Ohhh no!!
It was working so well too!
At my last visit to the CRS (six weeks on GTN) i was told that my fissure was almost healed and to stay on the ointment for a further six weeks. Last week it was looking great, the wound had healed well and i had no pain whatsoever during BM's nor did i suffer any spasm pains.
Then Friday afternoon i started to feel a small annoyance down there and following a bathroom visit it came back in all its former glory. So i have spent the weekend in pain all over again, i am having trouble sitting down and walking can be tolerated for maybe 10 minutes max.
I looked back over the previous few days and nothing in my diet has changed, the days before the recurrence i was drinking around three litres of water a day and taking movicol, stool softeners and magnesium.
So it looks like i am another GTN failure!!! I dont however feel depressed or down, i just feel disappointed that it was working so well and let me down at the very last hurdle.
So i am back to the CRS this week. He said on my last visit that should i return the next step would be Botox - now i have read all your accounts and researched online and to be honest i cant see any point in bothering (please correct me if you know otherwise).
Both LIS and Botox are carried out under general anaesthetic, both take around 10-15 minutes to perform and both are done as a day case. With Botox it paralyses the sphincter for three months and it in that time it is hoped that the fissure will heal - although some studies report it is 70% effective they also continue to add that most people have a re-tear within 3 months and ultimately end up having LIS.
LIS on the other hand has a 95 - 100% sucess rate and the rate of recurrence is very minor plus complete pain relief can be achieved in 2-4 weeks. Now i appreciate that there is a incontinence risk but i am yet to read an account of someone this happened to (apart from within the temporary gas/liquid incontinence sometimes experienced within the first month).
So i am going to push for LIS and bypass the Botox - Do you think a CRS would allow this? The reasons i ask is that the last 4-5 months have been hell and i am trying to plan my wedding this summer. Unfortunately this is a time we should be enjoying and getting excited about however all we can ever think about is this bloomin fissure!!!
So thats my little rant! If anyone can tell me that Botox is great and really works then please do
Davo