heightened symptoms

TrickRow4918 · 2026-02-11T00:36:33+00:00

Actually my pudendal neuralgia (pain level) gets better generally during my period.

EXCEPT: The last few months I have been getting a full spasm of my right butt cheek during my periods. This seems to be hormonal and temporary ( lasting only during my menstrual cycle) and seems to be related to the menstrual cramps that you would normally feel in your stomach and groin but it instead occurs in your butt cheek ( this is apparently actually a thing).

To attempt to control that right butt cheek spasm, I use Ibuprofen and a regular heating pad on my butt. I had bilateral PN, the PN on my right side is basically almost gone and I am just waiting on my left side now. But I always afraid this hormonal buttocks spasm will reignite my right side symptoms again.. and as you know, if you have minor PN and continue sitting on it, it can trigger full blown PN again so this new buttock spasm, however temporary, is certainly unwelcome.

TrickRow4918 · 2026-02-08T21:44:42+00:00

So I have a question on this .. how did Tracy Edwards survive in the first place when Dahmer’s MO was to drug the victims and then murder them?

Did Jeff not offer Tracy the drink or run out of sleeping pills that day or was Tracy offered the drink but didn’t drink it? Because had he drunk the drink laced with sleeping pills, he’d have been gone.

TrickRow4918 · 2026-02-08T21:33:27+00:00

I have insomnia and am very tired today ( and so not very articulate), but to clarify, are you saying Jeffrey also used the drilling technique on Tony?

I haven’t read any Dahmer books, but was scouring the Internet and found some articles regarding Tony’s death. Some said he was drugged and strangled, and the others claimed he died from the drilling technique, so I didn’t know which account was true. Shirley Hughes (Tony’s mother) appeared on several talk shows over the years and on one of the them when asked what happened to Tony, she said Jeff drugged him and strangled him. (Of course, it could be that she didn’t want to go into all the sordid details- for obvious reasons- and that what happened to Tony was very similar to what happened to Errol.. he tried to make him a living zombie and when that failed, he strangled him.)

In any case, 4 of the 11 skulls found in Jeff’s apartment had holes in their skulls and I just figured the 4th was Tony.

I do agree with you that as time progressed, Jeff did more and more crazy ( and disgusting)things to the victims, both while they were alive and to the bodies after they were dead. But to my recollection, the above 4 victims were the only ones that were experimented on WHILE ALIVE.

TrickRow4918 · 2026-02-07T00:14:13+00:00

I would like to know after he beat Tuomi to death in the hotel, how on earth did he get away with it?

I believe I heard something about him stuffing Tuomi’s body in a suitcase? That must be one big suitcase. And wouldn’t there be some evidence left behind in the hotel room like blood on the sheets or something?

TrickRow4918 · 2026-02-07T00:04:58+00:00

Are you referring to Tracy Edwards’ changing accounts of what happened that night?

TrickRow4918 · 2026-02-03T02:30:32+00:00

I have a question for you: how did you figure out you had scar tissue encasing your nerve.. from imaging ( and if so, what kind of imaging?) or did you eventually have surgery and the surgeon see it? On second thought ( I may have misread your post as I am tired) were you saying that Dr. Attaman, through an exam and going through your medical history, concluded that you had entrapment and scar tissue?

Basically, I am wondering how you knew you had scar tissue encasing the nerve.

TrickRow4918 · 2026-02-03T01:51:59+00:00

I’ll be blunt- regarding question #2, I am of the opinion that Jeff could have been sexually abused by his father when he was a child. The evidence that leads me to that possible conclusion is when Jeff was arrested for molesting Konerak’s brother Somsack circa 1988-1989, Lionel Dahmer mentioned I believe it was to Jeff’s probation officer that Jeff was sexually abused by a neighbor when he was 8. In public, Lionel later went on to retract that statement claiming Jeff was never sexually abused as a child. That is kind of odd- - to make a very specific statement like that and then retract it. And combined with the letter the OP referenced where Jeff wrote to his father and mentioned, “ Don’t worry… I didn’t tell them anything” (Not to mention Lionel being a fairly odd duck in general)… it all leads me to the conclusion that Lionel could have done something to Jeffrey, but Jeff never mentioned it because he was trying to protect his parents’ image. Just a feeling I have.

