Hello everyone. I discovered this site yesterday afternoon at work and have been reading it nonstop. This has really been my Heaven and Hell since then. I am so excited to read success stories and individuals sharing their experiences and the encouragement that fellow members have given them since they can understand and relate to what they are going though. The Hell part is also reading the stories and setbacks that people have experienced. I find so much relief reading and now finally sharing with a group of people who understand what AF is like.
I am a 37yr M living just outside of Louisville Kentucky. I can remember the instance that my AF happened as if it were yesterday. September 13th 2011. My hobby when I get home from work is playing an online computer game. I was sitting at my chair and had the urge to have a BM. I held this for way to long and made my way to the restroom after about 4hrs of straining to hold it in. (How I wish I had NEVER done that). I have never felt pain like I did once it started. It felt like I was trying to push a watermelon out.
I grabbed onto the counter next to the toilet as I felt this intense pain. After finishing up I wiped and the TP was red. I had never had blood after a BM before. The toilet was also had blood in it. I felt this trobbing pain in my bottom that I had never had before. I honestly didn’t think much about it (I know how stupid) and thought I had just developed a hemorrhoid from the pushing and straining trying to get this watermelon out.
The pain and blood and intense pain after a BM went on for a few weeks before I decided this must be a really bad hemorrhoid and finally called my GP.
Short story ….
She confirmed after a brutal finger and looking see examination that it was not a hemorrhoid as I thought it was but it was actually a fissure. I had never heard of an AF before so I had no idea. She told me to get on a high fiber diet, take stool softeners and sitz baths after BM and gave me prococream (hydrocortisone). The only relief I got from this was the sitz baths after a BM. The AF did not heal and the intense pain was there after EVERY BM. I continued on this until early January for months of no relief and made an appointment to a GI doc. He gave me a script for diltiazem to get compounded and polyethylene gycol (which I think is prescription miralax). The powder softener make my stools very soft that I no longer had the intense pain after a BM. I applied the cream and kept on the gycol and I would go a few weeks at a time thinking I was on the road to recovery and then all of the sudden I would have a BM which I would think would be normal and boom. Blood and tearing/rip feeling. The only thing different this time is the intense pain was not present. This on and off healing relapse has gone on since January. I made an appointment with a CRS for June 28th. The examination confirmed that I had a chronic fissure. He suggested that I get this fixed and I am scheduled for a LiS July 10th . I’m very scared of this and wondering if I am doing the correct thing since the pain that I first experienced is not present, but I know this is not healing as it should considering I sometimes feel a pull and tug during a BM and sometimes see blood.
I guess the skinny on this was to share and get advice on post OP supplies I should be getting. I’ve read maxi pads for a few weeks after surgery so I don’t ruin my underwear.
Does anyone suggest maybe even adult diapers? Is that a good idea or is maxi pads enough? Is there other things I should be getting that would make this post op easier?
Thanks so much for anyone who reads and gives advice. I have read many (and I mean many) of the journeys to healing and wish everyone best of luck. I’ll keep everyone posted on my progress.
Thanks!
Tom