8 years I've had my fissure heres a few things I'd tell people with a fissure.

1. Don't waste your money on creams use rectogesic if you just got your fissure within the last few days or weeks after 6wks its LIS. Or give 50/50 botox a go.

2. Don't go mad on your diet an think its happened because overnight you become lactose intolerant or gluten sensitive. Eat healthy and drink water but don't get fixated!

3. Do yoga or meditation for relaxation its stressful having a fissure on top of this crazy world we now live in.

4. Botox is 50/50 it really is a hit an miss. I've been on this site for nearly 8yrs and i think i read of 1 success with botox. I've had it twice an I'm still here.

5. If your fissure like mine heals an retears its likely either caused by constipation or a tight muscle, you'll know if your passing hard stools. My fissure has retorn from soft stool.

6. If your fissure just doesn't heal maybe you could try a barrier cream like Vaseline 3x a day or atleast before each bm. For 6wks

7. If you cant put a finger inside to apply cream then your muscle has either got a high resting pressure or its in spasm both of which need treating with either rectogesic if your fissure is less then 6wks old or LIS if your fissure is older then 6wks old.

8. If your fissure continues passed 6wks see a colorectal specialist (crs) for treatment.

9. If constipated don't load up on fiber. If you've never needed fiber in your life then a lack of fiber isn't the problem. Get natural fibre in normal amounts from fresh fruit an veg, eat healthy an drink water. Back in the day we ate real food now we eat fake food.
Real food = real stools (soft food waste)
Fake food = fake stools (hard plastic)
Constipation is NOT from a lack of buying an drinking medical products, sorry its just not ask your grandparents.

10. If you have random unexplainable constipation see a doctor or 3 get second opinions. Or if you've had constipation your whole life do an elimination diet an see if that helps. Just Google elimination diet if nothing changes see a doctor or 3 get second opinions.

Good luck on your journey have faith an trust in your body as your body is always trying to heal sometimes it just needs a hand to get there. Practice daily positive self talk and work on your self love. Xx

Also buy alcohol free fragrance free wipes if thats what you use to clean off. I buy alcohol an fragrance free wipea but then i also wash them in warm water its cheaper then buying water wipes plus it further cleans any junk off them and is nicer then using cold wipes.

Thanks for sharing your experience missy. I hope you don't have to keep going with this fissure and that you are healed in the near future.

Thanks p&h me too. I've learnt to live with it but thats not the answer if you still have options. No one should have to learn to live with pain. I still have options I've never tried dilation and then theres the gold standard LIS. I will heal this thing one day.

missy moo wrote:No one should have to learn to live with pain.

I do agree, though when you get to my age - I'll be 77 next year - learning to live with pain seems to be something that goes with the territory. Though for quite a lot of the time I wouldn't call what I suffer from now as pain, exactly, (it's often more in the nature of discomfort) when linked to certain emotional states like anxiety and/or depression (in my own case around the death of a much-loved pet cat) it definitely does become pain, and can be quite disabling. I remember that some years ago there were quite lively debates on the forum about the relation between AF and anxiety/depression, but those don't seem to have survived the passage of time, and coronavirus. It's a pity, as I think one can learn a lot from experiences of pain and strategies for coping with it, all the way from surgery to psychotherapy. Good luck with your search for answers to AF.

Dmcff yes i completely agree some years ago i actually wrote a post on the connection between anxiety and afs. I'm certain theres a full connection when we talk about negativity fullstop you know anger, sadness, guilt, all lower emotions and they all have many connections to life events memories and experiences.

Yes indeed, and I still find it a bit discouraging that in all the medical literature on AF there is very little about the psychological aspects of the condition, which in many ways obviously drive it. There is plenty written about the symptoms - fissures, tears, hemorrhoids and so on - but not so much about the underlying causes.

Hi I write a long reply then it got lost and didn’t save which was annoying!

Missy really liked the post so helpful.
Dmcff - firstly so sorry re your cat. Lost an 8 year old cat sudden illness six months ago and was really dreadful.
I totally agree anal discomfort can be related to state of mind, I can feel anal soreness starting and it goes into my buttons due to tension when I’m stressed or anxious. I’m healed so the pain comes from my brain. How you stop it happening is what I’ve been trying to sort since about 2014!!

Hi SueMac, good to see you, yes, it's so maddening when a post gets lost, it's usually best to ue the full editor when writing replies. Also, sometimes the forum software seems to forget the login credentials, and on logging in again one's post has disappeared. Don't know how to fix that, except by copying the post every so often and then pasting it into the editor.

Re state of mind, etc., although I said there's not much written about the psychological/emotional side of AF, on looking through the forum, and reading between the lines, it's plain that there is actually a huge amount written on that subject by posters here over the years. How to stop AF happening, well, if we knew that we could all be fully fledged CRS's, I guess.

Thank you for kind words about my cat - I had 2 cats, and the surviving cat is having to adapt to being alone. She seems to be reconciled to that now, and in some ways I think I was more deeply affected by the loss than she appears to be. But there's no denying it, the death of a pet that one is attached to is a very hard experience, and I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through it too.

Hi dmcff I hope your remaining cat is adapting well now and you are a little less sad? Always a difficult time.
I do really believe our minds influence how our bodies behave and there is a lot of literature to back it up. I’m sure lifestyle and diet etc influence too.
I hope you are doing ok and managing your health and enjoying life at the moment.