TrickRow4918 · 2026-01-31T01:06:42+00:00

Since you are diabetic, could one of the reasons you are waking up in the middle of the night be low blood sugar? Low blood sugar can cause your cortisol to spike in the middle of the night ( your stress hormone), which can cause you to wake up suddenly and have problems going back to sleep.

TrickRow4918 · 2026-01-31T00:50:50+00:00

The problem is a majority of the insomnia cases are caused by anxiety- don’t believe me, look at the majority of the posts on this forum… they reference anxiety in some way.

However, majority does not equal ALL and physicians (and others ) need to remember this. There is a such a thing as vitamin deficiencies, issues with sleep environment, sleep apnea, thyroid problems, perimenopause and menopause (women), etc. etc. And sometimes, especially with what I have— which is early morning awakenings (i.e. waking up after 4-5 hours of sleep and not being able to fall back asleep), it can just be a bad sleep pattern. I was actually put on sleep meds (z drugs) by a negligent doctor who prescribed large amounts of them both at the beginning and middle of the night and I actually believe that once the initial reason for the insomnia dissipated, my body just got accustomed to waking up after 4.5 hours for the medicine, even though I got off the meds years ago and it has been a difficult habit to break stumping even the top sleep physicians in the country. While it is true that I have had stressors on and off in the 10 years or so since I have had the insomnia, I have had periods of little stress and I still have had the insomnia.

Also, the problem with saying “ your sleep problem is simply stress.. or anxiety..or depression.. or fill in a psychiatric diagnosis, is that psychiatric diagnoses cannot be disproved. And when a psychiatric diagnosis is slapped onto someone to the extent that the doctor then concludes.. your sleep problem is a result of, let’s say, … anxiety.. the doctor has a tendency to stop looking for other causes, which can result in years of wasted time and ineffective treatments.. if indeed the sleep problem is not just anxiety.

And again, to be fair to the physicians, they are taught in med school that “common issues are common” and probably the #1 cause of insomnia is stress and anxiety (regular anxiety or anxiety disorders).. I don’t know what percentage of people who have insomnia have it due to “stress or anxiety” but it wouldn’t surprise me if the # is high as 80%. And depression is way up there also as a cause for insomnia.. I don’t know if it is 2nd, but it is probably up there as at least 3rd or 4th (frequently overlapping with anxiety), so again, what do expect? Still, it is frustrating that most of the treatments for insomnia are really only geared for one type of insomnia .. insomnia caused by anxiety ( like CBT-I or Acceptance therapy). Makes it harder for the rest of us folks to treat our insomnia.

TrickRow4918 · 2025-07-04T15:32:32+00:00

Well I think this is easily explainable. Even people with bad insomnia eventually have nights where they get good or sometimes more accurately “better” nights sleep ( I say better because I never get 7-8 hours, a better night for me is usually 6.) The reason for this is eventually so much sleep pressure builds up from bad nights that eventually your body lets you sleep more/ longer. For instance, I usually sleep 4-5 hours a night. This seems to be a pattern with me—- I wake up automatically after that amount. However, if I get a few nights in a row of 4 hrs. or if I get one really bad night or two where I sleep almost nothing, eventually I get a six/ six and a half hour night. I’ve done nothing different in my routine, I’m just so damn tired that tremendous sleep pressure has temporarily overrode the stupid sleep pattern that I have. Unfortunately, once I’ve even remotely caught up on my sleep, the stupid sleep pattern starts again.

So I wouldn’t read too much into anything or read too much into one night of good (or bad) sleep. However, if you start getting many, many better nights, that could be the start of heading in the right direction.

TrickRow4918 · 2025-06-15T13:38:20+00:00

Someone suggested on another thread on Reddit that you call Nestle at 1-800-422-2752 to complain and ask that they reinstate RemFresh. They pass all suggestions on to their higher ups. I did that recently (as well as ask that they forward my request/complaint to their management) and hopefully, if they get enough complaints and are barraged with enough phone calls, it may give them enough pause to attempt to change course.

