by thisfissurecankissmybutt » 25 Jul 2012, 13:50
Hi restoremybody:
Believe me - I know how frustrating and confusing it can be. I also went to three different CRS's, hoping one of them would have the magic solution that would lead to healing. Fortunately for me, I developed a fistula, which my CRS said would never go away on its own. Because of the fistula, it forced my hand as surgery was no longer optional for me. However, after having surgery for both the fistula repair and LIS, I can say with 100% certainty that I wish I had done it sooner. I spent way too long in way too much pain, always hoping that tomorrow would bring healing.
In regards to how my CRS discovered my fistula: I had been diagnosed by two different CRS's with a fissure. I took Nifedipine for 6 weeks. After 6 weeks, I was still having pain so my CRS took a look with a scope and said it looked like the fissure had healed but he could see an "indention" where the fissure was, which he now suspected was a fistula. However, he couldn't make a definitive diagnosis in his office, so he did an examination under anesthesia (EUA) and confirmed that I had a superficial fistula (the fissure had healed incorrectly as a fistula). I was still having pain, and due to some minor drainage from the fistula (which I never noticed) I developed a yeast infection in and around my anus. My CRS gave me a prescription which cleared up the yeast infection within a few days. However, a month later the yeast infection returned. That's when I decided enough was enough and on a REALLY bad day I called and scheduled the surgery. The very next day after scheduling the surgery (which was three weeks away) the pain went completely away! Over the next three weeks I thought about canceling the surgery on several different occasions, but each time I picked up the phone to cancel I remembered how terrible I felt on the day I scheduled the surgery and didn't cancel it.
My advice: find a CRS that you trust and follow their advice if they tell you that you need surgery. If I had listened to my CRS, I would have had the surgery several months ago and would have spared myself months and months of unnecessary pain.