Thanks Fissy. I suspected the yeast problem might be related to soaking. I've never had anything like this before and was trying to figure out where the hell it came from. Only thing that I've changed recently is all the sitz baths. I'm actually using topical antifungals and steroids as well as oral drugs. Had a single dose of Diflucan a few days ago and have another one ready if I need it. I'm trying not to take it since Diflucan, vicodin, and valium are all metabolized by the same liver enzymes though. The regimen is definitely hard on the liver but if the infection doesn't clear up in a week or two then I'll have to get the circumcision which I'm not looking forward to. With my luck I'm pretty sure that'll get infected with MRSA or something too.
I checked around and saw that people advise taking acidophilus for yeast infections. But then I saw some other literature that said people with recent bowel surgery shouldn't take it. Hard to know what to believe anymore with all the random "information" on the Internet.
I got several opinions just before LIS and it all just muddied the waters for me. It's a long story but my symptoms were some anorectal pain from the fissure site but also some other weird pain in my lower left back and groin. I saw your CRS, my primary doctor, my CRS, and also the SF CRS within a few weeks...
Your CRS told me that I had a big fissure and bad spasms that were causing all of my pain, and suggested LIS.
My primary care doctor said it sounded like more sciatica to him and suggested a lumbar MRI.
My CRS told me that I had an average sized fissure with bad spasms, and suggested LIS, but also said that it's hard to be sure whether all of my pain was due to the fissure, because some of the pain is in locations not normally associated with fissures.
And the SF CRS said she found neither a fissure nor any spasm, but that there was inflammation in the rectum. She suggested using hydrocortisone suppositories and to cut my Miralax dose in half because that might be causing the inflammation. I thought that was kind of weird. I also had a bad experience with one of the front desk ladies there: when I canceled my LIS appointment, I immediately called them to ask if they could try to pre-authorize another Botox shot with my insurance company before I headed up there again, since it's a somewhat long drive and I didn't want to make two trips. Before I got done explaining my request, the lady cuts me off and says "please hurry up, we are very busy with lots of calls today." I like the doctor, but that kind of annoyed me, and is the last contact I've had there.
Anyhow after all of that, I wasn't quite sure what to believe, but since Botox was going to be a pain to get authorized, and both your CRS and my CRS said there was a fissure with spasms, I figured LIS was my best bet. Just another bad call in a long series of them I guess.
Anyway so there goes another long story. I'm just tired of it, from the opinions to the treatments to the doctor's visits. Last week I had doctor's visits on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and also Thursday lol. Definitely not normal stuff. I have 115 medical claims since April 2009 and am in worse shape now than I was back then -- now that's ironic
I'm sure it'll all sort itself out one way or the other eventually. I'm just not convinced that what I do will influence the outcome very much, that's all, you know?