Hello all,
After my NHS date for botox got put back way further than expected I decided to go private just to get the ball rolling so I could finally start healing. First went to the doctors with fissure and skin tag at the beginning of 2013, and after trying various creams with only temporary success I just want to heal for good now.
I know that botox doesn't have a great success rate, but the CRS said that this is the first step - so that's what I did.
Had botox injected and fissure "curetted" under general anesthetic 2 and a half weeks ago. It cost a lot of money. I tried to not be too negative nor too positive about the outcome. Beforehand, I asked about scar tissue and the skin tag. He said that they don't do "fissurectomy" - they curette the fissure to clean it up and help healing. He also said that he wouldn't remove the skin tag as this would just create a bigger fissure.
Afterwards the Surgeon said that the fissure wasn't too big and that this should heal me. He also said I have some hemorrhoids. Was a bit groggy afterwards so didn't get to quiz him properly - but I assume that the fissure was under my midline anterior skin tag, as expected, and the hemorrhoids were kind of posterior, where i also experience lots of bleeding from.
Didn't really feel any pain directly after treatment. All just a bit swollen. I think I was a bit constipated from the GA, and my first bowel movement was a bit later than expected. It was quite hard and difficult to get out. The second one was the same. There was lots of blood - I think mostly from posterior area.
Started taking 1 sachet of Movicol a night to help things - did this for 4 days - it seemed to help, bleeding stopped. Less discomfort during and after bowel movements.
9 days after that my skin tag started feeling a little sore. The next day my bowel movement was much more uncomfortable. There was some blood and the skin tag swelled up red and angry. This died down a little, but it's not really ever looked like it had gone back to normal since. There's been a bit of blood from the skin tag area - and it some sort of watery discharge.
Today was the worst day yet. Difficult bowel movement, lots of blood. Seem to be bleeding a lot from the posterior now as well as anterior. Not sure if it's piles + fissure or what.
So, here I am 2 and a half weeks after some expensive treatment. Not feeling like anything has changed. Same pattern of a few days of feeling OK-ish, followed by either a little bit of blood and a swollen skin tag or lots of blood from posterior. I can't honestly say whether I have noticed any difference since treatment - I don't feel particularly looser or more relaxed down there.
Don't really know what to do anymore. I eat healthily, my stools seem fairly normal - not particularly hard or wide or anything. I squat to help. I keep the area clean. If the area is irritated I have been avoiding sitting as much as possible. Got some more Movicol today - don't really know if I need it or if it will help but I'm going to take one every night and see what happens.
As always, I don't think I have spasms, and I've never had excrutiating pain. I just get stinging/burning/blood during a BM, discomfort that lasts most of the day, swollen awkward skin tag. I suppose things could be a lot worse, but things are slowly deteriorating and I'm just not very good at dealing with it.
I'm rather fed up. I just want to be healed, for good. I can't afford to have private treatment again so it will be back on the NHS waiting list for me. Whether that will be for more botox, skin tag removal (not sure if the surgeon will do this), pressure tests to see if I am suitable for LIS or advancement flap (this option) scares me.
I've got my follow up with the surgeon next week so hopefully he can shed some light on my situation. I can't work out whether the problem is the fissure, the skin tag, the piles and I certainly don't know what to do about any of it. Every time I think I'm making progress things just go wrong. I'm tired, rather underweight now, and I've generally had enough of my stupid arsehole. I'm really not sure how long I can keep going on living the life of a monk, missing out on things with friends and family, and generally being a miserable self-pitying git.
I apologise for the long rant - but as many of you know, it feels better to let these things out on here.
Any suggestions or advice, as always, would be very welcome.