Have just found this forum - great site, glad to know I'm not alone !
First suffered from AF when about 7 years old. I remember sitting on the toilet crying and not wanting to go because of the pain. My mum regularly gave me milk of magnesia to make sure things happened.
Since then have had a re occuerence every couple of years but have always managed to heal with over the counter meds & careful diet. But not this time !!
Started in Aug on holiday (change of normal diet etc) caused AF. Really ruined our family holiday.
As soon as I got home I kicked in with my normal self help routine but didn't see any improvement. Then I developed the terrible sphincter cramps which were horrendous when I sat down (which I have to do all day at work) It felt like my anus was trying to crawl up inside my body. This lasted all day & if I woke up a night would stop me going to sleep again.
I went to my GP & told him I had AF, he had a quick look (said it looked sore!) & prescribed 0.4% GTN.
I've been using this 1 week. So far not much improvement, but luckily I don't get the headaches so I'm using it 4 times a day (helps just before a BM)
I'm really regular (1 BM per day about 1/2 hr after I wake) and I'm using Senokot ispaghula husk to keep things soft (seems to be working)
As GP said to apply GTN inside I've been using the mirror to check where I'm poking the stuff (random probing too painful) and from what I can see I've got 2 fissures (posterior & anterior) but no tags etc
Is this an acute or chronic fissure ? I'm only asking because the time / liklehood of conservative treatments working seems to depend on this ?
Also anyone tried slippery elm or reccommend anything else I should take ?
I'm up to 8 nurofens a day !
This is Bliss !
(PS typing sitting on my hot water bottle - seems my best relief, as my kids were getting bored of me spending most evenings in the bath)