Hello everyone, just found this forum recently while researching my painful condition.
I've had bleeding and pain on and off for two or three years now. Been managing the problem mostly though very careful diet. I eat pretty much only vegetables, fruit, juice and a little fish or white meat. But most recent occurrance is taking longer than usual to heal. Must be nearly three months this time and as you all know it does get depressing after a while....
I did go to doc about 18 months ago. He said he couldn't really examine me becuase spasm made it impossible to do without a lot of pain. But he said sounded a fissure, gave me nitro and suggested I come back for check up when pain free.
It did heal up a month or so later. Trouble is I only seem to get very short pain free windows and I optimism takes over and I think that's it I'm fixed this time. No need to go back to the doc. And then my diet slips a little and it seems I have very very low tolerance before the problem reappears (:
Feeling like I should probably go back to the doc, but a little nervous about it while still in pain. I can feel some bulges and swelling when I use the nitro so I'm guessing I have some kind of haemorrhoids along with the fissure problem. I feel like proper diagnosis would be a good thing, but like i said, bit scared when everyting is so damn painful just now!

Sorry to hear you are in such pain right now. You do really need to go to the dr though. I know it will be uncomfortable but as long as you explain to the doc he has to be extra gentle and careful if he needs to examine you and maybe he could put some sort of numbing gel on there first it might be tolerable.
Your lumps and bumps may be sentinel piles, which are formed by the fissure as a protective barrier to the outside.
Only your dr taking a peek can diagnose what is happening down there for sure though.
Good luck, and let us know how things go
OMB x

All of us here understand the pain you are going through that is for sure. It took me 6 months of pain to finally be seen by a colo-rectal surgeon. OMB is right though, that it could be sentinel piles. I too felt a bulge just inside my anus thinking it was a large hemorrhoid. You really need it diagnosed though because if you are using hemorrhoid creams they are counterproductive for anal fissures. Good Luck!

SCARED TO GO TO Dr.
I had my surgery for this condition on Dec. 13. I had my fissure for only 3 weeks, and could not function. I had gone to my colon specialst two weeks before and he a prescribed the typical ointments. I used them for two weeks. At the end of two weeks I called him and requestd to be sent to a colorectal surgeon. When I met with the surgeon he wanted to continue the ointments, but I said no. After reading some of the information on the internet I felt the .recurrence for this issue is to high to gamble with. I told him I wanted surgery.he asked me when I could schedule it and I said now.
For anyone suffering with this my empathy is with you. If you have suffered with this for a prolonged period of time "Bless You" for you are a human that can handle anything.
After a BM I would have spasms lasting for six to eight hours that absolutely caused me to pull out of life. I hated that I couldn't connect with the things going on around me. So I had the surgery to get back in the game. I work in the medical field so when I went in, the next morning, I started asking for pain relief and didn't stop til I received it from the anesthesia nurse before I was put to sleep. After the surgery the pain I lived with for three weeks was gone. It was replaced with a new pain that wasn't even close to the other. My first BM struck fear into me, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I truly am glad I had the surgery, and that is a personal decision. I would certainly recommend it to anyone that will listen. Don't forget to ask everyone for pain medication. Fiber, doc-q-lace, and milk of magnesia after surgery worked great for BM.
42 y.o.
Male Tennessee

Buzz-I had the LIS surgery less than 2 weeks ago, and WOW was the best thing I have ever done. The first BM was bad, but every one since has been painless. I used to get the spasm pain for 1-8 hours just like you, but sadly I put up with it for almost 6 months. I thought it was hemorrhoids the whole time. Finally after getting hernia surgery over the summer I talked to my other surgeon's APN about the pain and she had me see the colo-rectal surgeon. That surgeon said my pain tolerance was off the charts for dealing with it as long as I had.

I had my examination done under a local anesthetic and it helped. I had a sigmoidoscopy and they examined me while doing that. Could not have been touched otherwise!
You might suggest that to your doctor, hopefully a CRS; I had to be a bit pushy with mine.

thanks everyone for your replys. i'm ever so happy to report that i seem to be slowly healing and finally had first pain free bm yesterday for more than four months! :) :) :)
going take the opportunity to make appointment with doc to get a proper diagnosis of the various lumps and bumps and discuss options....