Hi I am Jen 36 year old female and been reading this site for about a couple of months and thought I would share my story. I posted this in the new person section at first but I think it should be here instead lol. June of 2016 is when my pain started. Wasn't too bad at first, I had started riding a bike in the spring and as the weather heated up I thought it was just a heat rash that kept coming back. It started as a mild, itchy and burny kind of pain, completely tolerable. Progressively got worse over the weeks. End of July is when I think the pain really kind of started to take over my life. The pain was more frequent and more intense. It got to the point that 20-30 min after my morning BM the pain would start up and I couldn't function for sometimes hours if not the rest of the day. I now know it was the spams that were the cause of my debilitating pain. I had no life, my only life was dealing with the pain. I was missing work, the only time I would get any relief was laying on my left side on the floor, I was puking from the pain daily....literally could not do anything but lay there. The days I did go into work I spent most of the day laying on the floor. I was so embarrassed to tell people what the problem was. I convinced myself it was hemorrhoids and was treating it with creams and stuff. It just kept getting worse. Ended up in the ER end of August cause I wasn't eating, puking, in the worst pain I could ever imagine...I thought I was dying. They did CT scan and said it looks normal, did an anal exam and said it's not hemorrhoids. Gave me fluids, an rx for tramidol and a referral to a CRS. Went to CRS the next week. The only thing out of the ordinary she saw during my exam was a small amount of puss coming from the lining inside my ass. She scheduled me for an EUA with a possible fistulotomy for sept. 27th. I suffer from horrible anxiety especially when it comes to medical situations, for me having to have a surgery was like a nightmare coming true. I was a disaster the morning of surgery, I was scared out of my mind. I did have to do am enema before I went to the hospital that went better that I thought it would. Got to the hospital and could not make myself go in, I was dry heaving in the parking lot I was so scared. My sister had to go get a nurse to come out and convince me to go in lol. They gave me something to calm me when I got in there, after that everything went smooth. The procedure itself took 40 min then I was in recovery for I think about 2 hours then sent home. The dr said I had gotten a tear that developed an abscess then developed a fistula. Stool getting in the fistula is what would cause the horrific pain/spasms. She cut open the fistula, drained the abscess and put a couple dissolvable stitches in. The pain from surgery itself wasn't bad at all, never took more than ibprophen. I wore a pad for about a week because I bled very lightly. I had a panic attack the right before my first BM but all went well. The first two days after surgery I had the same intense pain 20-30 min after my BM's as I did before the surgery but they didn't last as long, about an hour. This improved drastically starting the 3rd day after surgery. It has now been just over a month since my surgery and I am doing really well. I still have a brief spell of pain in the morning but is absolutely no where near the intensity it was before and only lasts a couple of minutes. Some days hardly any at all. Sitting at work all days gives me a pretty sore feeling down there some days. I also have had a couple of days here and there with zero pain. I think diet plays a role...when I don't eat so good, the next day I get a little more pain. My follow up was this past Monday and my CRS says it looks good but just not completely healed yet, she said that's why I still get a little pain. She has assured my that my bike riding did not cause this, that a hard stool did and told me at this point I can start riding again. I am not convinced that my bike was not the cause. I had been riding 5 days a week a few hours at a time (lost 70 lbs which is a good thing as I am over weight)I am addicted to the thing lol. I went for a 20 min ride on Monday after my follow up and an hour ride on Tuesday and now my butt is hurting more than it has in awhile. I am not at the end of this nightmare yet but for the first time during all of this I actually have hope that I will soon be back to living my life like I used too. Just FYI I still do sitz bath twice a day, i use hemorrhoid cream before a BM just to try and protect it, for the most part I am eating healthier, I am down to only taking 2 IBprophen a day, only wipe with baby wipes and walk about 3 days a week. I still have anxiety about what my BM will bring every morning as well as having to go when I am not at home. I also worry about injuring it again, I never, ever want to go through this again. My next follow up is Dec 3rd. If there are any other cyclists that have gone through this I would love to talk to you or hear your story. Thank you.