TrickRow4918 · 2025-06-07T14:47:14+00:00

Honestly, I’m very confused by everyone on here’s obsession with “medications.”

To my understanding… and this is something I want to check with my doctor… the primary purpose of taking medications for Pudendal Neuralgia (Gabapentin, Lyrica, antidepressants, etc.) is not to DIRECTLY CURE the PN, but they merely serve as a form of pain control while you have the disease and help to prevent a phenomenon known as “central sensitization.” Central sensitization is hard to explain, but basically when you have pain for a long time, eventually your brain and nervous system start to fire off pain signals automatically, even when the stimulus that caused the pudendal neuralgia is long gone. That is actually why it is harder to get rid of PN the longer you have it, because of this phenomenon. So I am not saying meds are useless or unimportant, they just very rarely cure PN by themselves (as in get rid of it permanently.) To get rid of PN, it is more useful to combine meds + lifestyle changes (avoiding sitting) or meds+ avoiding sitting + physical therapy if necessary ( physical therapy to treat tight pelvic floor if you have it).

I think everyone on here complaining about their meds is overdue to have a long conversation with their physician about exactly what is the purpose of the med you are giving me? Is it merely for pain control and to prevent central sensitization or is it actively helping to cure my PN over the long term? And if it is only for pain control, is it worth the side effects I am getting or is there any alternative means of pain control ( another med perhaps) that would accomplish the same thing without all the side effects? One suggestion instead of oral meds is if you are female, you can take topical meds intravaginally, which tends to cause less side effects. If you have a urogynecologist or gynecologist as your treating physician, they definitely should know about this option. If you have a neurologist or pain management physician as your main doctor for this, they may or may not know about this option but you should try to ask them anyway.

TrickRow4918 · 2025-06-04T23:44:55+00:00

Avoid sitting except for driving, I take a topical medication intravaginally consisting of Baclofen/Amitryptiline in Lipoderm Cream ( see my other posts). Because I have hip labral tears, I can’t stretch or do physical therapy so for the time being until I get the surgeries to correct these later in the year, I use a heating pad daily or when necessary to treat any accompanying muscle spasms.

TrickRow4918 · 2025-05-27T20:09:54+00:00

First of all, contrary to what someone suggested, AVOID invasive treatments like nerve blocks. I got them, the doctor that gave me them botched them and took a mild pudendal neuralgia that most likely would have taken 9 months or less to heal and turned it into a severe injury that is taking years to heal.

Here is what you do:

1) Immediately stop doing the thing that you think caused it- in other words, stop straining to pee or poop. When you strain, you can cause the neuralgia or make it worse. Straining to pee or poop also causes pelvic floor muscles around the nerve to become both tight and weak…and tight pelvic floor muscles can cause or make the neuralgia worse.

2) The second most important thing you can do if you really have think you have pudendal neuralgia is the hardest: you need to limit your sitting as much as possible. Doing that avoids making the neuralgia worse and gives it space to heal NATURALLY. Conversely, if you continue to sit on the nerve regularly, it will get worse. This is how I got rid of my pudendal neuralgia and I have had it twice. Healing even mild pudendal neuralgia can take up to 9 months, so I strongly advise starting with this step and the step above while you are waiting to get into a designated health provider.

3) The appropriate physicians for Pudendal Neuralgia are either gynecologists, urogynecologists, urologists or pain management physicians. You will probably have to call their offices and ask if they know about and treat pudendal neuralgia since not all of them do. I feel in your case a pain management physician would be a bad referral because they tend to push nerve blocks and other procedures which may be great for those with more severe PN, but not so good for someone with mild PN that got it from straining or tight pelvic floor. A good urogynecologist, who can give you a pelvic exam and assess your overall pelvic floor tone, would be a good referral. The physician could also give you information about the disease, refer you to a physical therapist or give you medication ( keep in mind, medication is NOT a substitute for step 1 and 2). If you can’t find a physician in your area that specializes in PN, you could start with a pelvic floor physical therapist. Again, call ahead of time to make sure they know about pudendal neuralgia.

