My whirlwind of a fissure

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My whirlwind of a fissure

Postby Bassfisha83 » 03 Aug 2016, 11:07

Am I the only one who thought I was alone until finding this board????
My story:
October 2015 I had a really bad headache for about 2 weeks so my wife made me go to the doctor (she was stressed and sure it was brain cancer) but turned out to be an atypical sinus infection. No problem, just got a dose of antibiotics and all was fine in about 2 weeks.
Late October 2015 I went to work one morning and felt a little "off" and had a bowel movement that was loose, not uncommon especially post coffee. Get to work and have to have another bowel movement. No biggy. Get in my work truck head out and have to stop shortly thereafter for another bowel movement. Now things are beginning to get sore. I worked my entire 8 hour work day having a bowel movement every half an hour or so. The end of the day when I got home I was pushing very hard and had merely a small amount of diarrhea type liquid come out accompanied by a significant amount of blood, DOCTOR TIME!
Doctor that it was something I ate ( this was recently around the time that Chipotle had their e.Coli scare so he asked if I had ate there, I answered "no". He sent me home with a fun "collect your own poop" experiment kit with vials and tongue depressors and a prescription for lomotil to calm my waste system down. The next morning I collected the "sample" and delivered it to the laboratory.
Clostridium difficile was found to have taken over my gut after the antibiotics I took for my sinus infection had killed all the "good" bacteria that was in my gut keeping the C.diff in check. Another round of antibiotics for this guy and all was well, or so I thought.
2 weeks later I had another 8-hour work day of hell with many, many bowel movements and ended the day with blood. Went back in, C.diff had returned. Another round of antibiotics and tons of yogurt and probiotics.
I was cured, finally! Then late November every time that I had a bowel movement I had a very uncomfortable "tearing" sensation that was bearable but then a half to full-hour later I would be in agony unable to walk, sit, think, or work for that matter. Back to the doctor.
Doctor looked and chalked it up to hemorrhoids, gave me anucort and was kicked out the door. Suppositories for 2 weeks to follow and my first time dabbing into entering the "back door". At first it was weird, awkward, and scary. After the 2 weeks I was a champ, could even get the suppositories in standing up at work if need be.
I was feeling slightly better but still had bad days. Back to the doc. He said that the area looked irritated and gave me a foam to inject into the area as I may have a small fissure or internal hemorrhoids. Yes! Another back door medicine. After using it for 2 weeks I was still in distress. Back to the doc. "let's try the anucort suppositories again". 2 weeks pass and I am in agony, I have seen 5 different doctors, all telling me that it is fine and that these medicines will help.
January 2016, I go down to see my main doctor (in my old town where I used to live where my particular insurance wished me to go to) and he said to get off of the anucort, foam, creams, etc. as they all had steroids and if I did have a fissure then it would thin the skin and prevent healing. Great....His directions were to get off ALL medicine, gave me a prescription for some lidocaine and said to just increase my fiber dramatically to get bulky soft stools and the fissure will heal on its own, wow what kind of sorcery is this? The fissure just heals itself?? Why didn't I think of that. Gave me a specialist referral and said if in a weeks time I am not feeling better to go ahead and see the specialist.
Week later, wow I actually had a couple BM's without significant pain and a couple without blood, maybe fiber was the key ingredient. I canceled the specialist appointment per my doctors recommendation. I was on the road to recovery!!!!
July 2016, months of agony, good days, bad days, blood days, painful days, days of hope. We went on our anniversary weekend and for about a month now I have had a discharge, hey new symptom! While on the trip she wanted to go mountain biking, walks, etc. I explained that I couldn't and finally realized how much my fissure (self-diagnosed at this point) was ruining my life, it was time to see the doctor to hear another line of diet, cream, BS.
My specialist talked with me and was finally someone who really listened and said all the things it could be. She looked on the outside and said first that I had a fungal infection (often times accompanies anal issues due to excess wiping, moisture, etc.) and would easily be fixed with over the counter anti-fungal, progress! She then got right to business and went straight for the "issue area". While feeling around said yes you do have a fissure and your sphincter has elongated due to the length of time I have dealt with this issue and is hypertonic. Yes we are done!...Not. She grabs the lube and this little invisible scope looking thing and puts nitroglycerin cream into my anal area to relax my sphincter as it is too tight. We let that sit, and she tries, still too tight, more nitro. Finally she gets it in and sees the fissure and also says I have internal hemorrhoids that can easily be banded but she said we will worry about the hemorrhoids later after we address the fissure.
All done, cleaned up. She gives me a prescription for nitroglycerin 0.2% ointment. $&^#&#*(@&(*@&#$ &^ I could have yelled at the top of my lungs that "CREAMS DON'T WORK!!!" She has been very knowledgeable so I will give it a try. I had that empty frustrated feeling that another doctor has no idea what is going, gave me a cream, and kicked me out the door. Why is this such an issue that no one knows what is happening or how to fix it?
That night I applied the nitro cream which was very difficult get into the fissure area as my sphincter was extremely tight. Got it in where it hurt and hopefully left the cream, a quick check, and I guess it's in there? The next morning I had my coffee, prepared for my bowel movement which consisted of a 30 second ramp up period as if I was walking out to the championship game in a sports match, and went.
Pain free....no glass tearing. Applied more nitro. Okay...I have felt this before, give it an hour and then I will be in shear pain from the spasms followed by discharge and blood. 1 hour later, nothing. 3 hours later, nothing. That night though....nothing. Cream application that night. Bowel movement, nothing, I can walk, work, less irritable, my marriage has probably improved. 6 days later, still no blood, had one hard bowel movement but no tearing glass feeling, no discharge, no hurting, I can walk without pain, no hot water funneling into my crack, I was finally on the road to recovery.
August 2, 2016 I continue to apply the nitro morning and night and hope for no re-tears. I look forward to my one month check-in so I can hug my doctor and then address my internal hemorrhoids and/or if my sphincter is still hypertonic.
For you experienced folks how is the hypertonic sphincter addressed if/when the fissure is healed? Will I need the LIS? Any experience with this?
I am just ecstatic, a cream that worked! Well, is working, I have learned to not get too excited with an AF....
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Re: My whirlwind of a fissure

Postby Manitourose » 14 Aug 2016, 14:26

Hi Bassfisha83 -- What a long haul you have had! I'm so happy hear the nitro cream seems to be doing it's job. You are 100% right that after awhile you look at every new cream and think the doctors are crazy to think some will work! Funny enough some people have better experiences with one or the other, or even stranger at one point it will work and another time it won't.

Hope your next appointment goes really well and so glad you came here to share your experience!
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