Hello all. A while ago I had BOTOX injections and it did nothing at all. A few months later I went ahead with the LIS surgery, which also did nothing at all. The surgeon that did all this was a neurosurgeon so I fear he might not have known what he was doing. I changed surgeons to a colon specialist and have finally been prescribed Anoheal cream for the first time.

For the past few months I have been using anoheal cream (diltiazem) and it seemed to be VERY slowly helping. It was definitely the best improvement I have seen so far. After running out of the cream, it started fairly rapidly getting worse again so I booked another appointment.

After an MRI scan (too tight and painful to place a camera up my anus) I have been informed the LIS incision still hasn't healed (is this normal??) and neither has the fissure (could have told him that without all the money and time wasted for the scan).

I have now been given another 6 week course of the cream to see if I can heal it myself. If still not healed in 6 weeks he wants to try the BOTOX himself before trying LIS again because apparently the risk of incontinence more than doubles with the second surgery. After reading all the failed BOTOX attempts on here I would much rather go straight onto the LIS surgery...

My main question is do you all think I should go through with the BOTOX before risking a second LIS or just go straight onto the surgery?

My second question is when should you apply diltizam? My doctor said to do it twice a day half an hour before I go to the toilet. This is obviously quite difficult and not what I was doing with the last course of cream which seemed to help anyway?

Thank you to anyone that takes time to read and reply to this!

Hi my Botox did not heal my fissure but it did give me months without pain and I had underlying issues as to why my fissure was so bad.
My CRS often does two or three lots of Botox to achieve healing....I only had one as my fissure was very long and deep so LIS was decided to be the best option for me
With a good CRS the Botox should stop any pain within a month my spasms stopped the day after the injections. Only you know what's best for you and if you have a good surgeon listen to their advice. The more ops you have down there the greater the risk but if you feel LIS is what you want then push for that instead of the Botox. If your not having spasms and want a lower risk option then maybe try the Botox again
Good luck

I had the BOTOX with NO results at all. Switched surgeons (both were CRS's) but the second was highly recommended by a surgeon friend of mine. She told me, and I quote, "BOTOX is still really experimental. We're not even sure it works at all yet." My LIS was successful so I would vote to go for it but my pain was enough for me to decide that potential incontinence was better than a life with that pain (NOTE: My LIS did not end in incontinence).