I attended my appointment with my specialist today to see what could be done to help me with my anal fissure which I have had since May/June 2009. The problem came to a head 3 weeks ago when the sentinel pile grew to the size of a grape and burst. At this stage, BM were unbearable, I was in pain almost all day and this followed a period of intense itching and thrush when I was unable to sleep for days. I went to my GP to get referred back to the specialist to see what could be done to help me.
Today I wanted an end to it all, as lately the anxiety and pain was just wearing me down.
I read the questions to ask the specialist posted on here and I just want to let you know the difference here in Northern Ireland. This specialist is the main specialist in Northern Ireland that I am aware of.
Once again the specialist does not want to do the LIS surgery on me. I asked him how many he had performed and he said many years ago it was fairly standard procedure and that he would have been doing the surgery on a so many per week basis, now however, he would only do 2 or 3 per year. Even saying this, he preferred to do the procedure on male patients as their sphincters were stronger. He told me that the LIS procedure itself was straightforward and that if I wanted to go ahead he would perform the procedure. I asked him how may people were left incontinent and he said around 5% would have been left with leakage but not incontinent to the extent that I was concerned about.
I said then there is only a choice between staying the way I am or taking the risk. He however directed me back to try BOTOX again. I have already tried Botox twice and on the second try, tore worst than ever during the procedure. If this fails then there is only LIS left.
He asked me about how Botox had worked for me before and for 2-3 months after I do not have the spasms so now he is scheduling me for another Botox. However I have to have an anaesthetic each time and I had my first Botox in September 2010 and its like playing for time.
I am too afraid of incontinence to push for LIS and was wondering if someone who has healed a chronic fissure with Botox could advise me on how to get the best results as this is the last time I will agree to it.
PS: I am currently using Movicol which is helping which was something I learned from this forum as Lactulose IMO is absolutely useless and only gives you wind and docusate sodium (Dulcoease) must be the biggest con ever as I paid for it for years and would have been better off swallowing smarties (M&Ms).