Hey all, I've posted before, luckily I had a stretch there where I did pretty well, it seems to go like that, sometimes I'll have symptom free time, then bam the symptoms come back. I've been diagnosed with a fissure that started 3 years ago. Ever since, I've had ongoing bleeding, usually what happens is when I pass stool I'll see bright red blood on toilet paper on first and second wipe. I always do sitz baths after BMs, and use Nifedipine and Lidocaine gel every day. I drink a lot of water and fruit, etc. Lately my fissure seems to have come back I've been having spotting after BMs with bright red blood. In the past that usually only happened with a larger BM but now it can happen even with soft stools, not sure why. But anyway, I'm just pretty fed up with it. For the past 2 years I've taken Colace daily, and Dulcolax as needed. I am constantly nervous that my next BM will have blood in it, I hate the sight of that it freaks me out. In the past I had an internal polyp removed from the rectum that was bleeding, but this blood is nowhere near the amount that was. It's just on tissue paper usually. I've seen a good CRS and he said I had a fissure and that surgery was an option to fix it and remove skin tags.

Also, I am a gay man so have not been able to have a sex life due to my issues back there. I have decided that I am tired of the hassle and am going to see the CRS in 2 weeks, and if he still wants to do surgery, I'm going to do it and be done with it! Would it fix everything? One thing I'm dealing with now too is painful spasms back there, like vague spasms all through my rectal area. Not fun at all

But I have a great CRS and I have decided that surgery might free me from all this. Should I do it? I'm only 33, and so I want to do it while I am able. Thanks for any suggestions.

Hi there - sorry for your suffering. Im dealing with this for 2 years now - and there is a person on this forum thats dealing with this for 10 years. I do not mean to scare you but you have to be wise on the next steps since there is no surgical interference yet.
Most people try ointments first - works for some for others doesn't. You can always try something like rectogesic which relaxes the muscles in the area to promote healing if that doesnt work you should consider operation. If you do you should not spare cash and find the best surgeon possible.
When I started dealing with this 2 years ago I just wanted the fissure gone fast - so I rushed it and went for the first possible surgeon I could find. Now Im sorry for this. Doctors incompetence led to 6 operations in a row with different doctors and wound reopening again and again causing me panic attacks and anxiety. The 6th op was a success but now 3 months later Im dealing with nerve damage pain caused by all the operations and really hope it will go away some day.

It's more of an nuiscance than anything. It just comes and goes, and I am constantly afraid of having a hard stool because the sight of blood totally freaks me out. I probably should have just let the CRS do the procedure way back but I told myself I could handle it on my own. I did well for a long period, with stool softeners and laxatives, but it just keeps coming back.

What's going on is that these skin tags back there occasionally get very inflamed and puffy, and can cause painful spasms, not sure if that is what you call sentinel piles, to indicate when a fissure is symptomatic, but at any rate, the last week or so I've been having a pretty bad flare,and a few days ago, I had a big spot of bright blood back there, ever since, the two skin tags have been quite inflamed and swollen. I'm doing sitz baths, and they will probably get better, but for how long.

I'm curious about Botox, or just having the doc remove the skin tags. It seems like Nifedipene helps, but it seems like when my tags or whatever they are are symptomatic/inflamed, the Nifedipene only makes them more pronounced.

I've been dealing with these periodic flare ups for about 3 years now. I am also afraid to lift anything really heavy because I also have a family history of hemorrhoids and think I might have one or two small ones.

The CRS a year ago told me he would operate and remove the fissure and the skin tags and fix anything he saw. I probably should have let him. I am going to see him again in two weeks, if he still wants to operate, I'll probably just let him, I mean it couldn't hurt anything right, because these skin tags are quite annoying and probably need to come out.

I also tested positive for HPV a few years ago, so have to have regular anal pap tests. My last one two years ago came back normal thank god, so that's another factor to consider.

God luck with your procedure JonnyJ - pls keep us informed on results.