Hi everyone,
(37 yo female - AF and hemmoroids for 5 years after birth of children)
First time poster, long time lurker :) Here is my story...
In 2013 I had my first daughter and shortly after developed an AF after passing what I can only describe as a brick of a BM!? After mis-diagnosing as hemorroids for a few months I visited my GP who told me it was likely an AF caused by dehydration to my body after breast feeding. She said I could use Diltiazem cream but could not offer it to me until I was finished breast-feeding. Over the next year I tried everything I could to get it to heal on it's own and it came and went but mostly stayed for the duration of that year. After I was done nursing I used the cream which worked and I was mostly healed until I developed another AF after nursing my second daughter when she was born in 2015. After nursing for only 3 months I couldn't take the pain anymore and switched my daughter to formula and started the cream again. I've had varied success with it over the last 3 years but I never go more than 2 months without an injury. Sometimes they are small injuries and heal within a week, other times (like now) it's a huge painful injury where I feel like I'll barely make it through the day. I finally went to my GP again and decided to pursue a specialist to discuss surgery. The reason I waited so long was that I wanted to make sure I was done having children so I could be reasonably assured I wouldn't become dehydrated again and cause another injury.
Here are some observations I've made and some ideas I've tried:
Diltiazem cream - minor success in that it helps to heal but doesn't prevent new injuries
coconut oil - helps with lubrication before a BM but that's it
Peri-bottle spray - i brought a peri bottle home with me from the hospital after having my daughter and I fill it with as hot of water as I can stand and I spray my bum both before BMs to relax the sphincter and afterwards for cleansing and to increase blood flow, similar to a sitz bath
Squat during BM - I raise my knees up using a stool during BMs to assist with positioning and movement which helps
suppositories - keeps hemorroids at bay as mine interfere with healing when they are swollen and prevent tissues from coming together to heal, very painful and I'm looking into having these removed as well as LIS surgery
pain relief - have only used over the counter ibuprofen and tylenol and they do next to nothing. Have also resorted to trying medical marijuana for pain relief which helps immensely but I'm starting to suspect it is too drying to my mucous membranes and may not be helping the actual liklihood of re-injuring the area. Looking into moisturizing suppositories to prevent this as its the only successful pain relief i can find. I only use right before bed and never during the day (just being honest, please don't judge the pain i'm experiencing is incredible as I'm sure you know)
diet - Other than my original hard BM I generally do not have constipation issues. I eat lots of fibre (and avoid too much fibre) and I'm ok at drinking water (could be much better) and I don't drink alcohol other than socially or do any hard drugs or take any constipating pain medications or anything similar. I'm otherwise a perfectly healthy adult and former athlete.
manual pressure - ive noticed that placing my hand on the perineum when i'm seated eases the pressure and pain but obviously isn't something I can do around the clock (hello, I work in an office and can't sit there with my hand up my butt lol)
So after 5 years I'm now looking into a specialist. I live in Ontario, Canada so my wait may be long to hear back about surgery I'm very scared about potential side effects to the surgery and re-occurrence of AFs. So now I'm here, looking for people who understand and maybe find some new techniques for pain management and maintaining a healthy and active life despite this debilitating pain. I have two beautiful girls and an amazingly understanding husband but this condition is ruining my quality of life. I can't be as active with my kids and I'm often miserable at night alone with my husband just trying to grit my teeth and get through another day. I'm starting to worry about depression because every time I re-injure myself it's like I want to curl up in a ball in my bedroom for 10 days while it heals....
if you made it this far, thanks for listening :)