Anal Fissure Support Forum

[Tutdee1]

Well hello again. I'm back. I had to change my screen name because the site wouldn't let me sign it with it anymore. I've been suffering on and off with thombosed hemorrhoids since I was diagnosed with the AF last year. Now I am suffering again with the AF and it actually feels like a new tear, for the 3rd day. Im hoping the nitro cream starts taking effect real soon. but anyway, I just wanted to stop by and say hello.

[owmybum]

Hi tutdee...... Sorry to hear you're having so many set backs... It's just so exhausting being on this AF roller coaster.
Hang on in there, and keep doing all the right things..... Stool softener, water, creams, water, sitz, more water..... You get the drift!!

[Scientist2516]

Hi Tutdee, I know it's scary to eat, but you must eat. It's really important to keep things moving through the gut, because the easiest and softest stools are the newest ones. If your gut just stops, the stools dry out and become harder to pass. Eat a moderate amount of food, keep well hydrated and aim for one or two BMs a day. They will be painful at first, but I promise you with soft BMs you will start to heal. Think of the pain as something you have to live through to get to the other side. You can and WILL get through it, this pain, as awful as it is, will diminish.

I know how hard it is to keep positive and to remain close to your family. An anal fissure can make people clinically depressed, obsessive and isolated. I don't have any magic bullets for that, but remember, this will pass! Your family needs you, and you need them! Try to do things with them to take your mind off the fissure.

Come here and vent whenever you like!

[Ever the Optimist]

Hi Zena,
For a such a small paper cut, an anal fissure is a torture because of where it is! and things don't heal overnight, as much as we wish them to. It requires a lot of patience, time, inner strength and positivity to get you through the recovery.
I would just add that if the stress element is overwhelming you, treat it as a separate issue and see your GP accordingly. It's testing for everyone but if you find it particularly difficult to handle and you become too consumed by it all, talk to someone who can help with pain management. My GP prescribed me ADs to get through my ordeal and they helped so much I can't tell you! I hit rock bottom, I was so anxious & depressed & OCD with it all but they really helped get me through the very worse and I no longer have to take them now I am so much better.
The problem is that it's natural to want to stop eating, natural to want to reduce the amount of food you put into your body or to radically change things to feel better, but sometimes in doing so, this can create more issues - If I don't eat substantial meals (sensible though) and less, I have more issues because there is not enough in my body to create the soft substantial stools that the body is used to dealing with and I end up with watery diahrroea or find myself straining to create stools that just aren't there!, which then makes things worse again. You have to try and eat as normally as you were before, but obviously the right types of things. Adding in a stool softener that suits you, extra Olive Oil, lots and lots of water are also really important at this stage.
Heat is wonderful - a hot water bottle applied to your bottom can be really soothing as well as the hot baths (Sitz or normal)......
Stay strong and tell yourself you will get through this because you will! It might not seem like it right now but once you do start to heal, you will notice subtle changes and over the weeks, things will get better. This is the most painful stage right now, but things WILL improve once you figure out your healing strategies and what works for you.
Hang in there in the meantime & look after yourself, both physically & mentally :)