by Newmommy28 » 23 Aug 2014, 08:06
Hi, everyone!
This may be my last update to this diary. If I decide to do surgery I will most likely start a new thread.
Just an update as to how I'm doing: The beginning of this week I was still having pain - some slight stinging while going and then light-ish spasms an hour after. I think around Thursday the spasms and stinging stopped (that would have been Day 22 post-Botox). I'm not doing anything different with my diet. Still taking a capful of Miralax each night (I was doing a half dose but went back to this). I can't attribute my doing any better to the Botox. This is what usually happens to me and has been happening off and on since April/May. I'll have a few weeks of spasms and pain, then a couple weeks feeling "normal" with no pain. I'm expecting the spasms to come back in a week or so since that's what tends to happen to me.
For those who are considering doing Botox: it certainly is nice having that as an option prior to committing to surgery which is a permanent procedure we are all a little fearful of. My fissure was pretty horrific in the beginning, but I was told at a check-up in June that it had become very small, similar to a paper cut. I even had a doc tell me she wouldn't do surgery on me if I asked because it looked like it would heal on its' own (she was wrong). I was very hopeful Botox injections would heal me. From hearing others' experiences with the injections I realize my CRS didn't inject me with enough (he only did 50 units). Their practice doesn't inject more than that because that is where issues with incontinence play in. Now, I certainly could go to another practice, one that injects more units, but I'm not going to do that. I really like this doctor (he's the 4th opinion I've gotten). He has about 30 years experience, was confident without being cocky, and told me exactly how it is. I think finding a good doctor you trust is key to all this. The fact that he didn't use more units also makes me think that he would be conservative when doing the surgery, so I'm not as afraid of incontinence as a result of that.
I'm not going to do Botox again. I'm certainly not discouraging anyone else from trying it. The injections hurt but are tolerable. I would recommend having someone around to help you the next day if you can. It does feel like you've been kicked in the rear for the 1st week! But if it helps, it's worth it.