I'm going to dig my Vicks out!!
I must admit, after a long, very painful, very stressful and almost suicidal (at times) week, I now feel like I have everything under control. Alpine, I have spent most of last week off work. But, I seem to have cracked it.........here's what I do:-
Weetabix minis with semi skimmed milk for breakfast.
I always have soup, or tuna sandwiches on wholemeal (no butter) for lunch, and homemade stews, soups or goulash for tea. I am off dairy other than the milk in my weetabix. I have stuck to the notion of mush in mush out so to speak!!
My routine was, wake up, have the bath running during first BM, jump straight into bath, then put the creams on. If still sore, get the heat pad out. If you've read my other posts, you'll know that I ended up in hospital on Thursday. I now know that the main source of the extreme pain was the skin tag emerging. Since then, I have realised that my pain is coming from the tag and not the fissure, which is great, it must be healing. For the tag, I have used a mixture of diltiazem cream, xyloproct cream and good old Sudocrem. I've not used the heat pad. I feel tons better! Hope it lasts, back at work tomorrow!
Oh, and I did invest in Preparation H wipes - so cooling and soothing after a bad BM.
Fingers crossed.......I can see light at the end of the tunnel!!
Hope you feel better soon too!

Well, I did it, had a bath,dried with the hair dryer(good tip that one) and put on a tiny smear of vicks.Initially I thought this is starting to sting and I started to fill the bidet.But ...it actually works, after less than a minute I felt far more comfortable than I have in ages.Don't think I would actually put it inside, but there again, didn't think I would ever put vapour rub on my bum ! Bobcat, hope all goes well at work, don't do too much.I agree with the mush in mush out diet, found some recipes on this site and have been surprised at how tasty they are.Before fissure I loved meat and couldn't imagine being practically a veggie but my diet is much like yours except I have soya milk.I miss cheese though.
Alpine, hope you start to feel better soon,I have had a slightly better day today than yesterday Hugs (Nimmy)

Ok- so I am definitely going to read the post about skin tags because I have really been confused about them. A week or so again, mine flared dup and was like it was engorged. It calmed down after a couple of days, but today it is mildly irritated. My CRS has said that if it is still there in a few months he would consider removing it. I had a second round of botox in early January and things have been better. Right before I saw him for that, the skin tag had gotten really stirred up. The CRS said that any bleeding would have been from the fissure, although I would swear it was coming from the tag- I bled outside of a bowel movement which had never happened before. And he said that the skin tag IS basically "the fissure". I'll have to read and see if this helps with my confusion. I do think that every time mine gets stirred up and when it bled, it almost seems smaller now- maybe I'm just delusional! And as far as the Vicks goes, one thing my CRS recommended is an appointment called Calmoseptine, which has menthol as well as zinc and calamine . I have found it to be very helpful and the cooling sensation from the menthol is very nice! I would think that is similar to the Vicks.

I used the calmoseptine too Bambi. It felt pretty good. It doesn't take much, just a dab.

I've been searching high and low (mainly low!) for a photo on the web of a skin tag (sentinel pile). Finally found one, the link is below for the interested and non-squeamish.
http://www.colorectalclinic.com.sg/content/intro.php?act=secondmenu&c_id=27
I'm still having a hard time deciding if what I have now is a skin tag or a newly prolapsed hemorrhoid...
I suppose that if your anal fissure was higher up in the anal canal, then your skin tag can be originating from there too??

Thats a good link, BB. I am squeamish and was able to look. The skin tag looked exactly like mine did when it was behaving more. Mine would swell and get quite larger.

I'd like to add, I think that would be a yes on your question. Don't they form as a way the body is tryint to protect the fissure?!
My fissure was towards the spine( I believe that's the 12'oclock position) and my tag covered the whole opening at times when it was out of control w/ the swelling.

Ouch!
For the people that have (or had) skin tags, when did they appear? 2, 3, or X months after the fissure...?

Well I'm back to struggling! I haven't changed anything and yet I'm back to big pain. Walking is nearly impossible again and I'm depressed as hell. Still convinced it's something to do with the skin tag. I've noticed that my skin tag retracts then re-emerges, does that happen to anyone else? I think this is part of my problem and why it's so painful.

Bumbutt wrote:Ouch!
For the people that have (or had) skin tags, when did they appear? 2, 3, or X months after the fissure...?

I noticed mine about 3 months after I got the fissure. It didn't take long for mine to develop. I got my fissure in feb. and by may the skin tag was so bad I couldn't walk for about two weeks. It swelled like a thrombosed hem. I slept in a warm bath all day and night just to get it to shrink enough I could walk.