Hi everyone,
As I join this forum, I do so from my bed. After a morning BM (which is painful enough) the pain can jump around with spasms anywhere from 3-8 hours often forcing me into bed, laying on my side. The pain goes from levels 1 to 10 and all points inbetween. It all started in July with what I thought were bad hemorroids. I get internal and external hemorroids occasionally, most always stressed induced. When I stress, it seems my bum reacts badly.
This Summer I allowed myself to get extremely stressed out over family, work and volunteer issues. I let myself get to a breaking point because I thought it was the right thing to do. Big mistake. If I had hemorroids, they became anal fissues (plural because I think I have more than one). It was not from constipation, but stress.
Over two years ago I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, level 3. I was 48 years old and in good shape otherwise. Surgery was not an option I was told, so we did IMRT radiation followed up with androgen deprivation chemo therapy for the last two years. The hemorroids developed in July, didn't go away, and the intense pain and severe BM issues, bleeding and pain afterwards began to skyrocket in October. I was diagnosed with anal fissures by a colorectal doctor nearly two months ago. He gave me some nifed/lidocain ointment and sent me on my way telling me to drink stool softeners and fiber. My diet is fiber rich already and I'd been on two types of osmotic stool softeners already. I've seen this doctor twice and after each examination I can't really walk for 3-4 days. Without consulting with my radiation oncologist, this guy told me surgery is not an option because this was caused by radiation. He didn't even call my oncologist to confer! 2nd visit with him was brutal and I'm working on getting a referral to another doctor. My radiation oncologist said I would be the first case of anal fissures from radiation he's ever seen and doesn't think the radiation caused it. After confering with a family member who had this, I think I might need both a fissurectomy and a lateral sphincterotomy, not sure. The ointment I got made things worse. I'm doing a most liquid diet with one solid food meal a day. The pain makes me almost feel suicidal. I'm sure many of you can relate. The 2-3 sitz baths I take each day help a little, but not much. I also have skin tags around my sphincter now, one small and one about the size of the tip of my pinky. The jerk doctor said the anal fissures do this to try and protect themselves. I don't know why I'm sharing here, but I'm waiting for the wheels to turn in the American medical bureaucracy so I can get into see the new surgeon hopefully next week. I have a variety of OTC creams and ointments to help the inner butt cheeks which are also raw. I'm on 800+mg Ibuprofin, Tramadol and Valium (most days) at this point for the pain; lots of sitz baths, witch hazel spritz after the bath followed by the ointment which I think is making thinks worse, and burn creams for my sidewall butt cheeks because they are so raw. I installed a bidet and take a sitz bath after my BM. If I even attempt to wipe I do so with tucks pads.
Any prostate radiation patients out there with anal fissures? Any positive surgery stories?