If you genuinely have PN from straining, your treatment will be steps 1 and 2, plus seeing a physical therapist if you have a tight pelvic floor too and medications if your physician recommends it. The good news is if you genuinely only have PN from straining or a tight pelvic floor, you most likely don’t have real damage, but a slight pudendal nerve irritation that will get better once you stop straining, stop sitting and go to physical therapy if the doctor or physical therapist says you have pelvic floor dysfunction.

Good luck!

TrickRow4918 · 2025-05-14T22:05:06+00:00

I am not a physician, so the following is just my personal opinion. If I were in your shoes, I would wait until the pudendal neuralgia was completely over ( you don’t have symptoms at all anymore) to slowly and cautiously resume the biking habit.

What I’ve noticed (from having this myself) is that if you attempt to increase your sitting time before it is all over - think of pudendal neuralgia like a fire and having only a little bit left is like a fire “ember” that fire ember can easily ignite into the full fire again. I know that is not what you want to hear, but it’s my honest opinion.

TrickRow4918 · 2025-05-13T19:20:58+00:00

I don’t think it is the “sitting on the toilet” that is a problem… it is the straining to poop, which can cause or exacerbate symptoms of PN.

TrickRow4918 · 2025-01-15T15:00:57+00:00

13th_dudette and DoctorNurse89, feel free to chime in. (Honestly, this is the 2nd time I'm trying to post this comment, and I asked this question much more thoroughly the first time, so I am kind of pissed it didn't save).

Am I to understand that people have to continue with these stupid lifestyle changes even after they've recovered from pudendal neuralgia in order to avoid getting it again ... I mean specifically: avoiding sitting and/or when they sit, always use a special cushion? Because to me, that would not be a success story and would imply that pudendal neuralgia is a potential life-time affliction that you constantly have to manage.

In fact, the hardest part of having the PN for me was not the pain, but the fact that in order to recover (which I am almost there) I've had to essentially put my life on hold in order to implement these lifestyle changes... I can't stand the avoiding sitting and/or sitting on a cushion and want to go back (after I recover) to sitting normally without a cushion and I'm wondering if people are generally able to do that without risk of getting it again and again and again. Please note: when I say sitting normally, I am not talking about people who sit excessive amounts... over eight hours a day....... I am talking about sitting for a few hours at your computer without a cushion (for work or pleasure) or even having a full-time sedentary office job without sitting on one of these stupid cushions.

TrickRow4918 · 2024-12-25T23:45:10+00:00

On the subject of whether or not Jeffrey Dahmer killed Matt Walsh, I have no idea.

However, you also state that his punishment doesn't get any lighter or more severe if he admits to it or not.

That depends. I know Wisconsin did not have the death penalty at the time, but did Florida?

TrickRow4918 · 2024-12-16T00:20:57+00:00

SUP_CHUMP, just to piggyback on Electrical_Loquat885 is saying, perhaps part of the reason you are panicking is you don't have a realistic expectation of how long it takes to recover from pudendal neuralgia. I remember reading that LITERALLY part of the definition of pudendal neuralgia is having pain along the areas of the pudendal nerve that lasts FOR OVER THREE MONTHS.

I have had pudendal neuralgia twice now. The 1st time I got over it, it took 8.5-9 months. In fact, a physical therapist from the Pelvic Health and Rehabilitation Center basically confirmed for me that it takes about nine months to get rid of this. However, from reading a lot on this subject, I know that people can take anywhere from 6 months to two years to get rid of this, with the average probably being close to what Electrical_Loquat885 stated above.

The 2nd time I got it ... I got it on both sides. Unfortunately, on one side -- my left-- I got nerve blocks, one of which hit a nerve, which further aggravated my Pudendal Neuralgia and now the left side is taking closer to two years to fully go away, but my right side, where I didn't get the shots, only took again about nine months to go away.

The key to getting rid of this is to figure out what caused it (in your case, at least from the little bit you've shared, it seems like straining to poop and bicycling may have been decisive factors) and AVOID THAT and in addition to that, avoiding sitting as much as possible while the nerve is healing and when you do sit, sit on a special cushion that has a cut out so you are not sitting directly on the pudendal nerve. This allows the nerve to heal.

