It’s been 6 months since my AF story started. I saw a surgeon (thought I had hemorrhoids) who told me he thought I had an internal AF. I have never seen a CRS. I changed my diet, used nifedipine gel .2%, took baths, used stool softeners, etc. I am feeling MUCH better. Now, I only have pain after a BM. I take 4 Advil and the pain is usually gone in 4 hours or so. Once in a while it will take 8 hours.
My question is why do I have inflammation/swelling after a BM??? (Something the size of pea and looks like a hemmie on the outside) It swells up and then goes away until the next BM. Is this a skin tag? How long before it goes away. Could this totally be something else????? What should I do?????

I wonder if it's a hemorrhoid or a precursor to one. Chances are it is the membrane being stretched, but it is just a non-professional guess!
I'm glad your AF is so much better, but still, four hours of pain everyday is no fun! Keep doing what you're doing.
Try to lay off the advil every so often -- give your liver a break...

I would have your surgeon look at it. That's the only way to know for sure what it is and how to treat it.
I suffered for 7 months thinking the pain and swelling skin outside meant I had hemmorhoids (i'd never heard of a fissure!). I even saw 2 nurse practitioners who told me it was definitely an external hemorrhoid. I tried to treat it myself, but it only got bigger and more painful after BMs. When I finally saw a surgeon he immediately recognized it as a sentinel tag (a skin tag that develops as a result of a fissure). He removed it during my 1st surgery. I still have pain inside, but no swelling down there anymore and no skin tag. i don't know if all those months of witch hazel pads made things worse, but i doubt they helped at all! i would suggest you talk to your doctor about it as soon as possible.
What is your pain like? Is it spasm pain for up to 8 hours after? Or aching soreness?

The pain feels like the whole butt area swells up then goes down, inside and out. I do still have a few spasms from time to time but, nothing like I had it the first months. When I have more than one bm in a day the whole area is very sore. Very uncomfortable to sit. When this happens I take a bath.
Will a skin tag go away on it's own?

i don't know if the skin tag (if that's what it is) will ever completely go away on its own. I believe others on the board have had success getting it to shrink a bit with aloe vera ointment. Some surgeons do not remove them, but my surgeon told me it's such a simple procedure that there's no reason not to. Unless they remove it during surgery though, most surgeons will not remove a fissure-associated skin tag until the fissure is completely healed inside.

i don't have many spasms either, so i know what you mean about the whole area just feeling very sore. My bottom area feels like that for hours after a morning BM. it is very uncomfortable for as long as 8 hours for me too (unfortunately i have to sit b/c i work at a desk). The pain seems to die down as the day goes on and by the evening it is pretty much gone.
i take 2-4 ibuprofen every day and that helps a lot. Since that is an anti-inflammatory medicine it might help with your swelling too.
i would still see your doctor just to rule out the possiblity of hemorrhoids or something else besides a sking tag.

I've never had one, but yes, my understanding is that well-cared-for skin tags do eventually re-adjust to the surrounding tissue.

My skin tag from the abscess/fissure is shrinking almost back to normal. It appeard after the surgery, was pea sized at times, but always steadily shrunk, never inflamed with bm. The other issue I had in the area that grew and shrunk with bm was an abscess. I figured out that it was an abscess by pushing really hard on it. Don't recommend the pushing, but you might want to have your CRS take a good look at it just incase. I told my drs. about mine and they just dismissed it, didn't even look until it erupted.