I've been hoping to be able to register with the site and today it let me! :D
I've had fissures/hemmies/ibs off and on for 17 years since the birth of my first child. Let me just say, it hasn't been fun (as most of you know!). For the most part, my bleeding and fissures have cleared up after only a week at a time. However, this last one started in May and is still not wanting to heal! I've tried all the creams, lotions, baths, etc. and I actually think that the nitro was irritating it and making it worse after a while, so I quit that almost 2 weeks ago and am finally healing. Surgery isn't a great option for me given the scar tissue due to 4 episiotomies, so it's definitely a last resort. My dr. did mention that I *may* have celiac disease and I'm wondering if anyone here has heard of any connections between celiac disease and fissures? I may be grasping at straws here, but if there is a connection I would gladly go gluten-free forever!
Anyway, I've been reading every post here and soaking in all of the information that so many of you have shared with fellow-sufferers. It's been bittersweet - I love being able to see that others can totally relate to what I have been dealing with but I'm sad that so many feel the same pain I do! I do know that I am finally seeing some significant pain relief over the last week and am hopeful that healing is happening now. I have a season of football games and lacrosse games with my boys and I can't sit on the bleachers in pain - it's just not fun! Looking forward to healing and to offering any ideas, helps, etc. for anyone else suffering too.

Welcome. It is nice to meet ya! You will find this place extremely helpful.

That it is! There is more and better information here than on all of my other bookmarked websites dealing with AF.

Welcome Busymom! Sorry to hear you have suffered with AF for so long! OMG! You seem to hold the record here on the board!
Yes, we have had boardies with Celiac disease. Here's hoping one will see your post and respond!
How are the episiostomy scars related to a potential cut/scar you'd be getting through LIS on your sphincter? Just wondering.
Hope you find something here that really helps, you certainly need it after all this time!

Welcome, busymom!

Welcome to the forum b-mom :)
I'm pretty new to this place myself but these guys are freakin' AWESOME! It's shameful how little my physician knows compared to the experience and advice the folks here can offer.
I don't think I have celiac disease -- I was screened for it using blood tests (which are not definitive) and there were no positive indicators, although, I never had an intestinal biopsy done to confirm one way or the other. But yes, my understanding is that celiac disease can, over time, cause GI damage which also affects the bowels (although its initial impact is typically higher in the GI system), leading to other bowel issues. I'm not aware of fissures being a direct result of celiac disease, but the constipation and diarrhea of celiac disease could possibly lead to a fissure. If you want to screen for it, it's a simple blood test, and should at least give you a better idea of whether you want to do a biopsy to explore further. You have to be eating gluten for the test results to be even remotely acccurate though. Note, though, that for celiac disease the typical initial screening is done using a "celiac panel," whose components (i.e., what antibodies they look for) can vary from lab to lab. I would check with the guys over on www.celiac.com for more information, there are many afflicted with celiac there who can help with more info.
I do think I have some minor gluten sensitivity, because I went gluten free for about a month as a trial, and I did notice that I didn't have loose stools as often as I used to, and generally felt a bit more energized everyday. I've gone back to eating gluten since then however.
I've had hemorrhoids (both internal and external) for about 5 years myself, and IBS since I was about 19 (so 10+ years and counting). I'm male so it wasn't from childbirth, of course, in my case I think my own poor diet was a contributing cause. My fissure only arose after a long course of broad spectrum antibiotics for sinusitis, which led to constipation.
We've taken all kinds of paths to arrive at the current state we're in now, but yes, we definitely understand the TERRIBLE pain that comes with fissures. Hopefully you really are on the path to healing, please keep us posted!

