Aw, drk – I’m so sorry you are having a rough day.
It certainly doesn’t help when the people in your life don’t understand how painful and debilitating AFs are. There have been women here who went through the most difficult childbirths imaginable who claim they would go through a difficult delivery again rather than suffer with a fissure. And there was one guy here a while ago who suffered a gunshot wound who said the AF was worse. I believe him!
The pain truly is beyond description and nobody who hasn’t experienced it can possible understand. I’m sorry your brother wasn’t more sympathetic. I also had very shaky legs and struggled to take showers. Actually, the pain took so much out of me I could barely move at all some days - I was so weak and exhausted. People don’t really understand how exhausting pain can be too. I really know what you are describing!
To answer your question: Restoralax (Miralax/Movicol) is a favourite stool softener here. I swear by it. It can take a few days to start working, but it really helped me a lot. One thing I like about it is that it comes in powder form, so you can modify the dose to what works best for you. Also, it’s an osmotic laxative, not a stimulant laxative, so it’s very gentle.
I’m so glad you stopped using that vile anurex! I’m still angry that you were told to use it.
I completely understand that surgery would not be your first choice. Ass surgery is the scariest thing I’ve ever had to face!
But I was like you after a while – I was willing to consider all my options to get rid of the pain. I found my old list of questions – here’s some of what I asked when I first saw the CRS and expected to be given ointments first and surgery as a next option:
1. What are the (statistical) chances that my AF will heal with ointments?
2. What has your success rate been with this treatment?
3. How many LIS procedures have you done?
4. What is the (statistical) success rate of LIS?
5. What has your success rate with LIS been?
6. What is the complication rate of LIS?
- infection
- incontinence (to gas, liquid stool, solid stool)
- recurrence
7. How many complications have you had with LIS?
8. How would you manage/treat a complication?
9. What is a reasonable recovery time?
10. What will the procedure involve?
These questions are good to ask so that you have an idea what you are getting into, and also to ‘test’ your doc. As Dawn has said many times here, if your doc says they’ve had patients become incontinent, run! They should say that they have NEVER made a patient incontinent. Also, it’s important to note that there are different kinds of ‘incontinence’ – the common stats I’ve read for rates of post-LIS incontinences are 6% to gas, 8% to liquid stool, and 1% or less to solid stool. For gas incontinence, that usually means it’s a bit harder to control when you toot, but that often improves over time. With incontinence to liquid stool, that’s usually a slight bit of ‘leakage’, where people feel they haven’t quite wiped enough. There are some threads here that talk about this, because some boardies have had this happen; however, most of them still don’t regret getting the LIS, and they consider the leakage more of an inconvenience than anything else. Also, it tends to improve over time. I’m not sure what the infection rate is, but it has happened, of course (like to me!).
The most common stat I read for cure rates with LIS is 95%-98%. Also, docs usually significantly underestimate recovery time, so s/he might tell you that you will be back to normal life in two to three days. That's bunk - it's more like two weeks, but surgeons don't seem to know that. :roll: If your doc gives you answers that deviate significantly from these - and/or information you can find here - then I think that would be cause to take a careful look at the surgeon. Others might chime in though, with more information.
As you probably already know, I wasn’t able to ask my carefully designed questions, and I really should have run away as soon as I met my crazy, demonic doctor – but I was in so much pain and so desperate, I really didn’t feel like I had a choice. Thanks so much for your kind words. :D The folks on this forum helped me so much, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been able to recover as well as I did if it hadn’t been for the support of the folks here. Everyone here understands what you are going through, and we’d definitely never put you down!
We will more likely give you a medal for bravery!
I hope your day is improving a bit. I really know how it feels to wake up in pain. Hang in there! You can beat this and it will not last forever.