Painful Skin Tag, Grade 1 Hemorrhoids and Sclerotherapy

Hey there! been silently reading this sub for a while, and thought I would contribute with my experience now that I’ve been to the doctor.

long story short: I’ve had crazy painful bm in April, also bloody, followed by an colonoscopy and appendectomy and my digestion has been a little bit all over the place since then, mostly constipated with blood and pain sometimes. I have also noticed a little “skin tag” (wasn’t sure if it was one) for quite a while, which was sensitive to touch but I never had issues during the day so I didn’t really bother.

but now since a week with increased constipation, I did have burning pain apart from bm all the time and got really scared and anxious, “skin tag” seemed a bit swollen as well, and everything just looked… odd down there.

spontaneously was able to go to doctor today - he says he can’t see any fissures, the weird thingy is apparently “just” a skin tag and I have grade 1 internal hemorrhoids which he immediately treated with sclerotherapy. I’m supposed to try to keeping my bm soft and use creams or something. The procedure honestly wasn’t really painless at all!

I am relieved, but also a little bit confused why I’m in such pain. Has anyone had a really badly inflamed skin tag before, if so, what did you do? I also am failing to keep my bm soft, despite pretty good diet and lots of water - I do have other chronic illnesses and am mostly sedentary though. Any tips and experiences are appreciated!!