Hi all. I am so glad I found this board!
First a little about me.
I am a 30 year old male. I live in Houston, TX. I have always dealt with on again off again painful bowel movements and blood on the toilet paper. I just assumed it was normal and the result of passing a hard stool. It was never pain I could not handle and would just happen once and after that I would be normal again.
This past summer I was under extreme stress. My father was passing away, I was away from my home to help take care of him, and was also eating very poorly and had a few bad bouts of terrible constipation.
Last Thursday I noticed excrutiating pain when I would go to the bathroom, but no blood. This happened every time I went to the bathroom and caused me to immediately change my diet and of course I suspected hemorrhoids.
Yesterday I went and saw a CRS. He talked to me for a minute, and then checked out my butt for a few seconds and diagnosed me with "severe anal fissures."
He said in my case the only sure cure is the LIS. He said he has never seen someone with as many fissures as I have (he said there were 2 or 3) heal with just the medication.
I told him I wanted to research some and he gave me a prescription for lidocaine .5% and nifedipine .3% and scheduled a follow up in 2 weeks.
I started the nifedipine last night and again this morning (says to take every 8 hours) and this morning my bm while still painful, did not make me cry out in pain as previously. But I did notice a lot of blood on the toilet paper which I had not seen so far this week. Is it getting worse?
He told me the surgery would be very simple and if I had it on a Thursday I'd be back to work on Monday. Does this sound about right? I am very nervous about the complications (incontinenance) post surgery.
I am thinking about seeing a different CRS just to be sure. I actually had wanted to go to a different one to begin with but he is very popular and did not have an appointment available until later this month, so I chose my second choice who could see me sooner.
Sorry this is so long but it's causing me a lot of anxiety. I am young and active and don't want to be suffering like this the rest of my life. Any advice is appreciated! Thanks! :-)