia all over my waist.

I think for some reason this allodynia-like symptom of the sensitive waist is really hard for me to persuade myself that it's just my brain because it feels so visceral: if my pants are resting on my waist, it feels sore and nervy. If nothing is touching my skin, it feels basically normal. I can touch my waist with my hands and it feels fine, oddly. But if I touch it with something else it seems to immediately signal high alert.

I'm meeting with a TMS coach this week, and I have an appointment next month with a local PT who offers PRT, and I'm hoping these things will help me along.

I'm currently feeling the seesawing of having some unbelievably good days but still not feeling all better yet and then getting down about that. So I guess I'm posting here as a way to acknowledge my progress so far. I feel I have much to learn, and possibly much to unpack (I do have a therapist, and I did have some adverse experiences in childhood, though nothing that I can technically check off on the ACE assessment). Anyway, that's where I'm at right now. Hoping to report more progress soon, but also trying to allow for this to take as long as it takes.

 

A good attitude to take... keep the pressure off yourself because pressure is counterproductive. Would advise to try not to judge your progress by your symptoms; they will usually be up and down because recovery is not usually linear... The work you are doing will be 'working in the background' on your brain though, without you realising it.

Wishing you well on your recovery 'journey'.

And welcome to the forum!