Just wondering guys, how do you deal with the pain during bms and after? Been with af for how many years and its an on and off thing for me. Lately, suffered a retear due to poor diet and here I am at it again. Mentally it feels tiring. How do you guys cope up? I’m very much an active person but when the spasms trigger I feel a bit irritated.

-retear
-blood on stool
-knife like pain during bm
-throbbing/pulsating butt after bm that lasts for hours a day

I hope you've had some healing in the last week and a bit...when I have an episode I basically just go offline mentally. Usually would sleep up to an hour after a BM, stay in as comfortable positions as possible, try to do something - anything - to take my mind off it. During I'd often play this "soothing music" video from youtube, likely didn't help much but it became part of my routine. Just some other sensory experience involved...

I can definitely relate to how you feel. It can make everything way more difficult; professional and personal.

You just have to stay positive and realise that you’ll get through it; just a matter of time before you’re pain free again and enjoy your bms like before. Just try to do all the conservative measures you can and have patience.

Hi Sirmovicol,

I hope you are well on your healing journey? This forum has been incredible, I found it today and it’s given me hope. My biggest struggle is coming to terms with how long the healing is taking. I have two of which one is healed, all of which I think started in Dec21. Since then one has healed and the other is healing and then re-tearing. Every time I think it’s healed, I’ll have a BM where if the first bit is even slightly hardish (not hard by any standard) and then I’ll experience pain and discomfort throughout the day.

It feels like 10 steps forward and 8 backward. My CRS Said if it re-tears again, to come in for Botox but I’m not keen on it and am determined somehow to get through it myself.

Does anyone have any recommendations on a stool to use for BMS? Also I’ve convinced myself that letting the BM go at its own pace is not good (esp if the initial part is not as soft as “toothpaste” - my CRS’s term) - and I tend to force it to go slow and I’m wondering if that’s good or bad.

I’ve also been on Movicol (10g) per day for six months now. When I have what feels like a re-every few weeks, I get very depressed and feel very low throughout the day and haven’t found a way to deal with that emotional response ( don’t think it helps in lowering overall stress levels). I have to fight the urge to hide under the sheets and not move

I’m going to try regular meditation, coconut oil, Sitz baths and a stool and try and heal this completely. But there are many more times when I feel like this has taken control of me and this is my life and I’m trying hard to not to let it control me but it sort of is.

It really is a very frustrating and depressing thing to deal with but we will all heal ourselves. I just wanted to share that you are absolutely not alone in the cycle of pain, worry, stress and anxiety. Reading the success stories have given me more than hope but the trick is to keep hanging on to it!

It sucks to deal with the good/bad news with every single BM. After 6 years I got the LIS to finally end having to "treat" it forever. It's been two years this week since my LIS and everything is wonderful. So if you ask me, I am going to recommend getting the LIS.

If you are not considering that then besides sitz baths, the stool for when you go, and a few other comforting things - not sure what to tell you. Aggressive treatment does work for some, some get the surgery and some suffer forever. Since you seemed to have healed one of your fissures, then you should have a good idea of how to treat them and maybe you will be successful. I personally feel stress is a big part of the fissure equation so meditation can be a good thing unless the stress is something major in your daily life that you can't escape (job, relationship, family, money) then you may be wasting your time. I dealt with it for 6 years because I simply got used to the idea that I'd have pain all the time. I only got the LIS because I was straining to have all BMs which was a dealbreaker. Pain I can live with. Straining every time? I could have a heart attack or some other pulmonary episode. At that point the LIS was a no-brainer and of course, I told the CRS "I wish I had done it sooner." He said everyone tells him that. It did help having a top CRS who teaches at the hospital do mine.

I am 2 weeks after LIS and still with painful spasms for 8 hours a day. How long after LIS did your pain completely go away?

Avery5280 wrote:I am 2 weeks after LIS and still with painful spasms for 8 hours a day. How long after LIS did your pain completely go away?

I hope it's gotten better since you posted. It's been two years so my memory has faded but my pain was gone after 10-14 days. The fissure was completely healed 3 weeks after LIS according to my CRS. I didn't have any spasms post-LIS. The only pain I recall was a sharp moderate pain at the incision/skin tag site. But overall I remember I kept things simple. I was SO confident the LIS would work and I was very positive minded. I changed my absorbent pad in my rectal area every day until the discharge stopped (got better daily). I never had to use any pain killers other than a few Ibuprofen.