Hi, all!
I'm a 33 year old female who got my fissure over 10 years ago when I had my wisdon teeth out. (pain meds + young and ignorant about constipation = fissure!) I had no idea what I was dealing with, and when I finally saw a Dr., I was diagnosed with "hemorrhoids." After several weeks, my intesnse pain subsided, but nothing was ever "the same." It took almost 2 years before I finally got a real diagnosis from a CRS of "chronic fissure." But by that time, my pain was (still is) very intermittent and manageable. only about 1-2 times a year, I have a real "flare up" that includes real painful BMs.
I see a CRS every few years or so, and he tells me, "Yep! Your little fissure is still there. It's not big, but it's there, and you have a lot of scar tissue around it. Just tell me when you've had enough, and we'll do surgery." However, this is the same Dr. that told me "The only potential side-effect of surgery would be leakage, which would be no big deal. You'd just need to wear a menstrual pad. It would be like having your period all the time. And that's no big deal, right?" My internal response was "What the heck?? It would be terrible!!" And no, it would not be like having your period all the time--which would be bad enough! (And since he was a man, it was even more insulting.)
I tried all the topical Rx stuff: nifedipine, etc. Nothing helped or changed the fissure at all.
Anyway, fast forward to where I am today. As I said, whatever pain I have is manageable. However, what *does* bother me is that as the years go by, I seem to develop more and more skin tags, or "sentinel piles" or something like that. I have at least 3. Big ones. Hanging out there. And that makes it very diffucult to keep the area clean. Although I rarely have pain, I do have persistent odor, unless I clean up in the shower, since the skin tags seem to trap "stuff." In a word: gross.
At this point, I really don't want to risk LIS. Also, I have 4 small children, and I *really* don't have the time to "take off" to deal with the entire surgery and recovery period, not to mention leakage issues--even if only temporary. My life is very, very hectic.
I guess my questions are:
-does anyone have any thoughts on dealing with a persistent, yet mostly painless fissure?
-do minor fissures like this ever eventually heal themselves without surgery, even when chronic? mine seems to close and open every so often, but never get unmanageable.
-can i get surgery to remove skin tags/piles without LIS, or is that a waste of time, since they may just come back as long as the fissure remains.
-how does age factor in to all this? my CRS said he "never" does LIS on older people, since "they don't need it, because their muscle tone has decreased on it's own." does that mean mine could heal as I age?
-has anyone else out there had a similar experience with a small, annoying fissure that lasted for many years?
thank you, all! years ago (when my problems were "flaring!") I joined a fissure group on yahoo. anyone ever remember that group?