Hello
I want to share my experience because I am frightened of what's ahead and this email is a way for me to to get something off my chest. But also, perhaps some of you with knowledge and experience on annual fissures and the treatment may have some words of advice and feedback.
Anyway, my situation is as follows:
About 2 to 3 weeks ago, I noticed bleeding with considerable pain on a bowel movement (BM). About a week or so ago, it was diagnosed as a fissure with an anal sentinel by a colorectal surgeon at a outpatient clinic specializing in colon and rectal disorders here in Toronto Canada. I was prescribed diltazem 2% ointment and litocaine ointment along with a lot of fibre which I have been following religiously.
However, over the past 4 or 5 days, the pain and discomfort has been significantly worse. I have been house bound and the pain on a bowel movement (BM) is like nothing I have experienced before. I freeze up with pain after the passage of a BM and, given that I have so many BM in a day, the pain lingers for hours. (My BMs are solid but often very small so I may have 4 or more BMs in the morning and then additional BMs late afternoon or night),
I went back to the colorectal surgeon today. He said that the only thing that he could offer which he was prepared to do right then was a lateral sphincterotony. He said that there were potential complications (incontinence, infection, bleeding), but indicated the risks are small (I think he said 1% but maybe that was for incontinence.) He indicated he never had a case of incontinence after this procedure which he does routinely.
Despite the pain I am in, I also learned that I may not have been applying the diltazem ointment and litocaine properly. (I was applying it around the sentinel but not a bit up the anus). So, I decided to give the creams another few days to see if there is any improvement. The surgeon will see me this Thursday - if I see no improvement and I continue to be house-bound maybe I will have the surgery on Thursday.
I wish I was back at work. I feel I am letting my team down. As embarrassing as this is, I guess I will just have to tell my immediate superior (who I have a close working relationship with) what's going on because I don't see returning to work at least this week but hopefully next....(I was told if I had the surgery on Thurs, I may be able to go back to my office work on the following Monday).
Thanks for reading this long email ...any feedback would be appreciated...
Elliott