Cool! We'll have to compare notes on tattoos sometime :) I've been getting myself inked since I was 18, I currently have them up and down both arms, on one leg, and two biggish ones on my back, one over each shoulder blade. I'd keep getting more (there's no end to my ideas on what I'd get next) but my tattoo artist lives in Los Angeles, and since I moved to where I am now, I don't get down there as often as I'd like to anymore.
I've had my fissure for about 4 months, with about 1.5 months where the symptoms were sheer hell, and I know what you mean about the impact on the immune system. I starved myself for a while too and lost a ton of weight, my pants and wedding ring don't really fit anymore, both keep slipping off. I'm trying to put back some of the weight but it's tough. I'm sure the starving isn't helping the body heal the fissure.
If the Valium seems to help with just a couple of the 2 mg tablets, maybe you could consider asking the doc if you can take a higher dose to start and then taper down? When my fissure spasms were real bad I needed 10 mg at once to calm it down, but usually get by with a much lower dose now. There are definitely folks taking way higher doses of Valium daily, but that's usually for anxiety rather than muscle spasms.
Personally I don't think it'd be a good idea to drink alcohol with tramadol and Valium even if you stop taking them for a day... Valium has a pretty long half life so some will likely still be kicking around in your system. But I can see both sides of the coin on that one :) I used to love alcohol, anything from the Guiness/Kilkenny type of beer to Asian rice spirits and American bourbons, single malts, plain old lagers, you name it, I enjoyed it! In fact we've got a long weekend coming up (Labor Day) tomorrow and I've got a few bottles of Laphroaig and Macallan scotch complete with cigars just calling my name! But alas, due to the medications I've been on, I haven't had a drop of booze since February and likely won't for a while :( It sucks but I'd do damn near anything to get rid of this fissure! Anyhow hope you make out okay no matter what you decide, but it does seem like a rather risky proposition to me personally.

Jackie, I am so glad the valium is helping. :)
I agree with NG and I can tell you, mixing Valium and alcohol is very risky, even if you have missed the Valium for a day...NG is right on, be careful!! Just don't do it!
Exactly what would your new tattoo be, NG. Maybe we need all share our tattoos??

Hey Kim, don't tell me you've got tattoos too??? That would be another crazy coincidence for fissure victims!
It would go on my leg so it needs to be something with a vertical theme. Most of mine have a darkish/morbid theme to them, for instance I have a grim reaper reaching out with a sickle, a rearing horse bound in chains, a snake wrapped around my forearm, a scorpion intertwined with a cobra, a dragon, some skulls, some lettering, and a depiction of a skeleton (representing death) forcibly pushing apart a man and a woman. That last one I stole from a carving I saw at Vigeland Park in Oslo, Norway (Corsi will know about this most interesting place) with all kinds of unusual carvings and sculptures:
http://images.google.com/images?gbv=2&hl=en&safe=off&ei=VTOgSpHbHtCjmQe2zbn0DQ&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=vigeland+park&spell=1&start=0
So any new tattoos would have to stay within theme, right now my two ideas are a vine of thorns wrapped around my leg made to look as if the thorns are piercing the skin and making it bleed, or a half filled syringe/needle jabbed into the leg with the words "LOST SOUL" on it. I've got a bit of a pessimistic view of the universe and a moderate fascination with this existence called life and its inevitable end, so I think most of the stuff I get inked has something to do with that. But really, I don't give it as much forethought as a lot of folks do, a few of them I just walked in and asked the artist (real cool lady in Venice, California who did all of my pieces except one) to draw me something on the spot because I had a few hours and just felt like getting something done. There's still plenty of canvas left so no need to be stingy with it!
I've also wanted one on my neck for a long time, but that one's been put on hold just in case I ever change careers. In software it's perfectly fine to wear shorts and t-shirts with tattoos showing everywhere to work, but if I ever do something else it might not fly so well. So right now they're all coverable so long as I wear long sleeves and long pants :)
Hopefully I haven't convinced anyone that I'm a wacko yet, I get lots of weird questions about my tattoos, like whether they're gang related, why I got so many, etc. etc., but really I dunno, I just like them :)

Hey guys..all this tatoo talk I've been reading has inspired me to rock out to Buckcherry (my much tattooed Philipino friend from kindergarten is in the band) and drink my Clausthaler while I dance around wildly and make chinese food!!! (imagine many head whips) More on my wild past later..
NG, I thought I'd better try the non-alcoholic beer out tonight first (before I hit the road tomorrow for the big game)...as it does contain .5%...so far so good!
Cheers!

