I am almost 12 hours post-op and thought I would share my story as I have been reading this forum for 6 months and stories of healing have brought me hope! I am hoping my journey helps someone out there!
I was diagnosed with Type A flu in late December 2018. After a week of diarrhea, I was on the mend. Then I developed a stomach bug that saddled me with diarrhea for another 3 days about 1 week after healing from the flu. All of that loose stool lead to (what I thought) was an acute fissure or hemorrhoids. I had a fissure back in 2011 and knew how to treat it (sitz baths, ibuprofen, etc.) and have had hemorrhoid flare ups monthly, so I began my healing journey without seeing a doctor. By the end of January 2019 I knew I needed to see someone as it wasn't getting better. I made an appointment with a GI doc that specializes in removing internal hemorrhoids painlessly. As he was conducting his exam he found a very big fissure. He prescribed nitro cream and I thought my healing would begin!
2 weeks later we found my mother dead. She hadn't been sick-one day she was walking her dog and working as a nurse and the next day she was dead on her bathroom floor. She was only 67. The shock and despair were overwhelming. Trying to plan her funeral with my siblings put my daily sitz baths on hold. This was the middle of February. The first week of March I had my follow-up appointment with the GI doc but by this time I was so much worse than when I started the nitro at the end of January. I had extreme anal swelling, constant throbbing and stabbing pains, could barely walk, couldn't sleep, was waking up nightly with heavy sweating. If I had been of sound mind I would've noticed that these symptoms are classic for infection. But, since I was heavy into grieving my mom's death I wasn't focusing on my tush health. I had to cancel my appointment with the GI doc and tell him that he couldn't even do an internal exam I was so swollen. He wrote another prescription for nitro (which, I had wrongly assumed I developed a reaction to) and I searched online for other cures. I had always taken stool softeners, but added in miralax, put coconut oil in my baths and on my tush prior to BMs, ordered online "cures" (pranicura, medihoney, etc.). Most of these eased the pain, but nothing worked long term.
By Mid March 2019 I knew I needed to see a colorectal surgeon and get diltiazem. I scheduled an appointment and taking one look at my external rectum my CRS prescribed antibiotics and diltiazem. Within 48 hours of starting the antibiotics, I was like a different person! I could walk, pass gas without crying, poo freely-I thought I was cured! My fissure pain was now nonexistent! I took two rounds of antibiotics and saw him 3 weeks later. I marched in his office sure I was cured! No fissure pain. No leaking anything from my rectum. I was confident I would get a clean bill of health! My swollen rectum had reduced enough for him to see that I had an infected fissure-likely a fistula had formed-and I would need surgery (a fistulotomy or seton) to clean it all out.
I was devastated! I had no pain-no fissure or fistula pain. It took me all of April and half of May to wrap my head around getting surgery. With my mom recently dying, I just couldn't imagine having to get that awful surgery without her help! I am a stay at home mom to 4 kids under 10-how could I manage without her! Halfway through May I knew I needed to get the surgery done. I had read enough stories to know fistulas don't go away on their own and had started having some minor leakage from my fissure/fistula.
I just had my fistulotomy 12 hours ago! My CRS said that my fistula tract was super low and superficial, almost no muscle involvement, and little infection-all good things! He opened my rectum horizontally below my external fissure/fistula opening. During my initial consultation he discussed how this would be like a modified LIS that would not only clean out the fistula, but also allow the fissure to heal. I didn't speak to him directly after surgery but he spoke with my sister who is also a doctor. He was surprised how big my internal fissure still was and how much scar tissue was attached to it. He cut out all the old scar tissue, deroofed the tract and cleaned out the tiny infection, and sent me on my way.
I am starting to think (based on his words of what my fissure looked like internally) that what I had been treating for years as hemorrhoid pain was actually a chronic fissure. I had one in 2011 and a skin tag removed in 2015. Once a month for a week I would need to take hemorrhoid suppositories to deal with irritation, pain, and swelling in the area. I will be interested when I call his office to see how long he thinks I have been suffering from this fissure.
I am hopeful that my recovery is smooth-having to keep the fistula tract clean and open so it heals from this inside down-is my number one goal. I am worried that him "tidying up" the fissure will lead to the return of spasms and the pooping glass feeling. I will keep this diary as a running update on how my healing is going!