Msimon,

I have suffered for 2 years myself so I know what it's like to have days when you cant leave the house. If I could get my pain levels down to say 2-3/10 I would be able to get on with my life. Unfortunately my pain levels seem to fluctuate all over the place so it's hard to plan for much of anything.

Have you tried any medications for pain management?? I also find an electric heat pad works great for when I go to bed at night.

You are certainly not suffering alone if that's any form of comfort for you.

I was just checking out that website link Alyssa posted, however it says the video isn't available for viewing from my country.

Pafen, Right now I am really struggling with what is fissure pain and what is pelvic floor pain. I am sure I have multiple fissures and the situation just keeps getting worse. My pain levels vary a lot day to day as well and not much is helping right now. Actually, I find that the heating pad makes it worse but warms baths help. So I have been living in there. Next I will try botox again and if that doesn't work I have booked LIS surgery for the new year. Let's hope it doesn't come to that.

That website link is to a lady that has written a book on pelvic pain (Amy Stein). Maybe you can access the book? My local library even has it. What country are you in?

Pafen,

It was a video of Amy Stein's exercises she uses in her book healing pelvic pain.

"second surgical consult and this Guy mentioned that with me he would be concerned about neuropathic pain from doing surgery on me. I have that concern too and given my experience with trying to tough it out with the hemorrhoidectomy surgery I have years ago I would not do that again. The research seems to indicate that this can set up a chronic pain/sensitization situation and if I get surgery I am definitely going to take lots of pain killers to try to avoid that (I almost never take pain meds now)."


Can you explain a little bit more on how anal surgery can lead to this type of pain? Can a fissure in itself lead to this also?

Msimon,

Do you have any other options other than LIS?

Msimon and Alyssa,

I am based in Australia. I think the whole problem is this type of surgery is explained as relatively basic from a surgeons consultation. I had the hemroidectomy as the beginning of this long journey.

Of course I never googled it for the risks as I thought it was basic surgery. The consultation was a simple "we will remove them and you will be back at work in 2-3 weeks"

I even remember the day of my surgery, that morning I went for my usual 5km jog. I was as fit as a fiddle. I was in a busy period of my life working, in a relationship and planning many activities.

I had no idea that this procedure could be "life changing" with a recovery that seemed to go on forever with the complication of a anal abscess followed by a fissure, then the LIS.

My father had his hemroids done many years ago and didn't seem to have any problems, he was back at work in a few weeks.

If I had any idea how painful the procedure was, I would have chosen other options for sure!

Once the complications occur, of course you google it, then you end up here and a few other sites where you realise the surgery does pose more significant risks of chronic pain.

You have to always remain optimistic and keep trying things though. As we are all relatively young, putting up with this for the rest of our lives is not a nice option.

I have a few things left to try. Probably will push my pain specialist for the Botox injections next. He is good friends with the doctor who runs the pudendal nerve clinic here in Australia. I would travel there but it's 2 days drive from where I live.

I did open up my MRI report and it said my piriformis muscle was uniform both sides with no sign of enlargement. It then went on to say that this still doesn't rule out piriformis syndrome.

I am seeing the best pain specialist pretty much in the country. Unfortunately the wait to see him is 3 months between appointments. My appointment isn't till the 27th October( I thought it was earlier) so I will know what my next step is then.

In the meantime I have to take painkillers to have some form of quality of life. My pain is strong enough that if I didn't take them, I would have days where I couldn't leave the house or exercise which I think is pretty important as it boosts the endorphins.

Pafen,

I too had my hemmys removed 5 years ago but my recovery was much longer; it took a full 2-3 months to feel completely normal. I did not have any complications after that. It's after I had a small fissure that all this pain started. Some days are just so hard because I think about the good old days that I did not any pain to go to the bathroom or just that was able to sit more than hour without having any burning pain.

I went to my doctors appointment and she said that my pelvic floor muscles are relaxed hence less pain during bm's but my sphincter still seems a little tight so the next plan of action is to inject the sphincter relax (=reduce pain). She also gave me some lidocaine to try.

Wanted to share an article that another boardie (Cheryl) posted that I thought was interesting...

https://www.iffgd.org/store/downloadfile/109

Alyssa, did your Doctor indicate which sphincter was tight and are going to inject with botox? Is this the same Doctor? When do they plan to do this?

My internal sphincter... Yes it is the same doctor that injected the Botox the last time... The Botox won't be injected u til December at that time they (chronic pain doctor & crs) will decide if the sphincter only needs to be botoxed or both sphincter and pelvic floor.