Hello all! I joined the forum today, and am so grateful that it exists! Reading others posts have helped me mentally (and physically) while trying to deal with this not so wonderful experience.
I guess I've been lucky up until recently. I've had occasional issues with hard stools/constipation off and on throughout my life. The past few years, I've been really good about making sure that my fiber intake was high (to the point that sometimes large stools would even clog the toilet).
At the beginning of June, I ate a bowl of cheesy queso with chips on an empty stomach (just thinking about it is making my stomach gurgle). It didn't agree with me. Within 10 minutes, I could barely make it to the toilet before very explosive diarrhea occurred. This happened 3 times in less than an hour, and after the third time, there was blood on the toilet paper, and burning pain. I was clueless, googled the heck out of everything relating to blood with bowel movements. Initially I thought maybe it was an internal hemorrhoid that had been irritated by the diarrhea, but then read that internal hemorrhoids shouldn't cause pain. The pain was uncomfortable, small amounts of bleeding continued, and I concluded that it was a fissure. Of course, since I haven't had one before (or hemorrhoids for that matter), I wasn't sure, but since I had read that most heal in about 3 weeks, I decided to wait and see, and started stiz baths. The situation didn't improve. Increasing fiber only made stools larger, adding to the pain. I then fasted for 3 days, and still passed stools every day. Weak and miserable, I made an appointment with a GI doctor. I hadn't been to a general practitioner in over 10 years, and didn't have any history with one where I am currently living. They were able to get me in quickly.
I met with the PA, who did a visual inspection, as well as a digital inspection. He said he couldn't see the fissure, but there was some blood on his glove from probing around. He said he felt a mass as well, that would need to be examined. A sigmoidoscopy was scheduled for the following week. I went home, read online that it was a painless procedure, and that the worst part was the prep. It was a split dose prep....and it was extremely unpleasant to do with the fissure. And not being able to take Ibuprofen didn't help. Once I arrived, I was told again that it was painless by the nurse, and there would be no need for any topical anesthesia. When I told her I thought I had a fissure, her reply was, "How do you know? Have you had one before?" There wasn't any concern on their part about the pain.
At the initial insertion of the scope, I cried out in pain. The doctor paused after a few seconds, asked me if that was painful, I said yes, and he said he would try to avoid the area where it was until the end. With every movement he made, the pain grew in intensity. I was telling him to stop, cussing several times and then crying. He just told me to hold on, that it wouldn't take much longer. The pain became so intense that I starting holding my breath, and the monitor alarms
went off twice. It felt like I was being ripped in half, and there was nothing I could do. He still wouldn't stop. He found a polyp (the mass the PA had felt), removed it, and then on his way out with the scope, saw the fissure and took an image of it. After the exam was over, he told me he had to remove the polyp because it appeared cancerous, and that I would need a full colonoscopy. He then told me that my fissure was large and that I would probably need surgery, which had a risk of incontinence. I told him no, that I wanted to try Nitroglycerin. I was terrified, violated, and there was no way I was going to let him perform any additional actions.
Days following the procedure were miserable. I could not sit upright at all. I had muscle spasms going down my leg, and waking me up at night. I couldn't bend over past the waist. The prescription was for Rectiv, recently approved in the US. I was unable to apply it inside for the first two weeks (I could barely get a qtip up there without extreme pain). Once I started applying it correctly (using a syringe), there was intense stinging. I ignored it because I so badly wanted to heal, but it became too painful after applying....I would literally lay face down and cry after an application. The pain would subside after 10 minutes or so, but the reaction intensified (as if that even seemed possible) each day. (I also had a similar reaction to Preparation H, and it seems to be
lanolin that might be causing the problem - I am extremely allergic to wool).