OMG, Chen, you are the tattooed man! WOW, those all sound quite cool! Yes, I bet some people DO think you are a gangland character! And man, they do sound dark!
I NEVER would have guessed!
You have so much more nerve than me, to just go in there and get one on the spot without forethought. I could never in a gazillion years do that!
Mine is just a little Christian fish on my back left shoulder blade. I am considering removing it, though or having it altered so it is unrecognizable...just not happy with it anymore!

sidra1968 wrote:Hey guys..all this tatoo talk I've been reading has inspired me to rock out to Buckcherry (my much tattooed Philipino friend from kindergarten is in the band) and drink my Clausthaler while I dance around wildly and make chinese food!!! (imagine many head whips) More on my wild past later..
NG, I thought I'd better try the non-alcoholic beer out tonight first (before I hit the road tomorrow for the big game)...as it does contain .5%...so far so good!
Cheers!

Haha wow Buckcherry! I know of them, they're from LA. I moved to LA in 1996 (left in 2001), somewhere around the time they came on the scene I believe. So let's see, Filipino rock, German beer, and Chinese food ... are you SURE you're from the midwest there?!?! :)
Yeah we do need to hear about your wild past sometime! So did you end up with any tattoos? Somehow I never thought I'd be talking about tattoos on an anal fissure forum. Hrm.
Have fun with the "castrated" beer, and oh yeah, GO MIZZOU TIGERS!!!

Kim wrote:OMG, Chen, you are the tattooed man! WOW, those all sound quite cool! Yes, I bet some people DO think you are a gangland character! And man, they do sound dark!
I NEVER would have guessed!
You have so much more nerve than me, to just go in there and get one on the spot without forethought. I could never in a gazillion years do that!
Mine is just a little Christian fish on my back left shoulder blade. I am considering removing it, though or having it altered so it is unrecognizable...just not happy with it anymore!

Yeah I'm a bit impulsive :) More so in my younger days when I was in LA than now (San Jose is kind of a boring place so it's easy to live a "normal" moderate life here), but still so to a good extent. I go to LA to watch the Lakers play a few times a year and always make sure to stop by the tattoo parlor and get something done while I'm down there.
So you DO have a tattoo, haha the surprises here just don't end. I would never have guessed it for you either. Or Peachy for that matter! Any particular reason you want to get it removed or altered? If it's completely personal then I understand, that's how tattoos are after all. But maybe you should just get another one on the opposite shoulder blade

Good question..I've always said I'm quite different than most Midwesterners..lol...guess I'm just worldy from my travels...
Actually, different cultures food, drink, customs, etc. is my passion, hence the travel...actually looking at China or Vietnam for the spring (hoping by then the fissure will be ancient history, much like what I plan to see and partake in)
Nothing made me happier than sitting in a cafe in Cairo at the famous Khan el Khalili bazaar at dusk, sipping on Egyptian wine while dressed in their garb, and hearing the chilling Call to Prayer come on over the loudspeakers (and all the Arabic around me)-the feeling is indescribable.
But nope, no tattoos..I was a dancer for 7 years and was about the only girl without one...it set me apart, plus for some reason, I've just never been interested - no particular reason, as I have dated many a tattooed heavy/hair metal band members in my time, or should i say "back in the day"?

Haha I'd say "back in the day" myself, but remember, I'm 31 and years removed from what the proper terminology would be these days :)
Sounds like you've had an interesting life. My wife and I are travel junkies ourselves, we've been to most parts of the world but never any place in South America or on the African continent. Egypt is definitely on our to-see list. We used to take two overseas trips every year with some small mini trips within the USA or to Mexico/Canada in between, but that'll be on hold for a while now that the babies are coming. Travelling with a fissure would be no fun so I've got my fingers crossed that you'll be back in tip top shape by next spring!
Hope you have fun this weekend and good luck at the casino! If Mizzou wins I'll be on here to gloat, if they lose then I'll be mysteriously absent :D

Nothing at all wrong with those tattooed heavy metal hair guys...all I ever aspired to be "back in the day" save for the tattoos!
You make me want to go to Cairo, Sidra!
I'm just no longer happy with that tattoo, Chen... :(