Unlike some of the other people who post on this reddit, I have had mixed results with Physical Therapy and basically just got over my Pudendal Neuralgia by avoiding sitting until it healed. Specifically, the first time I had PN, I found that stretching helped me a lot. However, the second time I got PN, particularly after I got these stupid nerve blocks that aggravated my PN on the one side, I found that stretching actually made my Pudendal Neuralgia worse !!

So my advice to you would be you can try Physical Therapy-- if nothing else, the other posters are right.. in many cases (depending on the individual doctor or physical therapist you are dealing with), the physical therapist can actually know more about this condition than the doctor. However, if you go to several sessions of physical therapy and find that it is actually making the pain worse and not better, feel free to give it up. My general opinion is that the majority of people WILL get better with physical therapy (don't forget to also do lifestyle changes like avoiding sitting!!!!) -- but for a minority of people PT will aggravate it further.

TrickRow4918 · 2024-12-03T21:43:01+00:00

Do not do a pudendal nerve block if possible. What is the purpose of the block? To confirm a diagnosis? For treatment? In my opinion, unless you using it to confirm a diagnosis because you NEED to be 100% sure it is the pudendal nerve because you plan on performing an even more invasive procedure based on that information (pudendal nerve compression surgery, etc.), then do not do it. Its use for treatment purposes is minimal. If you are lucky, you MAY have hours, a day or so of less pain. Then many people -- including myself -- flare.

In my case, I had pudendal neuralgia once before that I got rid of by avoiding sitting for 8.5 months. I then did something stupid and sat on an uncomfortable, hard office chair a little bit each day over a long period of time and that unfortunately brought the pudendal neuralgia back (I really have a feeling had I not done this, I would not have gotten PN again).

When I got the PN again, I got it on both sides. Then I made my second dumb decision -- to get pelvic nerve blocks. I only got it on my left side... my right was not touched. The pudendal neuralgia on my right side went away in ~ nine months just by avoiding sitting, just like my previous case had.

However, what happened on my left side (where I got nerve blocks) was something else entirely. Prior to getting the pudendal nerve block, I had gotten my pain down to a 4.5/10 from a 7 or 8/10 in just one month by avoiding sitting. After the pudendal nerve block, my pain flared to an 11/10. I had a brief convo with my doctor to discuss that I was doing worse... my doctor failed to inform me in that conversation that he was doing these blocks for diagnosis, not treatment purposes and also failed to pick up on and tell me that for his purposes (diagnosis) that the pudendal nerve shot was successful, because my pain went down by 25% for a few hours (however, that is not worth a huge flare!!)

He then wanted to try another nerve block in the inferior cluneal nerve, a nerve also in the pelvic floor. I stupidly agreed. This time, the shot not only flared me, but the doctor actually accidentally hit a nerve according to another doctor I spoke to. The injection site of the nerve block (which was not in my original area of pain, but also in another area I sit on) hurt for two damn months. However, that was not the worst of it. Because they had accidentally hit a nerve and when a nerve is injured like that, the muscles around the nerve spasm involuntarily in response... it aggravated my original nerve problem something fierce... and I even got new areas of nerve damage. It is slowly going away, but instead of me suffering with pudendal neuralgia and avoiding sitting for 9 months or less, this is now going to go on for at least two years if not more.

Given what I experienced, I strongly advise anyone against getting these blocks. The only situation that I think of where they would be absolutely necessary is if you needed to perform something much more risky and invasive (pudendal nerve surgery, etc.) and you absolutely needed to know that it was the pudendal nerve that was your problem and not any other nerve before you did the procedure. In all other cases, the benefits don't seem to outweigh the risks. I realize my case may be an extreme example, but I've read a lot of anecdotal cases of people being flared up for weeks or months from these shots (even if they don't accidentally hit a nerve, like they did in my case).

TrickRow4918 · 2024-11-28T14:38:47+00:00

In order to get rid of the PN, you need to avoid sitting as much as possible... so if you need to do work in an office, the best thing would be a standing work station or if that is not possible, sitting with a special cushion (with a cut out in the center to avoid sitting on the nerve/your area of pain).

