Went back to A and E last night, given ok by Urologist - blood/urine all clear too.
Got acupunture like shocks on instep of left foot when he did anal check.
Given 30mg dose of codeine for pain, which was fairly ineffective. And referall to either spinal specialist or neurologist for what he described as neuropathic pain. Got home and to bed finally to find I was having Fantastic 4 experience like being plugged into electric socket.
Whole body buzzing with electric acupuncture like shocks! Nasty - got amubulance bk to A and E - they said it wasnt panic attack but maybe allergic reaction to coedeine or acupuncture and stress/serious sleep deficit over past week.
Given benzodiazipam drug, never thought I’d ever take such a thing, doesnt fit with paleo natural lifestyle.
Kinda helped, off work today, on major rest mission, pain in perineum less today which is huge relief but general electrical buzz is still there. Osteo advised nothing to be concerned about, suggested pelvic mri and to double check on lumber spine mri as that is where the nerve misfiring/crossfiring etc probably occuring.
Going bk to see Osteo Friday.
RECOVERY is only goal.
Heard from private dr today that mri also included part of my pelvis and all was fine.
Pain is continuing but right now shocks in penis and low level elsewhere.
General body shocks and coldness continuing.
Private dr advised this is ‘peripheral’ pins and needles/coldness is caused by my central nervous system reaction to the perineum pain and my tension over the previous few days and is not to do with the antibiotic.
The second antibiotic I was given in early November I finished the day my perineum nerve pain began.
I looked up Ciprofloxacin - its in the Fluroquinolone family of antibiotics. It appears that some people have significant side effects of the Central Nervous System - dizzyness, tingling, anxiety and worse. In states it carries a serious warning regarding this.
I have no way to prove a correlation, but suspicious that after my 8 day dose my problems really began.
Only treatment option I have is to rest, take supportive supplements: valerian, chamomile, mag citrate.
I’m going to get selenium, tyrosine and l-theanine for before bed too. Have kava kava too which I may try.
If the doctor is correct and the pain is from perineum pain and tension, rest is the only answer. Once the tension lessens, so would the pain all over the body.
Supplements are good, but don’t buy in that they can cure anything. They can’t. I wasted a ton of money trying a lot of them without benefit. The best help was rest. Lots of rest (months).
Sure, supplements are just to support sleep which at present is still hard as the tingling electric nerve sensations around my body are a real problem, especially at night. Especially since I have no previous history of anxiety, this is a qualitatively new experience.
One way to figure out what is causing this tingling is to figure out what changed from the point when you weren’t experiencing tingling.
What has changed? Diet? Training? Medications? Sleep patterns? Anxiety (job, relationship, etc)?
Hi Bia
Diet has been consistent - paleo. Training consistent, I stopped from when the P nerve pain started.
Medications - yes probably - the Ciprofloxacin I finished on the day the pain began. I have logged a ‘yellow card’ adverse drug reaction online to the UK government watch dog. All my symptoms fit what are listed as possibly affecting 1-10 in 10,000 users. Since I did not have an infection I should not have taken it.
No new anxiety in my life - same job for 10 years which is stressful and tough, but I enjoy it immensely. Been married for 2 years and together for 5 - very happily.
The only change was use of the Sinclair a-cycle on the three days prior to the initial pain/numbness beginning. Then the 8 day period of the medication throughout which I trained.
I understand that P nerve/pelvic floor problems are linked to excessive hip flexion (crossfit) and heavy all body lifts, bike riding from a child, inflammation (have had epididymal infections), long car journeys (check - my job and 4-5hrs every sunday), stress/tension in abdominal/pelvic area, trauma (probably via sinclair a bike seat on which I carried most of my 77kg body weight on the two inches behind my crown jewls.
The electric shocks are declining, but the anal/testicular pains are signficant (thought not incapacitating as they were last Sat/Sun/Mon) I have contacted Amy Stein in New York who runs a Physical Therapy pelvic floor clinic for advice and am using the male protocol in her book Heal Pelvic Pain. I know you advised to stay away from surgeons but I want to see what kind of assessment. I will focus on non-invasive - rest/deep breathing, acupuncture, gentle mobility, foam roller, walking alongside mindfulness meditation and some cognitive behavioural methods for managing pain. Its too much to work with so I’m taking this week off work and will ask my Dr for sick note. Have never had to do this before.
Sitting for more than 15-20 minutes creates major pain and sex is impossible. Its the PC muscles responsible for urinary control and ejaculation that lift yr balls where the pain seems to initiate from.
Definitely a nerve/muscle complication - never knew what neuropathic pain was until now, would not wish it on anyone.
Reflecting on this: I had had about 3-4hrs sleep I reckon on the Fri and Sat evenings prior the Monday, only on Sunday night did I sleep okayish. So serious sleep deprivation due to intense pain. Then on the Sunday and Monday the pain caused my body to tense/clench so badly that I was hunched and contorted pretty much 6 hours or each day. But the anxiety attack (and I now have a real appreiciation for what people say when they described panic attacks) was two days after I finished the Ciprofloxacin - which lists panic attack as a ‘rare’ symptom.
