Well I am not sure about the hydro part of it....I have heard too about not using it, however I have heard of using analpram for fissures, which I think has hydrocortisone in it. If you liked her and felt comfortbale, I would try it at least for a bit.

Did she say anything about stool softners or your diet?

Right, Tracy, digestion needs to work correctly to heal an AF. How are you doing?

Pretty good now that I am on Colace. Nothing else seemed to be consistent so I am taking Kim's method.

How are you?

I like the valium idea, and maybe the hydrocortisone will help, too. Maybe the doctors know something about the hydrocortisone that the rest of us don't. Sounds like a plan, NG! I see nothing that raises my eyebrow! The only concern I have is the approaching delivery date for your wife. Lets hope it kicks in fast.
Macy, I *hope* my "method" is working for you and I pray your tail stays calm!
And hey, Cheryl, how are you!?!

I have no pain at all right now and have not in a couple of days. I am really hoping this is the key for me.

How are you today NG?

I'm OK, Kim, and things are finally starting to settle down with my mom. Have been able to cut my Movicol/Miralax down lately, so hope that continues.

macymae wrote:Well I am not sure about the hydro part of it....I have heard too about not using it, however I have heard of using analpram for fissures, which I think has hydrocortisone in it. If you liked her and felt comfortbale, I would try it at least for a bit.

Did she say anything about stool softners or your diet?

Actually no, which was a little weird. She didn't mention too much about my diet except to eat more fiber, along with some recommendations on taking Metamucil and what not. I started by telling her that I was already taking Miralax and eating lots of bran cereal, though, so maybe she figured I was already taking care of the diet side of the equation.
But yeah she seemed pretty knowledgeable about fissures overall, so I figure I haven't got much to lose by at least trying it out for a week or two

Kim wrote:I like the valium idea, and maybe the hydrocortisone will help, too. Maybe the doctors know something about the hydrocortisone that the rest of us don't. Sounds like a plan, NG! I see nothing that raises my eyebrow! The only concern I have is the approaching delivery date for your wife. Lets hope it kicks in fast.
Macy, I *hope* my "method" is working for you and I pray your tail stays calm!
And hey, Cheryl, how are you!?!

Yeah the delivery date is looming for sure. At this rate it doesn't seem like I'll be able to "beat" it though. I have a follow-up with the same doctor in 3 weeks (September 1st), and if the nitro hasn't done anything by then, that'll be the earliest I can get the first botox injection. Then the botox needs about a month to see if it's effective, which puts me at October, meaning the babies will have arrived already. At that point I'll know whether I need a second injection of botox or if I need to get LIS.
The only curveball in the equation is that I have an appointment with a local CRS in late August. She won't be able to give me botox (since she doesn't have sufficient medical records to build a case for it with my health insurance) but she can do LIS if I decide to skip the botox altogether. Even that doesn't guarantee that I won't be in LIS recovery phase when the babies arrive though...
So either way I'm prepared to be in some kind of not-so-perfect shape when my wife is due (she's probably having a C-section in mid September or so because one of the babies is a breech baby), either still suffering from the fissure in the midst of botox treatment or in LIS recovery phase. It's a bummer for sure, but well, what can ya do.

macymae wrote:I have no pain at all right now and have not in a couple of days. I am really hoping this is the key for me.

How are you today NG?

About 50/50 so far, had one of those strange BMs this morning that hurt pretty bad but wasn't hard. Weird. I'm hoping it was just from the rectal exam yesterday. My rear was feeling pretty painful from the doctor's probing yesterday, had to pop a bunch of ibuprofen on the drive home. So maybe some kind of residual effect, I guess. Dreading a bit what the rest of the day holds though. That ibuprofen sure was effective at dulling the pain, though. I've never taken it before (always avoided painkillers when I could) and might pick some up for bad BM days.
I tried a Valium pill last night too, and that was ummm interesting. I don't know if it did anything for my sphincter spasm (probably not considering this morning's BM), but it sure had some kind of mental effect. After I took it, I felt like I wasn't worried about a thing anymore, and also felt kind of groggy and lazy. It was highly artificial, but was easily the best mood I've been in for months. Apparently Valium can be addictive, and I can easily see why, so I guess I'll have to be careful with it. Also I saw that for some people it can cause constipation, fingers crossed I'm not included there.

Yeah most people take Valium for the anti anxiety effects. Be careful and you should be fine.

I skipped any botox treatment as my CRS doesn't really think it is all that effective and preferred LIS.

Watch out for the metamucil! For me and others it caused monster poos. Just a thought.

Ultimately you'll have to decide...with the twins coming I would do the best I could to get the symptoms to a tolerable level and see that CRS on 8/25! It would not hurt to get another opinion.