Finally, I feel ready to write my success story.
Its been nearly 9 months with lots of ups and downs, and I feel like I have been through hell and back. Never before have I experienced such an excruciating pain, and never before had I imagined such a long healing time for a little wound.
Unfortunately I can't tell you I'm 100% OK again. I still have bad days with soreness and irritation. Compared to the pain I had, its really nothing, but I'm still looking forward to getting a normal butt. Maybe the wound is healed, and its just scar tissue/sentinel tag/hemorrhoid that's bugging me, or maybe I'm only 95% healed. Either way, I still keep looking after my butt, and continue to eat butt-friendly food, so I will just wait and see.
OK, so how did I get to where I am today...
Well, my AF adventure began in the end of January 2013. Unlike many others mine didn't start with constipation and blood. I just suddenly had a pain in my butt, and I figured it was a hemorrhoid, since I have been having hemorrhoids on and off for 20 years. After a few days, I called my doctor and got some hemorrhoid creme. I used the creme for a week, but the pain kept getting worse, and one day I had blood in the toilet. So I booked an appointment. My doctor did a digital examination, and told me I had a fissure. He could also see a hemorrhoid, so maybe my fissure was caused by pressure from the hemorrhoid.
Anyway, I went home and started googling, and that's how I found this forum. From reading it, I found out I needed rectogesic (GNT/Nitro), and that hemorrhoid creme was bad for a fissure, so I got some rectogesic from my doctor, and started to use it twice a day.
I expected to see some improvement within days, but after a week, I was still having serious pain. That's when I decided to write for help in here:
http://anal-fissure.org/want-my-life-back-t6123.html
This post later turned out to be my nitro diary, and the following months I wrote about my progress and setbacks.
After more than 3 months on rectogesic (and diltiazem) I was still not healed, and decided to switch hospitals, since the CRS I was seeing, didn't offer botox. So, I got a new CRS, and we decided to try botox. I was scheduled to have it performed 15 May 2013. But then I was having some good days, and I canceled the botox. That was a mistake, cause after a short while, things went south again. I had a new botox appointment the 5 June 2013, and got the procedure. That's when I started my botox diary:
http://anal-fissure.org/botox-diary-t6816.html
I remember being very sore (like I had been kicked in the butt) for about a week, and then things got better. The burning was gone right after botox, and in the following months I continued to improve.
I want you to understand, that healing is such a slow process, and you really should track your progress in weeks if not months. Its a rollercoaster, but eventually things will get better. After botox, I felt like I got 25% better every month, and I have finally reached the point where I don't think about my butt day in and day out. I even have gotten back on my bike, and have started running again. Yes, this does cause some small issues from time to time, but it never gets worse than some soreness (pain 1/10) and some irritation, that goes away within a few hours.
I would like to summarize, what I felt worked for me:
- Reading this forum, for advise and support.
- Vaseline before BM. I'm using a gloved finger to prelube before BM.
- Squatting with both feet on toilet seat.
- Finger support trick when I fear a harder than usual BM. Described here:
http://anal-fissure.org/new-toilet-seat-heals-posterior-fissures-t6671.html- Lactulose. 30ml daily. Movicol worked great too, but my stomach couldn't tolerate it.
- Magnesium. 500mg daily.
- Lots of soluble fiber, and lots of water, but not too much water, as it could flush out your electrolytes.
- No working out, except walks.
- After its confirmed you have a fissure, never let anyone do a digital exam while in spasms!
- Nitro and diltiazem worked somewhat, but never enough.
- Botox saved my ass!
Before I end this post, I want to thank my friends in here. Your support and help has helped me through this, and I want you to know how thankful I am. So a big THANKS to all of you!
Since I have gotten a lot of AF knowledge, and has gotten a lot of friends in here, I'm not leaving. I will continue to lurk around, and see how my friends are progressing. I will also try to help when I can, so this is not goodbye.