I am brand new to this forum. I have lived with a fissure for years. But I am no longer able to tolerate the excruciating pain from bowel movements. I finally went to see a specialist and was given an ointment and told to consumer more fiber. When asked about what I can do to ease the excruciating pain until the fissure heals, there was nothing. It has reached a point where going is so painful that I just can’t/won’t go due to the pain. My stool is soft, so it’s not the consistency, but just the pain of passing that is intolerable. I am at a loss as to what I can do. The pain is so bad that I actually contemplate going to the ER for help. Advise?

Hello Notsobootylicious,

Sorry it's taken a while for us to respond, I'm sorry to hear you've been struggling for so long however I'm glad you found the forum. Firstly, you did the right thing by getting your ointment (Do you know what that was? did you get any side effects?) How long have you been taking the ointment for? have you now stopped it? are you bleeding?

It's a really tough thing to go through, could you shed some light on how your fissure occured and how old you were? how long have you had it? there's lots of factors that come into healing and that's the bodies anatomy and tension of your pelvic floor, your blood flow and ability to heal, your diet, pain threshhold etc.....

I was struggling for years with mine and I was classed as healed by my surgeon however the pain stayed, with no blood. I think a huge element is stress, and nerve damage depending on how bad the fissure was and where it was on your sphincter (different nerve endings hit different points)

my advice for pain is to avoid opioids as they constipate, drink plenty of water (2L a day), raise your feet on a block when you open your bowels so your knees are above your hips, keep going with your ointment (gtn/diltiazem etc)
try meditation, take paracetamol an hour before a BM if you can. I found as my main fissure was at 12pm position the bowel movement would stretch that area and make it unbarable, I'd reccomend trying to push with your finger on the skin above your sphincter to stop the area stretching too much and see if that helps.

I'm so many years down the line and for the most part I have painless BM's now, only if I'm really constipated or dehydrated do i get a snip of pain but on the whole I'm better, so it is possible to achieve.

Keep us posted, we're here for you

FF

Unfortunately this not a condition that gets much help at Emergency. Trust me I tried a few times in the past and was sent away with an Advil.

You need to get to your doctor and plead with him regarding how severe the pain is.