Anal skin tags

Hi,

Just was after some feedback on anal skin tags and if anyone on here has them? I have 3 one a few centimetres long like a little tail 2 two other shorter ones. Why when i have bought these up with Gi's they seem to be non responsive? It seems that many people with Crohns have this and i even found a Crohns website that stated ONLY Crohns patients suffer from this and NEVER UC?

Am i missing something here?

My doctor has put down that mine are skin tags but mine are from hemmies this I am sure of. They are very annoying but I have heard surgery for them isn't an easy recovery and can cause complications. While I would love to be rid of them, not worth the risk of other issues.

If it's not hemmies Indigo69 then chances are it's perianal crohn's skin tags, I think it's a good idea that you find a new GI that is actually on the ball when it comes to crohn's, though the symptoms you're having are similar to UC, they are also similar to CD as well and definitely not IBS, no bleeding with IBS...you're definitely not mild if you're going 20 times a day along with your other symptoms...to me it screams CD but of course I can't say for sure, you need to find a good GI asap so they can treat you properly....and make sure no one ever tries to cut those skin tags off, if it is perianal crohn's skin tags, it's diseased tissue and it will not heal and given the area, it will always remain an open wound with infections, that's what my colon and rectum surgeon told me about perianal crohn's skin tags.

Indigo, I just wanted to mention that I also recently had neutropenia, and my GI immediately halved my dose of mesalamine (Asacol). Within a week my blood count was normal. It is a rare complication of the medication. Please mention it to your physicians.

Oh Gosh Indigo, please, please make sure you mentioned that you believe your skin tags to be perianal crohn's skin tags (aka; elephant ears) and ask them about the inflammation, if any of it was patchy, as well as depth, with CD it can affect the many layers of the intestinal lining, with UC it's never patches of inflammation and it never goes deeper than the surface of the lining as it can with Crohn's....please be sure to keep us in the loop, nothing sickens me more than an improper diagnoses one has.

Oh Indigo, that is heartbreaking because I know how horribly it affected me emotionally with those skin tags and everything you describe really does scream Crohn's to me, I'm sorry cuz I hate to tell anyone something like that but I just don't want anyone else to get screwed over and mess with your skin tags because I recall distinctly that colon and rectum surgeon that my GI at the time sent me to in regards to my skin tags after they were banded off by another colon and rectum surgeon who also DX me as having hemmies, she was brutal, but the male surgeon I saw after the fact explained to me that although once you get those skin tags, they tend to appear with a new flare starting, but once you get the flare under control internally, the skin tags typically shrink down, kinda like they're sending you a message that a flare is beginning again, he said that using rectal meds (specifically cortifoam due to the steroids in them) have the potential to help keep the tags from swelling up (aka; flaring) and when they do pop up out of the blue, that using the Cortifoam could very likely help shrink them down quicker.

I also want you to know, when I first became sick internally, it was affecting my small bowel, colon, rectum and the anal tags all flared for about 2 yrs until it finally subsided in the small bowel only but because I didn't respond well or allergic to the typical meds used to treat inflammation in the colon and rectum (via rectal meds) it might have been prednisone that cleared up a small area of patchy inflammation in my small intestines, but I'll tell you, it stayed constant in my colon and anus (due to them being banded by that female surgeon) and on and off in my rectum...I only just recently got to go on Humira because I developed a recto-vaginal fistula after flaring 23 yrs straight from mostly severe and at times moderate, never mild. This disease is horrific to say the least and I don't want anyone to go through what I have, or worse.

Hi Indio69,

The first and only sign was passing air/gas through the vagina, I had been severely constipated for about a month and a half then started noticing that I was passing air through there mostly when I had gas but occasionally it would just pass out of there even when I didn't feel gassy, it terrified me but thankfully nothing else passed through there, the odor was unpleasant after wiping from going pee but thankfully the Humira got it all under control including the inflammation in my colon and rectum. I wasn't too happy to find out that once you get a fistula the tract remains forever and that getting the inflammation of it under control doesn't mean it gets rid of the fistula for good, so in future when I flare again chances are the fistula will as well. My MRI showed one fistula from the rectum to the vagina with some small branches off of it, not impressed at all but not a thing I can do about it.

I hope you soon get the correct DX so they can treat you with what sounds like a fistula as well, sometimes even if I didn't feel the urge to pass gas, air would come through my vagina and it was so embarrassing because you can't stop it at all like you usually can with a plain old fart. What did your GI say when you told him about the constant air bubbles coming from there? If he dismissed it then you definitely need to find another GI, you might consider doing that anyway cuz if you haven't been properly DX yet (when it seems pretty obvious to me based on your symptoms) then it's likely a good time to find a new GI. I don't expect much from GP's but GI's I have higher expectations for sure!

UGH, sounds like they all have their heads up their own butts!!!

I can't believe how useless and cruel specialists and docs can actually be to treat you like that, to dismiss something like that is beyond ridiculous. If there's anyway you can find someone to look after you properly so that your suffering doesn't get worse then I hope you can find it. I was in such excruciating pain waiting to get in and see my GI when my fistula developed (he's top notch, one of the lead researchers for crohn's and colitis in Canada) because I hadn't seen him in a long time I had a longer than normal wait but still got in within a month and a half due to requesting to be put on the cancellation list which worked out better than waiting 3 months.

