# Burning. excoriated skin in perianal area, but my story first



## Ltx (Feb 11, 2015)

I have had an issue with diarrhea since recovering from a liver transplant in 2000. My gastroenterologist advised me that I was experiencing Crohns-like symptoms resulting from the transplant, most likely caused by side effects of a large variety of medications I'd had to begin using to keep my transplanted organ from being rejected, then to keep my blood pressure in check, then to keep my kidneys healthy because the anti-rejection medication was toxic to kidneys. I imagine, you're beginning to see a picture emerging here.

Most of the dozen or so meds I took came with literature suggesting that diarrhea was a known side effect. It seems every medication seemed to require yet another to address a condition it might cause. It seems that everything is a compromise when changes the body's chemistry. The "larger picture" for me included a 30 year period period of survival with liver disease, a result of a virus I'd picked up from one or more of the lab animals I'd worked on in my early days as a liver transplant researcher. (Irony knows no bounds!) And so, after 30 years, the liver transplants had indeed come to fruition and I'd survived long enough and become sick enough to not only get onto the organ transplant waiting list, but also be among those at greatest need and luckier still to have been among the one in three people who survives because they received a life saving transplant in time.

For years, I thought, "oh great, diarrhea is my surprise prize for winning the transplant lottery." I just grinned and bared it.

Over the years, my diarrhea issue became gradually but increasingly worse.

Then, last May, as a result of a colonoscopy, my colon was perforated, and I realized it when I woke up the following morning feeling as though I was bloated enough to be 8 month pregnant and running a fever. I got to the hospital in a hurry where a CT scan showed it was indeed a perforated colon because all the bloat was free air. Then I was transported to another hospital, my transplant center, so they could better deal with the emergency surgery I was about to undergo, which provided an ileostomy, after removing about 25% of my colon.

Suddenly, into my new found attached abdominal pouch, my new constant companion, I was producing lots of diarrhea and so I began using lomotil as though it was habit forming candy. After the surgeon pronounced me healed and my intestinal tract healthy enough, I was offered revision surgery, in other words, putting me back the way I used to be, without the ileostomy pouch and with my digestive tract again reconnected from one end to the other, albeit a little shorter than it had been.

Since that time, last September, I've become a virtual diarrhea machine.

What bothered me most was not just all the running, even with lots of Immodium on board, which I discovered to work better than the prescription lomotil. What really got to me was the burning and pain from the excoriated skin which was bleeding when simply being patted by a soft moist baby wipe.

Fortunately, a very good friend of mine is an FDA consultant who introduced me on the phone to a client who owns a pharmaceutical company. The product her company manufactures down in Louisiana, which is over the counter in parts of the US,but not here in Maryland, as sent to me to try, a generous offer from a client of a friend out of mutual respect and admiration to help this friend. I'm very fortunate that when I began applying NeutrapHor to that part of my body where the sun never shines, morning and evening, after drying after showering, I began to achieve a degree of relief. Three weeks later, there was no more excoriation or bleeding, although the area was still tender and after diarrhea, the skin did burn a bit still, until I cleaned up and patted dry and then reapplied the NeutrapHor.

This white cream is absorbed quickly, leaving no stickiness or residue, but seems to afford some skin protection when the area is again wet from diarrhea when next I visit the bathroom.

Today, I had a capsule endoscopy and learned that part of my issue is called "rapid transit", as it only took 3 hours and 6 minutes for the capsule camera to pass from one end to the other of my digestive system. I'll get a full accounting of the test after all the images are analyzed by a gastroenterologist at the practice I use. Now that we've found part of the issue, I'm hopeful we can also find a treatment to improve my quality of life. I've spend entirely too much time riding that white porcelain pony.


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