Yes, the pain of childbirth was nothing compared to these AFs, and I had (4) 9 1/2 lb babies! I had gestational diabetes which led to such large babies and difficult deliveries, hence the scarring and pain in that region.
Celiac disease has been offered as a possible cause by my GI dr. and probably like most of you I've been screened for colon cancer and Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis repeatedly. It has definitely been a pain to have these for so many years, but thankfully it's only been for 3 - 7 days at a time and always healed. This last one was a killer - if I hadn't been so busy with summer activities, I think I would have just parked myself in the ER and said "Fix it now." Luckily, it has gone from a pain level of 10+ to only about a 2 now. That's a BIG change in the right direction! So there IS hope for everyone suffering - I changed dramatically just from stopping the nitro use. Through much trial and error, hopefully we can all heal eventually!
Thanks again for the kind welcome! It's nice to chat about this with others instead of my kind and patient husband!

Hey there, I actually just had an ER visit due to fissure pain last week myself :) The pain level was definitely a 10 at that point, I couldn't stand, sit, walk, anything at all and had really painful spasms. I know exactly what you mean about the ridiculous pain. I personally haven't been screened for colon cancer, Crohn's, or ulcerative colitis, but I think a number of others here have. Been meaning to but I'm hoping my fissure quiets down a bit first -- one can hope, anyway, right?
Btw my wife is 8 months pregnant right now with twins and has gestational diabetes too. She's doing fine though and there's a lot of overlap in our diets, hers for her blood sugar and mine for my fissure. Funny because we both used to be big fried food and junk food lovers!
Getting the pain level all the way down around a 2 is definitely awesome stuff. How did you accomplish that? Was it through diet or some other measure? I can't imagine the fissure just healed on its own once you stopped nitro, did it?

You know, when I do colonoscopy prep work, for some reason my AF really doesn't get irritated. In fact, I usually feel great for days afterward! Strange thing, I'm sure. So maybe it won't be too bad for you to do it if you need to.
Twins - how fun! Boys or girls or one of each? That's exciting for you. We're an all-boy house which is pretty much like saying I gave birth to a ready-made team!
I'm not sure how my AF has healed this time. All I know is that I quit the nitro and started the Calmoseptine as well as the RectaGel occasionally, and that, along with ibuprofen a few days a week and baths, has really helped! I mean, REALLY helped. But I have a history of healing for months and months and even years at a time, so take that into consideration. I remember when I first got my AF, about 8 weeks after my first baby, I thought I was dying! It healed after a month and that pretty much started the whole cycle. It's always been A LOT worse after childbirth - hopefully your wife won't get one - but my baby is now in elementary school so that's not what triggered this nasty cycle! If it continues to heal, I'll be happy. If not, then once football season ends I am going in for LIS. I honestly only have time between football and lacrosse seasons LOL! Plus, I would love to just hibernate this winter and not have to go outside!

Haha you hit the nail on the head, it's that colon prep for the colonoscopy that scares (almost literally) the you-know-what out of me. The actual procedure itself doesn't worry me in the bit. I've heard from other folks here that the colon prep isn't as bad as one might expect, too, though ... weird indeed.
We're having one boy and one girl. What can I say, efficiency is my game First time babies for both of us so it'll be interesting. I was hoping to be fissure free by the time they arrive, but now I just hope the pain doesn't keep me from being a good parent to them.
When my fissure first started, it was only around (symptomatically anyhow) for a few weeks too. Then it vanished and reappeared with a vengeance a few weeks later, and has persisted since. So in your case, you can sometimes be fissure free for extended periods of time before it just suddenly rears its nasty head again? I just can't get a grasp on how these things act, it's so unpredictable.
And yeah I think I've been scaring my wife a bit with all my fissure talk. She knows they're common after childbirth (mostly from reading prenatal books which don't talk much about just how painful these things can be) so now she's planning on loading up on the water and fiber afterward too :)
I follow all the major sports to some extent, but for me it's mostly football (NFL) and basketball (NBA). I watch some college games too but not as loyally. So yeah, I've given up hope of banishing my fissure before my babies arrive, but the next milestone to shoot for will be to banish it or at least get it under control by the time football and basketball get into full swing. I used to snowboard every weekend during winter, too, but this year I think I may take it easy, some of the stances one employs during snowboarding don't seem like they'd be particularly fissure-friendly... I think I can live without that, but I'd be one unhappy camper if I can't have a few pizzas and enjoy a few beers during sports season!