Hi Jen,

My experience was pretty close to yours. However, I was not a bicyclist when I got my fissure. However, I got my fissure and worked with a CRS to treat it for a few months with cream. Eventually, I developed an abscess, which in turn turned into a fistula. In my case the abscess got super painful to where I made an appointment with my CRS prior to my follow up to see how the cream was working. They drained my abscess right there in the doctor office to help with the pain, then squeezed me in for surgery the following week for a fissrectomy/fistulotomy/partial LIS, and to make sure they got all the abscess drained.

After all that, it took a good 3 months for my CRS to say that my fissure/surgery site had healed completely. About 1-2 months after that, I bought a bike and have been riding ever since (about 2-3 months now of riding). I don't ride a ton, but I tend to average probably 30-80 miles on the weeks that I stick with it. I've done a few 20, and 30 mile rides. I haven't noticed any excessive soreness on the longer rides. I will have some soreness though, but I'm not sure if it's soreness from the fissure site or just from sitting on a bike for 2 hours. With that being said I think the only thing I've noticed is that after being on the bike for a long time, when I get of the bike I almost always feel like I have to use the restroom, but then that feeling goes away after a minute or 2. Not sure if that's normal with riding a bike that long, or part of my surgery after effects.

My CRS did tell me to put vaseline down there before I ride.

Hi thedude, Thank you so much for sharing your story with me. Riding my bike had become such a huge part of my life that during the past couple of months, going through this whole nightmare, all I kept thinking about was being healthy again so I can get back to riding. When my CRS told me on Monday that I can start riding again, despite not being fully, I went straight home and went for a ride lol. Rode again on Tuesday and now it seems like my pain is slowly getting a little worse. IDK what's going on, I fear that I tore it open again or something. I don't plan on getting back on it again until she says I am fully healed and then I may wait a bit longer. My next follow up is Dec 5th, if the pain keeps getting worse I'm going to see about getting in sooner. I was happy to read that you overall haven't really had any major problems. Hopefully that will be me next spring :) Thanks again for the reply.

May not be a bad idea to make an appointment just to make sure and see if she has any idea about the pain. It could be that it's not tearing or getting worse but rather that just riding your bike puts more pressure on that area which in turn aggravates it a little bit doesn't necessarily tear it. But best to clarify that with your doctor.

Best of luck and hope you get all healed up quickly so you can keep going strong on that bike.

Hi!
My name is Jen also and I'm a 34 yr old female. I don't ride a bike so can't comment on that but my story is similar to yours.

My pain started this May after a really bad bout of stomach flu which caused the worst diarrhea I've ever had. I thought I had a hemorrhoid and treated myself with creams. It was after a couple months and I progressively got worse and it started taking over my life that I was referred to Crs and was told I had a fissure. I tried diltazem cream for 8 weeks and got somewhat better but ended up developing a sensitivity to the cream. Crs advised to stop cream and it was about a week later the fissure had opened again. Ugh! My crs said I would be a good candidate for Botox, so at the end of September I had this done. I started feeling really good about the 3 post week of Botox and then I felt a lump next to healing fissure. Sure enough, during the healing process a pocket formed that caused an abscess and fistula. So, 10 days ago I had another procedure to drain the abscess and I roof the fistula.

I'm still in discomfort but it's slowly getting better. First week was rough!! Lots of pain after BM. I'm down to 2 ibuprofen a day right after BM. I'm so terrified that it won't heal right again and I'll be in the same boat. I feel so unlucky right now because crs said fissure turned abscess turned fistula is very uncommon and only happens in about 1 in 10 people. I'm not sure what we did to deserve this!!

I just want to say thank you for posting your stories. They give me hope that healing is possible!

Hi friends, I had to say hello and that my name is Jen, too! Couldn't resist posting. :-) Is that three Jens?

I am about ten days out from a fistulotomy and have been in the most pain I've ever experienced. I'm seeing my CRS today because I can't believe something isn't wrong.

My fistula developed after I had LIS surgery and the incision didn't heal. My decade-old fissure did heal, though, so that's good news! The fistula formed behind the LIS incision and it tracked deep into my perineum. The CRS laid it open and that's what hurts so badly, it is more open beyond the anus, in the rectum.

Not an easy path. But we will survive!