Hello all,
I've been lurking for several months and am extremely grateful for all the valuable information on this forum. I had never even heard of an AF before being diagnosed at the end of March. I'd been suffering for about 6 weeks and the pain got so intense I saw a CRS. She told me to use nitro/sitz bath/stool softener and it would heal in several weeks. She said LIS surgery would be a last resort.
I've been following a plant-based diet (no meat, fish, dairy, eggs or other animal products) for years, don't eat processed foods, always regular without any constipation/hard stool problems so I wondered how/why I got this. After some research I saw that poor blood flow is a cause. Unfortunately after a major relocation to another city, I was unable to afford a proper couch and spent my evenings with my laptop sitting on a hard futon couch -- and sometimes my butt would fall asleep! So after 2 years of this, I stupidly was cutting off the blood flow and am now paying the price. :(
After 6 weeks on the nitro, I felt that I was healing - spasms only lasted a couple hours and I was able to work/get on with my life by the afternoon. I had already planned a trip from the US to the UK to visit my boyfriend and was nervous about traveling but thought I was on the road to recovery. Flight was fine. We had planned a weekend away as soon as I arrived and from then on all hell broke loose. We stayed in a B & B without a private bathroom, so I was nervous about spending adequate amounts of time in there and didn't do the sitz baths. My body was all out of whack and i became constipated once we got back to his place. Then I experienced a major re-tear with copious amounts of blood and was back to the agony during BMs and for 10-12 hrs after. I've been totally non-functional for the past 3 weeks, dread getting up in the morning as that means an ordeal in the bathroom as my body tenses up in anticipation of pain. I couldn't even imagine traveling back home in a month's time in this condition. So I made an appt with a CRS (recommended on this forum-- thank you!).
He took a look and said that it was evidently a chronic fissure and recommended that I have the skin tag removed (he said it was hampering healing) and Botox injections. This would allow me to feel well enough to fly back home in 4 weeks. He has more experience than the surgeon I saw back home, so I have more confidence in his opinion. I'm penciled in for this procedure next Wednesday and need to let them know. (Given that this is an 'urgent care' issue -- I have my fingers crossed that my U.S. health insurance will reimburse me for the cost of the appt and procedure). Generally, I seek out natural/home remedies rather than resorting to traditional medical intervention, but I can't imagine living (not living!) like this any longer. The upside of having it done while I'm here is that my boyfriend can take care of me. :)
For those who have had this procedure, do you think I'm crazy to have this done and expect to be able to fly back to the States 3 1/2 weeks later? It's only a 6 1/2 hr flight so shouldn't be too bad. If there are any complications, I can always pay the price to change my flight dates.