What's the crack with these!!!!
I was in so much pain yesterday morning that I ended up going to casualty. They didn't do much really apart from tell me to take lactulose with my docusate sodium.
Anyhoo, came back home, jumped in the bath and lo and behold I'd developed a skin tag!!! Certainly wasn't there when I went in the bath before I went to hospital!!
Do they grow? Do they start to hurt? Why do they appear??
Any info would be useful!
Thanks!

Hey bob, this may be worth reading:
http://www.hemorrhoid.net/cryptitis.php
BTW, if your local hospital is anything like mine then they are totally useless as far as rectal pain/issues go, I once turned up at A&E with severe pain in the rectum and they sent me home with Anusol suppositories

Hi,
Have a look at this page: [url=http://www.cssanz.org/content/4/31[url][/url]]http://www.cssanz.org/content/4/31[url][/url][/url]
The diagram makes it pretty clear what's going on with the skin tag. I got this in pamphlet form from my CRS the first time I saw him. He explained that the skin tag is simply an outward excess of scar tissue that had accumulated or "piled up" as the body made repeated, but unsucccesful attempts to heal the fissure. It can also present as a lump rather than a tag.
Yes, they can grow, if the fissure is chronic and is being stubborn about healing.
Yup, they can definately hurt! Mine is very sensitive and easy to injure. I can't touch the area at all now ... can't even use the shower head. I have to take the shower head off and pretty much hose it down ... gently, of course! When I have a BM or when I apply ointment it disapears inside. The BM pushes it back out again ... Often painfully! I regularly injure it that way.
Oh, and they definately will not go away on their own either. If the tag becomes injured or cross with you, it can swell up. Mine shrinks again once it settles down.
Sometimes it can be difficult for me to tell the difference between skin tag pain and fissure pain, so it can be pretty bad.
You should have a CRS check it just to be sure (if you haven't already).
Hope this helps! :)

That's a really good article Steve. Explains things really thoroughly! Now I understand why my GP thought the skin tag was an "old decended Hemorrhoid".

From memory, my CRS called mine a "Sentinal skin tag".

Thanks everyone!
I am at a crossroads now. I really don't think I can carry on working like this. I will not be paid for sick leave and so have some real thinking to do. My husband has said that even though we can't afford it, my health comes first!

OMG! That completely explains Laverne & Shirley.
Bobcat, I had my skin tag (aka as Laverne & Shirley) removed on Wednesday morning (I also had the LIS + other excisions done at the same time), and Laverne & Shirley was big - like if there was a contest for big skin tags, it would be a contestant on NBC's The Biggest Loser Skin Tag Edition! LOL.
Anyway, my biggest fear out of all these surgeries on Wednesday was the removal of the skin tag just cause it had such a huge base at the bottom, that would mean I would have a huge open wound - as the CRS did not put any stitches to close it. I was in total fear of the pain.
So far for my experience, even as I approach 48 hours after removal, I don't have any source of pain there. I can totally say that it's like I never had surgery altho the area feels super good and like I never had a skin tag to begin with.
(I have to thank the CRS's skill in removing it and also God for helping me with all this of course.)
My source of irritation and pain after what I believed my fissure healing always came from the area of the skin tag, Laverne (when she was very bad) and on my good days, Shirley would keep me company. I always have to find humor in dealing with these things.
L&S was definitely a big ass sentinal skin tag.
And now she is gone! Vanished. And if it were ever there again or if an evil Lenny & Squiggy show up later, I would not hesitate to get rid of it much sooner!
Depending on how big yours is and how good your removal turned out, I would say you would only need a week's time off. Add on the other stuff, and maybe at worst, two weeks.
Good luck.
PS Dawn has also had good luck with the removal of her skin tag. I was a bit skeptical that she was having such a positive experience but I tried to focus on her outcome and that it could be for me too, and here I am saying the same thing. I can't believe it!!!! I still can't that it was that easy and going so good.

Well now! Here's something to report!!
After 4 days of absolute agony, toilet fulls of blood, pooping broken glass, sobbing so hard and so often I gave myself a headache and looked like a prune from so many baths, my relief came from.............SUDOCREM!!!!!
Would you believe it?? By backside had become so tender and raw from creams, heat, water, wiping blah blah blah in the end I thought I would try Sudocrem and boy do I feel a million times better!!
Phew!!

Yeah, I've used Sudocrem many times, it's great for raw skin and chafing, I applied it inside the rectum as well as on the verge, more recently though I only use Kamillosan chamomile ointment which is renowned for it's healing properties, as with any cream or ointment I always apply inside the rectum as well as outside, chamomile ointment is the best I've come across so far.
http://kamillosan.co.uk/range/ointment

Hopefully you are going to get going along a (back and forth) trajectory of healing Bobcat! Hope so.
Yeah, skin tags are a little mystery to me still too. I've developed one now, I think. I've got a small little fleshy thing that just appeared about 2-1/2 months after the fissure developed. I can't really distinguish what causes my discomfort (fissure, muscles, skin tag...??).

all i can say re: skin tag is that going into my colonoscopy on 2/2008, it was a very small, skinny baby. maybe to compare, like a baby kitten nipple, LOL!
but i tell you, that skin tag grew over time and by summer of 2009, i was spooked! i was like 'why has this thing got bigger?', 'is it really a skin tag?', 'i didn't know skin tags would grow like this!', 'the shape and feel is different too', 'it hurts awfully a lot at its base', 'why is it fat some days and thin on others?', 'will it ever pop?'
just know that if you do have a fissure, the skin tag will more than likely grow and change over time and become more of a bother than what it is now: a sweet little innocent smaller than a pea party-crasher!
that was the main reason why i had surgery. due to the skin tag really as our relationship had gone thru so many changes since the first time we first met.