hey my fissure friends,
great site going here! really helps to know your not going insane with the pain alone! a little about me and my fissure.
1st time . never had anything like this before. I think I may have got it from an almighty angel gas I let rip one morning a few days ago. still half asleep, I was like man that hurt! back to sleep. no real problem during the day just a little uncomfort, but by the evening I knew something was up cause I could barely walk. The pain kept building day by day until I went to the doctor yesterday. 1st doctor said haemoroid, I thought great, some meds, a few days and I'll be all good.
This morning though was the worst pain nearly of my life. .started getting contractions (or sphincter spasms it seems to be called from reading some posts) and these where like 2-3 seconds of a jagged bread knife been shoved up my ass and they kept coming. went to another doc today - anal specialist - and he said straight away fissure. nearly fainted with the pain during the examination. . but thank f*ck the prescriptions are taking the pain away. not completely but much better than before.
Hoping it can heal. Anyone know how long it may take in general to heal (if at all)? or can anyone point me to the "essential reads" on this site for pain relief and healing?
hoping to get a good night sleep after 5 nights of hell!
fissure_greg

if fissure heals on its own it could take 1 month to over 4 months from what i have read. did your doc recomend stool softener like miralax or to only eat certain soft high fiber foods? the main thing is to keep your stool soft. you could heal for a month and then have one hard bm and rip the fragile fissure open and healing process starts all over again! thats what happened to me. i would click on the first 4 topics new,general fissure,diet tips, surgery. then read all the new posts. this site is very helpful in understanding fissures. ive had what i think is a fissure for a few months now and still trying to get an appointment with a specialist. my regular doctor wasnt much help.welcome to the forrum :)

thanks for the tips delasama. my doc didn't mention anything about my diet, just prescribed diltiazem to relax the area help healing and xylocain for pain. . these are now offering some relief but I still get the odd spasm every 25-30 mins - which is still quite painfull. yet to take a bm since but I will keep the diet component in mind and get plently of H20 in too! I will also consider something like miralax because a relapse would be the last thing I want!!! thanks again

Greg,
I'm sorry that you are experiencing this! It's good that you went to the doctor first off. I have had the pain off and on for about 5 years now and I thought it was just a hemorrhoid. My doctor prescribed Proctofoam (no fissure diagnosis) and it work well for 3 episodes. My fourth and final 5 episodes have left me with a chronic non-healing fissure and a skin tag to boot! I have surgery scheduled for Monday, thank God!
Anyway, I have a post explaining my latest adventures with this painful condition. You can click on my user name and then click on my posts to read my daily pain managment regimen. It's an all day 24/7 battle!
Good luck and my best to you. :)

thanks Jessjess. .you seem to be going through living hell. but it seems almost everyone on this site can relate to the sheer pain and discomfort we are experiencing!
woke up last night with spasms. .not good. took the prescribed meds and some painkillers but not much imrpovement. still painful spams. .
then this morning I remembered 5 suppositories my doc gave me in the hand and I tenderly searched through my bag. Since taking one these I have much less frequent and less intense spasms, five hours later and still going strong! Its an non-steroidal anti-inflammatory called Diclofenac and it seems to be working great for me. I will definitely be asking for more! I am using this in combination with the other meds mentioned above.
later! greg

Thanks Greg for the words of shared misery!
Diclofenac? Is that an NSAID that is an anal "pill"? I've tried to research it yet I'm not finding the association with anal fissures. The Rectiv, Proctofoam, and sitz baths help with my spasms, not 100% though, more like 60%.

Hi Jessjess,
to answer your question, yes, Diclofenac is a NSAID and an anal "pill", or suppository. My doc gave it to me after I said I was experiencing unbearable pain.
I didn't find much on the net relating it to fissures but I did find one website saying it could be useful in combination with other meds. I can't
post the link because my account is too new to allow posts :(.
I have just figured out that most of my pain is from the swelling, which is also giving me increased spasms. This is why the Diclofenac is working for me i think!
This morning I woke up with pretty large swelling on the left side (only) of my butt hole and ass. Its been building all week really, hence the increasing pain. I treated the area with ice for the first time and took the Diclofenac. The swelling has fallen dramatically, the spasms are less frequent, and the pain is far far less, at least while lying down. I really hope it keeps up!

fissure_greg welcome to the forum, as you already know by your experience fissures are very painful and take long to heal, some people are lucky and the fissure will heal on its own to never come back again, some will heal to have it again and again and some like me have it for years thinking that its been hemorrhoids until a large skin tag develops that is a common sign of chronic fissure.
Some doctors will do a colonoscopy depending of your age to rule out other conditions or the fissure is very visible that the colonoscopy is not needed.
Hopefully you will be a lucky one and your fissure will heal soon, as you can read in this forums some are not that lucky and only surgery can help.