BIA you’ve got me thinking on this: my initial problems started in Oct with a probable epididymal infection which subsided (I trained through it too). In Oct I started doing as well as my usual work 2 extra hours a week for the local youth service - I spent an hour once a week throughout Oct into early Nov riding/racing around on these tiny penny farthing machines, the other adult play workers werent even trying to do this.
I think this would have affected my pelvic floor too.
Only other change was switching to low rep - 1s to 3s on the heavy lifts in August/September.
My dr has logged the details about the 2nd med I took - Ciprofloxacin, keep noticing my heart going slow or fast - never had any problems with my heart ever, I sprint, do 5k’s, do all the mixed modality stuff at high intensity without any problems ever.
My GP has referred me to a Physiotherapist (will take long time to come up) and for a private Sacrum/lower pelvis MRI
He’s also contacting a London pelvic neurosurgeon to assess me - will do everying non-invasive first.
I’m going to try an Active Release Therapist this week as pain continues and prevents me from functioning normally. I’m typing this standing up.
Let us know how the Active Release Therapy session went. This was the thing that was the most benefit to me as it not only addressed the tight tissues, but the inefficiencies/issues I developed (posture, squatting down/sitting, jumping, etc)
ART will be in couple of weeks BIA wasnt able to sort for this week.
There is also a Paul Check Level 4 practitioner who has offered assistance which I may take up.
I’ve just read a book called A Headache in the Pelvis by a psychologist and urologist.
They advocate meditation/relaxation program, trigger point release (internal and external) and stretches.
There model considers a number of possible causes including weight training and excessive abdomenal/hip flexion work. I’m always pounding out the L sit pull ups, or was. There central argument is that the tendency to clench/tighten the abdomen and pelvis in daily life is part of an armouring/protective mechanism which rigidifies the area making it prone to pain. On reflection I reckon I do this quite a bit, which alongside everything else makes me a prime candidate for problems, since my core/whole body was very strong.
I’ve remembered that in the past few months once a week I’ve a sleep deficit due to nosiy neighbours upstairs waking me up during the night. I also started using Vit D shortly before all this began and has a 20-30g a day intake of 85-90% dark choc from August to early Nov, for some reason. Also got shunted/jerked forward early Oct in my car by a guy behind me, wasnt major enough to cause me to take his car registration as no damage but was big enough jolt to get me out to have a look at back of car. Dunno if these had impact or not? Kinda makes little difference now.
Iliopsoas on left side super tight- working on this - stretches and yoga.
Driving now major problem - clutch pedal is nightmare. Going for automatic asap.
Shallow breathing - working on opening up lower abdomenal/diaphram area, big impact on pelvic basin.
Had leg/foot mechanics (left hip/femur inbalance) checked - corrected with new running shoes, which I won’t be running in for some time.
Won’t be going back to same excessive hip flexion work of past, ever.
Central Nervous system disruption continues randomly (or what appears randomly) - suspect from medication given by urologist, unless this is side effect of nerve aggravation/damage? Only way to rebalance this, if possible: more time outdoors in sunshine, more sleep, slowing down, breath work, meditation, acupuncture.
I’m missing squatting and cleaning, but no way possible with continuing dull to moderate sacral/abdominal plexus nerve pain I can even contemplate these lowerbody stimulants.
Pretty certain now that the strange heart stuff, panic attacks, insomnia and peripheral neuropathy (sparks around body) and probably the perineum stuff was caused by the ciprofloxacin. The perineum spasm was probably med induced - tendon ruptures are a rare occurence on this med but they occur.
Still getting sparks in teeth and eyes, also do a little teeth grinding (again which I’ve never done before). Dont know how long this will last, hope not forever.
Pain is now mostly on left of my tackle and left abdomen back to where I was before taking the medication - which started after using the tiny a-bike seat.
Seeing urologist and pelvic sports injury physiotherapist next week. Pelvic neuro surgeon next year some time.
Managing pull/chin ups (dead hang), dips, press ups (variations - but these make pain worse I think), db shoulder press single hand. Will add in single arm dead lifts and bulgarian split squats if they dont ramp up pain.
I pretty much signed up at this site for this problem. How are you doing now?
I had this in Jan 2012, it was debilitating but it got better with conventional physiotherapy.
This hit again in Dec 2012 and I’m unable to sit. I was in constant pain in Dec but I found self work on foam rolling and stretching (ones suggested by Stine/Weiss book).
I’m no longer in constant pain but I cannot sit which disrupts use of computers or motor vehicles (I set everything up to be standing stations). Back in the day I was a wreckless lifter, I deadlifted and squatted over 300 lbs with poor form - I think I developed an L5 S1 left-center disc bulge as a result of this. I haven’t been in the gym in 2 years about…
Hope you’re doing better.