Hi,

I've posted asking for advice a couple times before. I'm posting again because I'm absolutely desperate for help.


I've had one or more horrible fissures for two months now. The pain is excruciating. I am taking the maximum dose of morphine prescribed by an emergency room doctor, and I still have pain. Without the morphine, the pain was making me vomit and see stars.

I have pain 24/7. It is at its worst about an hour after a bowel movement. I have no relief.

I am no longer able to empty my bowels without either an enema or manual help. It's like nothing works down there - I'm suspecting because of muscle spasm.

I have a heating pad on the site at all times. I am not able to sit or stand, only lie on my side. I am not able to eat very much, probably about 500 calories worth of food.

I am using 0.2% nifedipine, sits baths (provide minimal relief while in the bath), lidocaine cream, Vaseline before bowel movement, restoralax before bed, a muscle relaxant, and zinc oxide cream at night.

For two days I have had very little bleeding. Prior to that, I had copious bleeding every bm for about a week. I have had pain for two months.

I have seen a surgeon once. She insisted before taking any action I would have to have a sigmoidoscopy. She spoke to my gastroenterologist to book this - he will not see me until December 5th.

I cannot stand this pain for another 3 weeks. The doctor will not refill my morphine prescription. I can't eat, sleep or have a normal bm. I find it difficult to urinate because the muscles are so tight down there. My stomach is constantly upset. I am an extremely active person normally. I have had to take a leave of absence from my master's degree and will not be graduating in December as planned. I am a personal trainer and I have lost all of my clients. I have also split with my boyfriend of three years because of this. I am at this point suicidal.

Please, does anyone have any advice on how to speed things up with the doctors? I am in Canada. I think I may have to beg to be admitted, I have already been to emergency twice.

Please help if you can

I'm in the UK but surely the medical system cannot leave you to slowly starve whilst being in agony. I understand why they won't repeat the morphine as it will slow everything right down...but what about Valium it's a muscle relaxant.
You will get your life back the pain will get better even if it doesn't go completely. I remember the first two months of this I didn't sleep or eat I lost 2 stone in under two months. But it did slowly become liveable.
If getting admitted will get you the Botox or LIS then I think you should do that.

Thanks mypoorbutt. I have a family history of bad reaction to Valium, so they will not prescribe it unfortunately. I'm hoping I will follow on your tracks and begin to improve. So far only getting worse, I didn't think it could but voila it can. I am desperate for LIS at this point, the spasms are excruciating

If you can contact the surgeon by email, and copy and paste what you have written above, she may help you to get a sidmoidoscopy now, rather than have you wait so long for one. I have to admit that I'm surprised that she can't do one for you herself (my CRS did mine before I had LIS). You may want to email the gastroenterologist too. I think that sometimes, a written account can have more impact.

That's great advice chachacha. I so far haven't been able to get an email for either the surgeon nor the gastro, but I will contact their receptionists tomorrow and try and get an email address. I tried to explain my situation to the receptionist at the gastro, but she was a brick wall. I've never met someone so unsympathetic - she seemed incredibly annoyed with me actually. I will update if I make any progress and just hope that things don't get any worse. Thanks so much again

When I need an email address, I often go to the company's website (or in this case, hospital), and find email addresses for other staff members. If they are listed as a.smith@hospital, I then would guess my doctor's email address accordingly. If they list others as adamsmith@hospital, I would follow that format.

Also, if things are truly unbearable, I would go to emerg and refuse to leave until they had a CRS do the sigmoidoscopy on the spot, or schedule one within a day or two. I'm in Toronto, by the way.

I once went to emerg because I just couldn't stand the pain of a fissure and acutely thrombosed hemmie together, and actually lay down on the floor in front of the triage desk crying and shrieking from the pain. When they asked me what was wrong and brought a chair out for me (the emerg was already full), I told them that I couldn't sit and they took me in immediately. They then gave me 5 separate doses of morphine, none of which worked (I'm so lucky on that front - not!). Anyway, they did take me in right away and eventually solved my problem by giving me a local anaesthetic (21 shots worth, because they had to get all around the sphincter), put a "cigar"-shaped dressing up my butt-hole to hold up the hemmies and then sent me home as a happy camper.

Ah I see that explains why Valium hasn't been offered. I agree with chachacha try and contact the surgeon...although I was never given an email...apparently it's not standard procedure in the UK to give the email address of surgeons. With a lot of foot stamping I did get my surgeons PAs phone number and made a total annoyance of myself. Your in pain don't let them fob you off...everyday you wake up in pain phone them or email them.
I'm sure you will get your LIS before Christmas as they cannot leave you like this it's not fair.
Blooming heck chachacha that's sounds hellish...not sure what they would have done in the UK. Our surgeons emails only go to their receptionist not even their PAs so at least 3 people have to think your important enough before the surgeon gets to see it

I suppose that it depends on your surgeon, and how strict they are with their secretaries, since many surgeons (even if you correctly guess their email address), will have their email checked first and only have important issues passed through. GilmoreGirl is desperate though, so extreme measures might be warranted.

It's probably just my luck to have found surgeons who have their emails policed by receptionist who think they are guarding the privacy of some royal personage lol

Ok - I'm going to try out the emails tonight. If nothing works, it will be emergency! Hopefully I won't have to beg too much.

My last trip to emergency was hellish...9 hours. It felt like much more with the pain.

And ya I don't know what it is with these receptionists. I've had the best luck with those who are also nurses - they understand the urgency. The gastro receptionist said she would ask the doctor if he could advance the sigmoid (no), and if I had to do the full fleet prep due to pain (yes) and I'm pretty sure she didn't even ask him.