Wendy's story

   At the age of 31, I started to try and start a family with my husband. My first pregnancy was an ectopic pregnancy. I finally got pregnant at the age of 35. Me and my husband were so excited. What an amazing experience. The whole 9 months of my pregnancy felt almost like a small miracle. I never had any type of pelvic pain whatsoever, either prior to my pregnancy or while I was pregnant.

   My son was finally born in January of 2005. I had 2 epidurals for the pregnancy and he came out at 9lbs and 3oz., after 3 ½ hours of pushing. I had 138 stitches, for this vaginal birth. My first symptoms started, right after I gave birth, while still under the anesthesia from the epidural. About 5 minutes after he was born, I felt this very sharp and intense pain in my clitoral area. At this point, I knew something was wrong, but being my first child, I thought it could be normal. After the epidural wore off, I really felt the pain. Not just your typical pain, but really severe vaginal/clitoral pain. I also had hyper arousal symptoms, that I could not control. The hyper arousal would stay for most of the day and become extremely painful. All of my pain was only on my left side. I also had some minor tailbone pain. The last symptom that I had was these “electric shocks”. I have them most of the day, minor ones, but sometimes, they come on very strong and actually make me loose my balance. After 9 days, I called my OB/GYN and told him about the pain, he said it should “go away”. At my six week checkup, I again told him of my pain. Stating that I could not even walk to my mailbox, to get the mail and when the wind blew, it caused more severe pain. After a quick exam, he said “call me in 3 months, if it does not go away”. He said, “I don’t need to see you, because I already know you have pain”. I was devastated.

   During this time, I made an appointment with a vulvar specialist. It was at this time, I really understood how much pain I really had. One touch with a QTIP, sent me flying off the table.

   Well, I tried several medications, your typical tricyclic antidepressants and some anticonvulsants. I tried physical therapy, biofeedback and everything else. Finally, I found out about the “pudendal nerve”. It was then, that I decided to have some nerve conduction tests done. My left side was abnormal, which is where all my pain was, and my right side was normal. I decided to meet with a wonderful PN doctor. His name is Dr. Conway. After an EMG test and a vaginal/rectal exam, he felt that I might have a pudendal neuropathy. I decided to have the pudendal nerve blocks done in 2006, which gave me a very short term relief of my symptoms and confirmed that I did indeed have a pudendal neuropathy. After another year, I finally decided to have surgery in Sept. of 2007.

   Currently, there are days that I feel great and there are days that the pain still flares up. It is now approximately 9 months since my surgery with Dr. Conway. I still have electric shocks, but those have started to diminish.

   The one issue that I had that has almost completely gone away since my surgery is the hyper arousal. The hyper arousal symptoms, for me were worse than the pain. I can say that my tailbone pain has increased since my surgery, but I am hopeful, that it will start to dissipate as well as time goes by.

   I can’t say enough about the doctors who treat pudendal neuropathy. To finally meet with a doctor that understood my issues, had empathy for my issues and was willing to treat my issues, gave me so much hope. I went from being suicidal, to having hope and a plan for treatment. I am still in the “recovery” process, which could take up to two years. I have faith that with some of the positive aspects of my surgery, most specifically, the hyper arousal, that other symptoms will also begin to dissipate with time.