I'm back and going under the knife . . .
. . . or over depending on how you look at it.
Hello All;
As you may or may not remember, I've been trying to heal an anal fissure since the beginning of July. I initially didn't want surgery if it could heal on it's own and I was optimistic about that as it was my first occurrence, caught pretty quickly. In fact, I was healing well up until the second weekend of September. Haven't been able to figure out what happened, but that was an extraordinarily painful weekend and I've not been able to make any progress since then.
CRS is chalking it up to my body is just not responding to the treatment and progressed to the chronic stage. It happens. In the last few weeks things have actually been retrogressing as the pain is lasting later into the day and I'm feeling more pain from the fissure with the constant swelling and inflammation.
So, I decided, forget coumadin, I know there's a protocol for temporarily suspending it for a procedure, so let's do that. Had a follow up with my doctor and we agreed on a date. I'm gonna bear my amply wrinkled behind to the masses to let him stick a knife in my shim-sham on November 14th. Timing actually is great. I'll take a week off, go back 1/2 days the next week, which is only 3 days due to Thanksgiving, so I'll have almost two solid weeks to pamper myself and heal.
I've learned more than I ever wanted to know about my anus. But I've also learned a lot about fiber, water, stool softening. Though the last four months have been a whole different kind of hell, I feel like I've learned everything I need to insure that this does not happen again. In fact, I imagine quite a few months, if not years, will go by before I learn to not fear going to the bathroom. I know I'll be babying myself to a degree for the next couple of years as it's my understanding that even after the initial healing, it takes that area a couple of years to complete recover it's "pre-damage" strength, skin integrity/elasticity as before the damage every happened.
For those of you interested or dealing with fissures, I found a great support form online and it has helped me keep my sanity through all of this. http://analfissure.editboard.com/
They are similar to this board in that they discuss everything, medical treatment, surgery, differences between the doctors instructions and what you "really" need to do, etc.
Thanks so much for all the advice, encouragement and messages I've received from you all, especially regarding this particular issue. One thing I did want to share is that I learned there is a 20% benzocaine sold over the counter as the brand name "BoilEase." It's sold in regular drug stores. It helped me a little more than the lidocaine because it had a couple of ingredients for soothing and cooling as well. I tried it and it didin't irritate the area and provided some pain relief and comfort when nothing else did.
I'll let you know how things go. over the next few weeks.
Hello All;
As you may or may not remember, I've been trying to heal an anal fissure since the beginning of July. I initially didn't want surgery if it could heal on it's own and I was optimistic about that as it was my first occurrence, caught pretty quickly. In fact, I was healing well up until the second weekend of September. Haven't been able to figure out what happened, but that was an extraordinarily painful weekend and I've not been able to make any progress since then.
CRS is chalking it up to my body is just not responding to the treatment and progressed to the chronic stage. It happens. In the last few weeks things have actually been retrogressing as the pain is lasting later into the day and I'm feeling more pain from the fissure with the constant swelling and inflammation.
So, I decided, forget coumadin, I know there's a protocol for temporarily suspending it for a procedure, so let's do that. Had a follow up with my doctor and we agreed on a date. I'm gonna bear my amply wrinkled behind to the masses to let him stick a knife in my shim-sham on November 14th. Timing actually is great. I'll take a week off, go back 1/2 days the next week, which is only 3 days due to Thanksgiving, so I'll have almost two solid weeks to pamper myself and heal.
I've learned more than I ever wanted to know about my anus. But I've also learned a lot about fiber, water, stool softening. Though the last four months have been a whole different kind of hell, I feel like I've learned everything I need to insure that this does not happen again. In fact, I imagine quite a few months, if not years, will go by before I learn to not fear going to the bathroom. I know I'll be babying myself to a degree for the next couple of years as it's my understanding that even after the initial healing, it takes that area a couple of years to complete recover it's "pre-damage" strength, skin integrity/elasticity as before the damage every happened.
For those of you interested or dealing with fissures, I found a great support form online and it has helped me keep my sanity through all of this. http://analfissure.editboard.com/
They are similar to this board in that they discuss everything, medical treatment, surgery, differences between the doctors instructions and what you "really" need to do, etc.
Thanks so much for all the advice, encouragement and messages I've received from you all, especially regarding this particular issue. One thing I did want to share is that I learned there is a 20% benzocaine sold over the counter as the brand name "BoilEase." It's sold in regular drug stores. It helped me a little more than the lidocaine because it had a couple of ingredients for soothing and cooling as well. I tried it and it didin't irritate the area and provided some pain relief and comfort when nothing else did.
I'll let you know how things go. over the next few weeks.
Diva Jojo: SW: 440lbs -- CW: 274lbs -- GW: 240lbs
5'9.5" | HW: 368 | SW: 353 | CW: 155 +/- 5 lbs | Angel to 
Yes, thanks all. I sincerely appreciate it. With what I've learned in the last four months, I've come to the personal conclusion that for bariatric patients, especially DS'ers, surgery is possibly the only option for successfully healing fissures (I can hear the vets saying "DUH!!!") and not just managing it.
The reason I say this is because with our malabsorptive issues, we will expel much more waste for our consumption than the normal person and that's not going to change, so you're coming into the thing from a disadvantage already. I mean there were some days that I ate very little because I was in such pain and so exhausted from dealing with it daily and it always amazed me how much waste there was compared to what I was eating. Plus, don't really have the option of not taking calcium, the primary constipation culprit - though some may stop temporarily in desperation.
Yeah, the vets prob'y figured this out, but I guess I had to get there in my own mind.
The reason I say this is because with our malabsorptive issues, we will expel much more waste for our consumption than the normal person and that's not going to change, so you're coming into the thing from a disadvantage already. I mean there were some days that I ate very little because I was in such pain and so exhausted from dealing with it daily and it always amazed me how much waste there was compared to what I was eating. Plus, don't really have the option of not taking calcium, the primary constipation culprit - though some may stop temporarily in desperation.
Yeah, the vets prob'y figured this out, but I guess I had to get there in my own mind.
Diva Jojo: SW: 440lbs -- CW: 274lbs -- GW: 240lbs
HW/SW/CW/GW 346/335/183/150 5'4.25"
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