Hi All. I would like to share my story with you and have your suggestions and ideas for the next steps.
I’m a 30 year old male. I live in Europe. Since October/November 2012, I have had recurring fissures. Before that, I used to have occasional bleeding but without pain. I always dismissed them as "internal hemorrhoids" (stupid me..). November 2012 was the first time that the pain kicked in after a bout of bad constipation. Those days I was really stressed at work and I had a lousy diet that included a lot of protein bars. These certainly contributed to large and difficult to pass stools.
I immediately started a course of isosorbide dinitrate. I’ll fast forward the story from there on, I healed, I re-tore, I healed, I re-tore. Finally this year around March – May I had a couple of bad re-tears and the longest I went without a tear was maybe 2 weeks. I finally found a surgeon who recommended surgery because my bottom is very spasmic and I keep having recurrences. He said a little cut to normalize the blood circulation there would be good.
My level of pain nowadays is actually painful during BMs but I don’t seem to have much cramps afterwards. Pain during bowel movements ranges from 5 to 8 out of 10. I seem to always heal somehow, but with the slightest constipation I’m back to square one.
I try to eat healthy, I am very active physically, playing football and also working out. I find that what triggers my fissures are almost always stress/anger at work and poor diet habits (too much red meat, fries, lack of fiber, etc.) I work a 9 to 5 job that involves occasional travelling but mostly sitting by the desk (which doesn't seem to help much either).
I use Movicol on a weekly basis and alternate between days. I feel that it's usually too late to help when i'm already impacted.
I am stuck between going for the surgery or not. The surgeon is just a phone call away and he’s expecting my decision. I fi go for it, I’ll get it in a large hospital here.
I have never had surgery in my life therefore I’m a bit worried.
Any recommendations for me? Should i gof or the surgery ? or should i pursue other routes, like a psychologist to help with stress (possible cause of my issues)...i'm really confused.
Thanks