Hi all... I'm experiencing my first fissure (two actually), but I've experienced terrible rectal pain before with recurrent thrombosed hemorrhoids. I learned how to control those with diet for the most part, but this...Whew! This is a whole new animal. I'm in my 6th week of dealing with it. I thought it would eventually just go away on its own, the way hemorrhoids do. I went to my Doc 3 weeks ago (fissure diagnosis), and to my GI a week ago. That's when I learned via a painful exam that I had 2 fissures and an internal 'rhoid. They sent me to a compounding pharmacy to get Nifedipine .3% Lidocaine 1.5% mixture, along w Protofoam for the 'rhoid. Yesterday I was at my breaking point when another hemorrhoid joined the party, an external one. I made an appt with a CRS for this coming Monday. Like everyone else here, I'm in extraordinary pain.
I had been doing an elimination diet for the past 3 months in order to try and figure out other inflammatory problems I'm having. Swollen joints, diagnosed as autoimmune, but not RA. I've been tested for almost everything. I'm wondering if my current condition is related to what's going on, or to the reintroduction of gluten (or other food). Does anyone here also suffer with any autoimmune disorders?
I'm also concerned about how to treat the fissures and hemorrhoids simultaneously. The rectal insert applicator is painful to use, but I'm agonizing through it. But what concerns me most is this: the 'rhoid meds are meant to vasoconstrict. Will this mess up the healing of the fissure, which is brought on by vasodilation? Am I correct in even thinking this?
My next issue is getting clean down there. Wiping is excruciating, even with moist wipes. I feel like no matter how much I wipe, there is still fecal matter at the anal opening. I'm worried about the fissures getting infected (I would have sworn they already were, but both docs said they weren't.) Has anyone ever had a fissure that did get infected? I'm terrified.
I have more ?'s, but I'll stop there for now. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
PS-I stll have my usual 2 BMs per day. I have been using Colace for weeks. I got Mirolax today also. I learned the hard way about nuts, so I'm now being very mindful of my diet.