I ended up going to a general practitioner, and he recommended a local, well respected general surgeon (who spent 3 months advanced training focused on the colon/anus. I met with him, and he told me he could do LIS surgery the following Monday (he hadn't even inspected the fissure when he was going on about surgery). I told him I'd like to avoid surgery if possible and that I had read about another cream that had great success for others, but I didn't remember the exact spelling or pronunciation. He prescribed Hydrocodone and Ibuprofen 800mg for pain. Well, he called in an RX for Dibucaine. When I called his office to get Diltiazam cream instead, the nurse said they couldn't
prescribe it if it wasn't in their healthcare systems database (they showed it, but only for high blood pressure treatment. She would talk to the doctor and get back to me. She didn't call back, and the next day I put a non-urgent call into his answering service. (He had repeatedly told me to call anytime, day or night, if I had any concerns or questions during our initial meeting). A few
hours later he called me back and he was annoyed. The friendly manner was non-existent, he asked me just how many creams did I have to go through, why I wasn't respecting his 25+ years of experience, and instead relying on some concoction I had found on the internet.That he didn't have time to research it, and that if it wasn't approved for that usage, then he wouldn't prescribe it. I about lost my temper, but I realized that if I did, I wasn't going to get anywhere, so I calmly (as I could) told him there were studies from the US National Health Library (mainly this link -
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11298624 ), that there are substantial and valid proof that it has helped others heal and avoid surgery. Not to mention that it's in the 3rd round of FDA testing in the US, and should be on the RX market next year.
Early the following week, he called the pharmacy and had it filled. I didn't notice much difference the first two weeks, except it didn't hurt when applied. I started taking the Hydrocodone, and had some uncomfortable bms, so I increased the colace and milarax. Week 3, I could bend over and pick things off the floor and was in alot less pain. Muscle spasms down my leg was gone.I felt like I was finally on the road to recovery. I stopped taking the RX painkillers and just took over the counter Ibuprofen and Tylenol as needed.
Unfortunately, when I did that, my stools went haywire. I started going 2-3 times each morning, each progressively looser and watery. I cut out the miralax completely, and the colace next. I had been taking magnesium 500mg, so I cut that in half as well. I started drinking one cup of
sage tea in the evening, from fresh sage leaves, just in case going off of everything was going to cause a constipation problem.
Four days ago, after another bout of 3x going in the morning with the same result, something felt like it was falling out. And there was a intense painful spot when I was using the wipes. I checked in the mirror, and there was a bump that looked like a pimple close to where the fissure opening is. I upped my baths to 5x/day for a half hour each, and stopped eating solids. It became painful and inflamed, and developed into a lump about the size of a large pea. Blood and small amounts of pus were coming from it, blood especially after applying antibiotic ointment. (I checked the inactive ingredients and there is lanolin in it, so I switched to hydrogen peroxide and warm cotton balls soaked in salty water. Thinking that I had an anal abscess, and because there was a little pus draining, I went to the emergency care clinic this morning.
After being inspected and having the area pulled and tugged, the doctor said it was hemorrhoids. There was one inflamed one right were the fissure is, and several small ones. She said there was nothing to drain, to use hydrocortisone cream for the inflammation, and prescribed a 10 day
treatment of Cipro. She also recommended I take a probiotic (Cultural). I got those immediately, took my first dose of Cipro at 1pm (after eating one scrambled egg with mushrooms at 11AM). At 3pm, i took the Cultural, but opened the capsule and poured out half of it, just in case it was too strong. At 4:15pm, I had a very strong, explosive episode of diarrhea. I'm drinking water, and added a little juice to it around 6:30pm, and nothing bad happened. Five minutes ago I ate
2 saltine crackers....waiting to see if there is a reaction, but have given up on the idea of eating anything else today. I can't go through that again....there was blood coming from inside where the fissure is, and I feel like the progress I was making is coming undone. The only thing giving me relief right now is the heating pad I have between my legs. Ibuprofen isn't recommended to take
while on Cipro, so I've only taken 2 Tylenol today after the pain got too intense. I'm hoping the reaction was to the probiotic and not the Cipro. Also, since all this started, and I couldn't figure out how to keep my stools small, I kept eating less and less. I've lost 25 pounds over the past 3 months....last week I started eating more, and now this happened. I'm exhausted.
Anyways, that's a little history on my situation up to today. I look forward to being active on this board, and hopefully help (and be helped) along the way.
I've read so many posts that others have made, and it helps to not feel so alone through this.