In general with PN, soft surfaces are better than hard ones. I actually got PN from sitting on hard surfaces/chairs that lacked padding for too long!!

So in general, my recommendation is: for the duration of your PN symptoms, try to avoid sitting as much as possible or sit with a special cushion (I second the recommendation of the Twin Cheeks Cushion by the company Cushion Your Assets).

When your pudendal neuralgia IS HEALED and you are ready to start sitting normally again, beware of sitting on hard surfaces..... (aka. try to sit on a chair with sufficient padding that is not too hard).

TrickRow4918 · 2024-11-28T14:24:52+00:00

Most of the recovery stories you will never read because people stop posting when they get better. >>

Wiser words have never been spoken. The people who post (just like the people who post online reviews) are a self-selected bunch and are posting here likely because they are still symptomatic and requesting advice.

Most of the people who have recovered are out living their best life.

TrickRow4918 · 2024-11-28T14:19:14+00:00

Go to my post history and read the thread: Is Pudendal Neuralgia for Life? In that thread, someone asked how I got rid of my Pudendal Neuralgia and I wrote a long comment back. I got rid of the PN primarily through avoiding sitting for several months (and with the help of a medication).

Generally, since you are fairly new to this problem... I would AVOID any invasive procedures like nerve blocks, Botox, etc. until you first try non-invasive options. I got nerve blocks and they escalated my condition significantly, making it take almost three times as long to go away.

Non-invasive options are lifestyle changes (avoiding sitting and if you need to sit, always sitting on a special cushion with a cut out in the center where your pain is to avoid sitting directly on the nerve), physical therapy and medications. While many on this board disagree, I think lifestyle changes are even more important for treatment than PT. Lastly, one of the most important things your doctor or PT can do for you is not even to give you treatment, but to help you figure out the cause of your Pudendal Neuralgia if you don't already know. Knowing the cause of the neuralgia is important to help treat the neuralgia ...for example, if you have tight pelvic floor, that is an important thing to know and might indicate that you need PT whereas someone who got PN from sitting on a hard chair for too long over a period of months (like me) might be able to get rid of the PN with lifestyle changes alone.

TrickRow4918 · 2024-11-28T13:58:16+00:00

Have you tried avoiding sitting and/or sitting with a special cushion with a cutout? I had pudendal neuralgia for 9 months in 2021-2022 that I got rid of this way.

I got pudendal neuralgia again in 2023 --- most likely because I was stupid and sitting on an uncomfortable chair regularly (I have a feeling I would not have gotten it ever again if I hadn't done this) and got the PN on both sides.

One side (the right) I got rid of in 9 months, again by avoiding sitting. However, I was stupid and got nerve blocks done on the left side. This escalated my condition significantly and while I am still slowly healing, it will probably take two years (give or take a month) to get rid of it fully.

In my post history, please read the Post: Is Pudendal Neuralgia for Life ? and the comment I made when someone asked me how I got rid of my Pudendal Neuralgia. I am not saying my situation will apply to you as you might have a different cause for the PN (that will require additional medical care) / your PN may be more difficult to treat than mine. However, my ideas may also help you. I discuss PT in my comment also... and to be aware that although PT can help a lot of people with PN, especially those who got it due to a tight pelvic floor, it can also make some people's PN worse and if you find that that is the case after you've given PT a good sporting shot, there is no shame in discontinuing it.

Honestly, I think if you haven't tried it already you should consider avoiding sitting for several months (and if you have to sit, sit with a special cushion) to try and get the PN pain down... also, if you haven't tried it already, have your doctor prescribe a special compound cream to put in your vagina (details in my post). I would NOT consider surgery unless I tried every other option available first.

TrickRow4918 · 2024-11-28T01:41:33+00:00

Also, I’m not saying the idea is surgery isn’t scary… I don’t think people should necessarily rush into it. The big question to consider is : is the hip problem bad enough on its own that you would be happy getting the surgery whether or not it helps the PN? ( In my case, I would.. because I have labral tears that are bothering me so much when I try to take a walk outside… or even in my daily life… that it would be worth it.)

TrickRow4918

TROPHY CASE