Hi Everyone,
Well I had my six week follow up with my CRS last night and he told me that I was ALMOST healed (on my last visit his words were, “you have a nasty little fissure”)
I have been on the GTN (Nitro) for six weeks now and my BM pain has gone from a ‘rip the towel rail from the wall’ type of pain down to a mild tingling sensation. The spasms have gone from 5-6 hours of being unable to walk, stand, sit or just generally function to a mild discomfort/annoyance which come and go for a few minutes at a time lasting for about 2 hours following the BM.
The CRS gave me the option of staying on GTN or Botox – Now given the option of staying put on a cream that seems to be working or being put to sleep for a camera insertion and internal injections seemed a no brainer however I refused to make the decision and told him I want whatever is best for me! (Luckily he chose the option I wanted to hear) – I hope I made the right call.
If I do not fully heal with GTN it will be Botox in six weeks time or I can have it sooner if I feel it is needed. I asked about the possibility of LIS if it does not improve and to be honest I think there is little chance of getting this unless you are really suffering and conservative methods have not given you any relief or if you keep constantly re-tearing.
I asked about the risk of re-occurrence after healing and he said unfortunately it’s not good – their experience says that about 1 in 3 people have a re-occurrence after GTN or Botox (being a glass half full person I read this as 66% of people go on to have a fissure free lifestyle!) Fortunately though the majority who do re-tear generally suffer from a minor niggling rather than a ‘full on fissure pain’ again and this can be resolved by another session on the GTN. After time most people can judge what is good for them and what will cause them to re-tear.
Another thing I picked up was that you should not always assume you have had a re-tear because the pain has comeback – sharp food is likely to irritate the wound and remove some of the scabbing and this will cause an element of pain but it is not re-tearing the fissure – these things are a little more robust than you think.
Anyway I am going to up my game and give myself one last push to try and heal this fissure and get my life back on track – I will let you know how i progress
I hope everyone is having a good day today
Davo