OMG, you poor guy...the positive thing though is that this will probably get the ball rolling and get you on a march toward feeling normal again, no matter what they find. It always seems to go that way ...did with me and my ultimate hysterecromy..and looking back, I'm glad it did.
Just really try to stay in the tub and on the painkillers today and mentally sort out your next major move forward to beating this! Hang in there, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for ya!

My son is 33 years old. Most CD first appears in the 20's or 30's, but sometimes even in childhood. Since my son has autism (and is not cognitively where we are all in intelligence), he could have been inserting his finger into his rectum in an attempt to "fix" his pain. His main symptom when he was diagnosed was blood and lots of it when his ulcers were active. Also a low iron count and severe ab pain. They biopsied his ulcers and were able to diagnose CD in that way. He's pretty stable right now (KOW), but had to be hospitalized in November of 2005 with a partial obstruction of the small bowel. You might not have CD. The good news if you do is that researchers are making progress all around with CD--diagnoses and treatments. I financially support the research as I can. Good luck!

Thanks for the support, guys.
Sidra, I'm starting with Valium for today to see if it does anything for the spasms. If the spasms kick in anyway then I'm going straight to the Percocet to at least cover up the pain. I'm a little surprised that they gave me something as strong as Percocet but this ER doc seemed to know about fissures (said he used to work on them with a GI doc) and said he knows they can be supremely debilitatingly painful. In any case it's something I need to get figured out. I'm not sure if any underlying bowel disease diagnosis would impact how I go about treating the fissure, but suppose any impact would be minimal.
Cheryl, thanks so much for sharing about your son's Crohn's diagnosis. I've had a number of blood tests and am not anemic, so it's likely that any GI bleeding I may have is either non-existent or minimal. No fevers or bad abdominal pains either. From I can tell, ulcerative colitis of the rectum or sigmoid colon may be more likely. I'm glad your son is doing well right now, hopefully he's on a good treatment regimen that will help keep it under control.

Hey, NG -- your avatar -- is that from a previous hospital stay?

Kim wrote:Hey, NG -- your avatar -- is that from a previous hospital stay?

Haha nope, unfortunately. It's from last night :(

Ok, I went back and read your prior posts. I didn't know about the ER visit because I've been away most of the day and haven't read up. OMG, so sorry to hear about that, buddy! You are really having a rough go of things. And now you have a colonoscopy ahead of you...well, you need it! Did you take off work today? Are the percocets helping any? Hows the pain now -- was the pain last night just a magnified version of your fissure pain?

Yeah I'm working from home today. I was pretty drugged last night so I wasn't in any shape to go anywhere today. Life has just halted.
I haven't tried the Percocet yet. It constipates, so I'm only going to take it as needed. But if the pain ends up being like it was last night, I'll definitely take it, constipation be damned.
The pain was like the fissure main magnified many many many times for the most part. But it was also somewhat different. Usually, with the fissure pain, I can still walk (with some minor discomfort) and sit (also with some mild-moderate pain). But the pain yesterday made it so I couldn't walk, sit, or even stand without severe pain. And the spasms were MUCH worse than before, it was wave after wave of throbbing pain shooting up my rectum. My workplace has stairs and I had to be carried down them because I just couldn't walk. Then I got the wheelchair treatment at the ER. That sucked. I don't know life got like this.
I'm taking Valium 2-3 times daily now though. I don't care what side effects or long term dependency it causes, if it can prevent what I went through yesterday, I will take it. I was literally crying in front of coworkers and my wife had to come get me, pretty embarassing stuff, but the pain really was that bad. No BM today yet but I can feel the urge coming, so I'm pretty scared. I hope this is rock bottom, I don't want to live anymore if it gets any worse.

I hate that it happened at work, NG! I understand that very odd feeling you get when suddenly after having been so strong all your life, you are in a wheelchair. It happened to me when I had my appendectomy. It is a very odd and humbling feeling.
The way you describe the spasms as coming in painful waves is how I had them. Almost every day for seven months. Somehow I endured and somehow you will too.
It pains me to read your last line. It really does. I have read such statements too many times on this board. I wish I had some magical way of replying to give courage and encouragement, but I don't. I can only say what I have told others, butt pain is not forever. It can be healed, and in almost every case it does get healed. Sometimes it happens very easily, sometimes the healing comes in long slow stages even after LIS. But it happens. Next month you will experience what will/may undoubtedly be your greatest joy in this life. That is almost like tomorrow! Focus on that as much as you can. You have a great depth of feeling and sensitivity, so your joy will be great, and when your healing comes -- and it surely will-- you will have untold countless days of happiness with your family!!
Be strong, endure, and don't let a little cut undo your dreams!!!
Don't!!!

Thanks, Kim, I'm trying to. The pain just crowds out my ability to enjoy anything else in life. I was kind of hoping I wouldn't wake up from the anesthesia yesterday, you know, just make it painless and easy to fade away. But my wife and parents would be devastated. For me personally, I just want it all to stop, but I don't want to destroy anyone else's life in the process.

NG,
You might want to try an A/D when things settle down. I think that could help you greatly. So many of us have been in that dark hole caused by a little cut in our ass. Seems unreal that something so small can cause so much pain and anguish. I'll pray for you even though I don't know your real name! I think it is sometimes difficult to think clearly when agonizing over one's condition. Once the docs get a good handle on the extent of your problem, I am sure they will be able to fix it. Worse case scenario would be to get a colostomy, which is what I wanted about a year ago. Now I am trying to slim down, instead of drinking Ensure! Two of my friends are currently fighting cancer--both younger than me. One has had the cancer mestatisize to her brain, and her prognosis is not all that great. The other one has just had 6 months of chemo, then a partial mastectomy, will undergo radiation, and then 6 more months of chemo. So, everything is perspective although I am the first to agree that butt issues truly suck. They really do.