Hi everyone!
I am new to the forum and looking for any encouragement. I'm a new mom--our son was born Sept 28th, and he's doing so well. I, however, am not so much! I don't want to go too much off on a rant, but I basically have had a very difficult recovery postpartum. The icing on the cake was the fissure I developed, I'm thinking it was about 1 month ago. My guess is it had to do with breastfeeding and not drinking enough water which resulted in a hard pool that aggravated stuff which was already aggravated from a difficult childbirth.

Saw the doctor 3 weeks ago and he gave me an Rx for diltiazem. I used this 2x's a day, along with drinking a tbsp Citrucel and really saw no improvement. In fact I believe the situation got worse. Called the doc and got a new Rx for Rectiv. I've been using this ointment for one week so far and am unable to tell if its helping, as I'm still suffering sharp pain after bm for hours! I think it may have helped a little bit since the pain I was having felt like it was radiating through my tailbone and I haven't experienced that in a few days. But I still have sharp pain while pooping, too.

I've worked on my diet, even though it has been super healthy to begin with! I just can't seem to get the right poo consistency! They are soft but still painful! And I'm drinking loads of water.

I have lots of questions but the 2 that stick out in my mind are:

How do you know if you're actually healing? Does the pain just slowly get better over the next weeks/months? Or do you just start having pain free bm's all of a sudden? If that's the case then I'm worried I'll never heal!

Also, has anyone on here had any success with Rectiv? How long did it take? What was the process of healing like?

Any info is so appreciated! Thanks!!

Hello there, and welcome :)

The short answer: when you have more good days, and less bad. Just remember, its a rollar coaster and can take months. Judge progress weekly (or even monthly), not by the day.

Soft BMs are the most important thing in this battle, but diltiazem/rectogesic also helps many. A stoolsoftener like miralax/movicol works wonders for most. You really need to get the poo soft enough to not cause daily retears. For me, that ment getting BMs that was 5 or 6 on the bristol scale. Some do best with 4 though.

Good luck with the healing, and feel free to share your progress!

JHH

Hello newmommy28, the key to healing is to have soft BMs plus the Rectogecic/Rectiv. You need to take a stool softener like Miralax. I managed to cure my fissure with this two, plus a healthy diet and tons of water. It took some time do. I started in March and got really cured by August. Meaning I didn't have any kind of pain. It didnt happen from day to night. You will feel the pain decreasing day after day but as JHH say you will have bad days and good days. Even today, if I don't eat the right food it will get pretty sore down there. These are some tips my doctor gave me:

1.Wash your butt only with plane warm water not soap.
2. Before a BM luv yourself with a dab of Vaseline, to make it easy to pass and to clean later.
3. Don't clean your butt with toilet paper, use warm water or baby wipes, preferable for sensitive skin.
3. Between BMs protect your butt with Vaseline or an ointment for babies to ease irritation.
4. Try to limit your BMs to one a day.
5. Avoid at all cost diarrhea or running stools.
6. Keep your BMs soft.
7. Do sitz baths with warm water one or twice a day

I hope I could have helped some how. Best of luck.

hey new mommy..for me i have perfect stools all the time..this is what i do
1 drink lots of water like a gallon a day..especially with and after meals
2 take colace stool softner early lunch and with dinner
3 fiber i take the gummies 2 with breakfast and 2 with lunch
4 magnesium 250 mg be4 bed
5 also no sweets if so just a bite or 2,avoid red meat, chew your food really well, and eat a green veggie every day
6 wipe with wet toilet paper
i have perfect poop everytime and soak after bowel movement in warm hot bath!! Hope this helps you!

Wow- this is great! Thanks everyone for the advice. I'm planning on picking up some Miralax today, too. I've tried the colace but it didn't seem to help. But I'm wondering if I wasn't drinking enough water when I tried it...

I have been drinking so much water since Sunday-- it's insane. So now I'm waking up 6 times a night just to not only breastfeed but to pee. I'm exhausted!

I'm hoping things get better soon. Thanks again for the tips. :)