Hi everyone!

I'm new here! I've been lurking on this forum since the start of my AF, and thought it was finally time to write my own post and start a dairy of my experiences to get some support and to possibly help anyone else going through this ordeal...

I guess ill start from the beginning...

I'm a 26 yo female in my last semester of uni, hooray! Unfortunately, about 10 months ago, something didn't go quite right and I unexpectedly tore.

My AF is quite external with a small skin tag at the top of it, I get no spasms, just 10/10 hold onto the toilet walls pain with each movement with bleeding, no matter how smooth/big/dry/small the stool is. After the movement, the pain is basically gone.

Anyhow. I saw a GP about a month later after trying to heal it myself with no luck (diet + fibre), and explained what happened, she acted very unprofessionally and basically handed me a tube of antibiotic cream and said this was my fault for leaving it so long and that ill probably need surgery. Obviously this scared the crap out of me, and I was extremely upset.

I saw a different GP for a second opinion within the next couple of days, and he was much nicer and gave me proper advice regarding baths, water intake etc (constipation has never been a problem for me though). I healed shortly after, but then after about 4 weeks, I re-tore. I then healed again and re-tore. Repeat. This went on about 8 months, as I'm sure most of you can relate. My GP said its time to see the CRS.

I met with my surgeon about 2 months ago now, he was very lovely, and started me on Rectogesic. He said it probably won't work seeing as my AF is very external, but to give it a go. He said to use a whole tube, and if its not working, he'll do botox and remove the skin tag, which he has had a lot of success stories in doing so.

Sure enough, the NTG didn't work. So my botox and skin tag removal is in 2 days time, and I'm super nervous. I'm concerned that because I don't get spasms (i don't think) that botox isn't really going to do anything? Of course I'm also worried about the incontinence to gas (thank god I don't go back to uni for another month). And I'm also worried about healing. I work in retail over the uni break, and have requested 4 days off post surgery, I literally can't afford to take any more time (worst time of year for retail to take time off too).

I'm definitely excited for the surgery and the possibility of having pain free movements, but reading all the horror stories are a bit worrying. So i thought I'd write updates on here post surgery and track my (hopefully successful) progress. If anyone has a similar situation to mine or some advice, I'd love to hear it!

Wish me luck!

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Sorry to hear you are suffering with your fissure for so long. Very glad to hear that you have finally found some proper care and a Doctor you can trust. WIshing you the best for your procedure and that you heal up really fast. Do keep us updated on how you are doing.

Surgery day! All went well, I had to wait about 3 hours until I finally went in, but I was out about 30mins later. They gave me a local down there, so I can't feel anything at the moment - such bliss, I'm enjoying it while it lasts. Instructions are to eat high fiber high water diet, salt baths twice a day, and movicol. I've never had movicol, so I thought I should start just on 1/2 a sachet a day and work my way up, now is not the time for diarrhea! So feeling positive so far, and I see my CRS again in 4 weeks. Hardly any bleeding or discharge at all either, just quite tired, so I'm going to put myself to bed.

Good luck. Hope you're doing well!

Thanks for the update. Hope things continue to go well for you.

Thanks for the support guys!

Day 2: No pain at all yet or any blood - but still no BM.. I can def feel like some thing is not right down there, but it's not uncomfortable. Even went to the shops and walked around for a bit, and felt fine! I might take a full sachet of movicol tomorrow morning to hopefully get things moving along!

Day 3: So today I had the dreaded first BM post op.. It was about 8/10 pain, it was pretty dry and horrible, I don't think the amount of movicol I have been taking has been enough. But instead of the pain stopping straight after the BM, it lingered on all night and neither Panadol or Neurofen seemed to help. It hurts to sit down now and the pain feels like it's coming from the skin tag site rather than the fissure. So now that's out of the way, hopefully it will just get easier and easier each day. I might just take it easy tomorrow and up the water and movicol and hope for the best.

Sorry to hear that! Good to have it over with though. Are you having many warm baths? That's what helped me the most.

Hi Msimon!

Yeh, I'm having 2 salt baths per day, they seem to help right after a BM. Did you have any luck with your Botox??

I still can't feel any helpful effects of the Botox so far, however it's only day 4. The pain is definitely worse than it was pre op but it's a different kind, it feels like a deep sort of pain after a BM (as well as external fissure pain) - maybe it is a spasm that everyone talks about??

Do hope the pain is leaving, though skin tag removal can be just as nasty as hemorrhoid surgery=sore as hell

Get better very soon