Here's my Journey. In the middle of September 2021, I woke up in the middle of the night with a severe knifing pain in my anus. I thought it was a hemorrhoid. The next day I still felt the pain, but went to work. Mid morning I went to the bathroom and saw blood in my underwear, which alarmed me. I still thought it was a hemorrhoid so I applied Tucks and Preparation H. This went on for a couple of months and it was terribly painful and stressful. In December, I contacted the Doctor via email and she suggested it may be a fissure, which I had never thought about. I started on some nifedipine and began sitz baths. Nothing seemed to ease the condition. Finally in February of 2022, I went to the doctor and she confirmed it to be a fissure. By this time, I had researched a ton on what to do and became overwhelmed with information. The primary suggestion out there was surgery LIS, the "gold standard" treatment. Yet, one of the possible side effects was incontinence. This terrified me. In my gut, I felt this could be healed without surgery. I just needed more confidence in a treatment method. I found the confidence in this guy: https://www.youtube.com/@yourfriendlyproctologist. He believes that 96% of the time, a person with an anal fissure can heal it without surgery; even chronic fissures. This meant a lot coming from a conventional medicine practitioner. The biggest thing he instructs is that you have to soften the stool. He has a lot of other information, of course, but I can confirm that this is what made the difference for me. Prunes became my game changer to soften the stool. A lot of info out there pushes fiber. Actually too much fiber makes the texture of your stool abrasive to the fissure. You need softness which prunes create through the sorbitol they contain. I will say that soluble fiber is important, but you don't want a ton of it because you don't want runny poops which aggravate the fissure. Around the beginning of April, my diet became a prune with every meal. And I made sure one of my meals was a salad (soluble fiber). For the first time in my life, I pooped regularly and correctly. I stopped pushing and allowed the stool to come out on its own which it could do now since it was finally soft enough. This was the key toward healing. Now, the healing came slow, like, glacially slow. I still wondered if it would ever heal. What I noticed, though, is that I would string a few days in a row without pain from my bowel movements. Then, I'd have a painful one. I also noticed the blood lessening over time on my wipes. By the beginning of July, I was consistently not seeing blood even though I would have a painful bm now and then. I had a painful bloody episode at the end of July, where I think I had a microscopic tear. I thought I would never get over the fissure. Yet, I kept at the regimen. By the beginning of September, I was having no blood and very little pain. In the middle of September 2022, I went to the see the doctor and she confirmed that the skin had healed. A full year later, I found healing and I owe it to the mighty prune.

Additional treatment thoughts:
1) the pain comes from your muscles spasming. Sitz baths did not work well for me to calm the muscles. What worked for me to a small degree (not perfectly) was laying on my stomach to take pressure off my anus.
2) I went for a daily walk because it promoted blood flow in my anus, which is needed for healing.
3) I tried all sorts of salves. I finally landed on nifedipine (prescription for relaxing muscles) and desitin (for fighting chaffing). I eventually changed the desitin out for pranicura because it has a cooling effect and also fights chaffing.
4) I used medicated wipes to clean myself.
5) I still eat prunes and I drink a glass of psyllium husk fiber supplement every day because anal fissures can recur. Plus, this promotes a healthier colon.
6) Also, I ran across this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jugmjpAWnI&t=302s and found it helpful in my actual method for pooping.
7) if you are reading this and have diagnosed your fissure within a week or two of its occurrence, you have an acute fissure and your odds and speed of healing are much greater. After about 6 to 8 weeks, it becomes a chronic fissure and much harder to heal. Get to a doctor asap if you feel a very sharp pain in your anus. I did not do this and it put me into the chronic fissure category.

I want to conclude by saying I'm sorry you are going through this. No one really knows the suffering physically, mentally and emotionally for those with anal fissures. It is a grinding journey full of despair. There is hope. I do believe you can heal this without surgery. It takes patience, the support of loved ones, doctors, and softening the stool. Praying for you all!

Thank you for sharing your story!