Hello everyone,
my name is Andy and way back when I just turned 18 I had a freak accident involving a stool leg and someone swinging a stick at my head. long story short I ducked to avoid being hit in the head but ended up causing a tear in anal muscle from accidentally plunging myself onto an upturned stool leg that was directly in my path. Crazy ha!! I suppose it could have been worse. I might have ended up with brain damage from getting a stick broken off my noggin :)
The accident caused a minor tear about 1-3 cm and I had a fistulotomy to allow it to heal. Everything seemed to go ok at least that's what I was told but now almost 14 years later after suffering with pain and incontinence for years I am finding some things out about the injury and possibly the OP that had I known sooner may off had a serious bearing on the outcome of my life thus far. Namely the fact that there was scarring and weakness off the internal sphincter which I was never made aware off, nerve damage of the sacral nerve which I was also never made aware off and also two unique anatomical factors which again I was never made aware off i.e a short narrow rectum and a condition whereby the inner sphincter pushes and causes the lower sphincter to move to one side creating a very small pocket all of which have led to years off painfull bowel movements, spasms, IBS, incontinence but worst off all it has led onto other more recent injuries in other parts of my body because I developed something called trigger points internally and externally after overworking my pelvic floor muscles and external sphincter, which I did because this is the advice I was being given by the doctors all these years to combat my condition. This advice was given without any diagnostic tests being done. It was not until I suffered secondary injuries in my back and neck which was also being misdiagnosed until I was finally sent to a Urology Physio who discovered the trigger points which was the entire cause of my bodies alignment being out which caused my neck and back problems. I am now out of work and on disability. I've had to move home and I am awaiting an appointment with Irelands top specialist in the area of anal incontinence to see if a sacral nerve stimulator will be an option for me as further surgery has been ruled out in case further damage is caused. I currently cant afford to see the Urolgy physio because she is too expensive but having these trigger points massaged is the best relief I have for the pain and doing it myself is next to impossible so its pretty frustrating. I've tried a tonne of things over the years and luckily my incontinence is only mild soiling but at the end of the day its all about the smell anyway so I find emptying the bowel as fully as you possible can before any sort of activities is the best thing and secondly some fart proof pants such as http://myshreddies.com/ which seem to work pretty good but for guys they are pretty tight on the crotch so not entirely comfortable. The surgeon who performed the diagnostic tests recently also recommended I try glycerol suppositories and I have to say they have been amazing in ensuring I have evacuated everything I only wish I had been made aware of these sooner rather than the opposite stool hardeners such as immodium which only caused me to feel very uncomfortable and made it much more painfull and difficult to have a bowel movement. Well that's my story for now. I look forward to reading some more on the forums and hopefully 2014 will be the year I finally beat this thing and I can reverse the damage its caused. I wish you the very best of luck with your respective conditions. The last bit of advice I would give is always get a second opinion if you are told there is nothing more they can do and get medical insurance so you can afford it. Godspeed everyone ;)