Hi-
I have been posting for a few days, but thought I should officially introduce myself. I also want to convey my great appreciation of this site as well. I have been searching for info on the web for months and somehow I had never come across this site. It is so much more helpful than anything else I have found- much more positive- so many others just are focused on all the horrible things that go wrong for a few people and I have found it very difficult to find positive information.
I am a 56 year old woman, who is lucky enough to be retired along with my husband. We both worked for our local school district for many years. We have one daughter who got married a year and a half ago and lives 30 minutes from us. We are very close and she often drops by and seems to really enjoy spending time with us. I have a great group of friends - people I worked with for years and we are all now retired and often get together or travel together. My life is wonderful, but I've always had a tendency towards anxiety and mild depression, which I think is largely genetic and somewhat because of thyroid issues.
I am otherwise pretty healthy, although I suddenly developed high blood pressure 3 years ago and now have to take a diuretic ( may have contributed to my issue). I have been taking thyroid medication since shortly after my daughter's birth in 1987 and usually was on the same dose for years. In the past 3-4 years, that dose became too low, then too high, then too low- back and forth, back and forth. When it was too high, I would gradually realize I was having trouble sleeping, was really anxious, had heart palpitations and I would suddenly have an "ah-hah" moment and go in to have it checked. Gradually, I have become pretty good at knowing things are not "right", but not as good at knowing if it is too high or too low. Strangely, I seem to gain weight both ways.
I think this has also contributed to my general difference in bowel movements. Also the fact that I am in menopause. For years, I would go once a day and never had trouble with constipation. Then when the thyroid meds were too high, I would have 5-6 bowel movements a day. I have always tended to get loose bowels when excited, too hot, eating out, etc... and usually carried immodium around with me- no more.
I first developed a fissure in April of 2009 after a day of working outside planting flowers. I took my diuretic + an antihistamine and didn't drink much water. That combined with where we live ( near Denver) resulted in my becoming dehydrated, I'm sure. That night, I had to go and had the huge, hard bowel movement from hell and eventually sent my wonderful hubby to get an enema. I am pretty sure I poked myself in the spot where the fissure occurred. That one lasted about 6 weeks and I used Colace, drank more water- but not all that much, and used A & D ointment. It was gone by Father's Day, because I was sick for a week with vomiting and diarreah and after that was over, I don't remember it being an issue. And I would remember, because that was 6 weeks before my daughter got married!
We went to Tulum, Mexico in January of 2010 and I took Pepto Bismol as a preventative (I had never been to Mexico without getting pretty sick in spite of being the most careful one in terms of what I ate there!) By day 3, I was very constipated (duh!) and luckily with a Colace or two, had not too much trouble, but used A and D for a day or so and that combined with lots of snorkeling seemed to make things go back to normal in a day or so.
Then in late March or early April 2010 I developed an area of irritation behind the anal area. I had an appointment for my annual physical with GP on April 4th and that morning had the passing glass feeling. He examined me and probably made it worse without meaning to. He put me on Nifedipine and I used it for 2 months- things never really got completely better. Saw a GI doc in June because I was also having some symptoms that seemed like they could be gall bladder- that all turned out to be fine and the pain in my upper ab went away. He was very discouraging about botox, LIS, doing a colonoscopy, but my GP wanted me to go back to him for a colonoscopy and I finally did that in July (I was afraid to do it because of fear of making things worse)- That went ok, although he was a bit of a sarcastic guy and my husband felt he was not really taking me seriously. Made it seem like I should just "suck it up" and not be so upset. My GP sent me to the GS in his office after that, but by then, I was suddenly better after trying wheatgrass cream. Saw the PA and she said to come back in 3 weeks, but by then I was really better and didn't want to jinx it. I was better for about 1 month and then after driving to Texas to see my sister, it came back the day we were leaving to spend time at the beach. After talking with my sister about it, she thought I should be seeing a specialist, so when I got home, I found a CRS in Denver and saw him about a week ago. By this point, I was ready to face LIS and just deal with it although I was scared to death and had read very little positive things although since the success rate is listed as so high, I knew those people with good results were off having a good time! But things were worse after the recurrence and things I tried before weren't working anymore. He surprised me by suggesting botox first, so I am scheduled for that next Tuesday- Nov. 16. Hoping and literally praying every day that this goes well and helps. So grateful to have found this site.