I suffered in so much pain, I took multiple sitz bathes with tons of epsome salts, couldn't engage in intimacy and was a total mess, barely able to put one foot in front of the other, couldn't take Tylenol cuz it makes constipation worse for me, so hubby convinced me to try smoking mj because I couldn't sleep, sit or function, it was brutal...I gave in and started smoking it and was amazed at how it dulled the pain enough to let me relax, sleep, sit and gave me breaks from the urgency, still constipated but able to pass my BM's as scary as that was knowing at any time it could pass through my vagina.

Definitely request an MRI hopefully they'll be able to understand that test result cuz it sure doesn't seem like you're getting proper care at all. I think you're going to have to take the reigns and tell them what you believe is going on with you (basically you're going to have to do their job for them) they can give you a colonoscopy as well as an MRI and chances are they'll find patchy inflammation indicative of CD, it's very rare for UCers to get fistulas, happens but it's much more prevalent to crohn's than UC....have them do small bowel follow through tests too to check your small intestines.

Do whatever you have to so you can finally get the proper care you deserve, it makes me angry that you're getting less than adequate care and sad that you're going through that on top of feeling ill. They need to look after you and it sounds like you'll have to force them for proper care sadly....you should ditch your GP too, sounds completely useless to me and isn't taking you seriously.

(((HUGS)))

Oh gosh, lol, it's like every time I read your replies I feel like I'm corresponding with myself....gawd that's awful....make sure no one cuts those tags off or bands them like their hemmies, one other thing I just remembered that male colon and surgeon also told me (not unusual for me to forget some stuff said to me back in 1991 when I became really sick) was that only when the tags shrink up to very small they can be snipped off right in the office with a bit of numbing and they won't bleed or cause any issues BUT, that it wouldn't guarantee that new ones wouldn't appear again at some point especially if you're about to flare again with crohn's...don't forget any of this stuff, I don't want you or anyone to go through the horrible mistake I went through.

I can't believe you'e able to handle a job let alone a career, kudos to you cuz I folded like a house of cards when I got sick, it was so painful what I went through with those tags and that male surgeon said that instead of them being banded, that female surgeon should have known better (she was taught by him and he felt horrible for what she did to me, he'd load me up with tons of cortifoam, he said that she should have known along with the first internal symptoms I was having....I was always a one controlled bowel movement a day, never constipated, rarely got diarrhea unless I had a stomach bug to starting to go more frequently, still with the same nice normal looking bowel movements for about a month and a half, I was going 5-6 times a day and I couldn't control it like I normally could, it was urgent and felt like it would fall right out of me if I didn't sit on the toilet, I go in for this emergency hemmie surgery cuz my perianal crohn's tags are killing me, I was trying prep H and anusol and all that crap cuz every idiot doctor kept saying they were hemmies, they felt like they were on fire, then after the surgery it was no better, then BAM bloody diarrhea and mucous 20 times a day. All the diarrhea caused those fissures I told you about (or I told someone about here at HW) were all over my large and hard skin tags I had puss like crap coming out of me that was greenish, I can't tell you the pain....I had 2 kids naturally, first with an epidural and the recovery hurt like hell down there and I had those skin tags, that's what flared them like crazy, I'm pretty sure that the hormonal changes from pregnancy is what triggered my crohn's....then I found out some horrible news shortly after I had my first and went through a lot of emotional hell....a year and a half later, crohn's enters the game. My second baby was all natural and you know what, that hardly even hurt compared to what my vagina (even my pubic bone was aching and I told the all the doctors that before that banding surgery they did) and anus and rectum have gone through with my crohn's disease, all this stuff and then getting the recto-vaginal fistula 23 years later, was the other time I felt more horrid pain compared to delivery of an 8 lb 15 oz baby the first time and an 8 lb 3 oz baby the second time.

All that surgeon should have done was tell me to get a colonoscopy, give me some cortifoam as it likely would have shrunk them down again and have me tested for crohn's disease....that's kinda when I realized how screwed over I was.

You're very welcome, I'm glad you're going to push, for what you're going through you have to push and that's a shame. Keep us updated!!

pb4

Hi Update on this is….

My GI has been very co operative and is considering CD and looking into possible fistula (rectovaginal) He has sent request form for a pelvic MRI, I'm possibly having another scope and further investigations into my concerns. I also did some digging and found a family link to CD on my fathers side, his cousins x 2 and one of there sons.

Gi is just waiting on the results of the fecal cal protection tests and then we are going from there. Im relieved because in his correspondence he said he was very concerned and it is very likely that i have CD, i also sent him my original diagram of my first scope with patchy inflammation throughout, he was very alarmed. You see it is all the doctors before him and now he is trying to pick up with all the sketchy diagnoses that have been handed down to me. He has already ruled out IBS and is also listening to me about the skin tags.

I am going to see him in a few weeks, this will be hard because he works at a large hospital 3 hours away in the city but you have to do what you have to do. I have just recently been offered my dream job and i start Wed and I'm praying the pred kicks in by at least tomorrow so i can relax to some point :-(

Hi pb4

I am starting my training in pathology so I'm pretty excited, I'm staying in bed today because now i have the flu, darn pred suppressed my poor little immune system and now this. We can't win can we, oh well i was obviously put on this earth to fight so I'm going to do just that.

Thank you and will keep you updated for sure xxxx