Frustrated with fissure

When to stop stool softener and Psyllium Husk

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Frustrated with fissure

Postby Deleted User 3641 » 07 Jun 2014, 09:59

Hi, I am new this forum. I have been following it for about 3 months ever since I have had this fissure (my first).
I was an avid weightlifter and have been very health conscious for years up to the injury. I believe some weightlifting preworkout supplements contributed to a week long bout of diarrhea and then a very large and hard BM which led me to my current state. However, I noticed that I had been having burning sensations around my rectal area for years while taking supplements and I always seemed to have fairly loose stools while on them (protein powders, nitrous oxide, fish oils, multivitamins). I ignored the feeling thinking that it was something acidic coming down my rectal area. I believe it may have been a smaller fissure.
After probing by my GP and CRS I was definitely in a ton of pain. Prepping for a colonscopy made matters worse since I had induced diarrhea. Turns out that nothing showed up on the colonoscopy besides internal hemorrhoids and I was thoroughly frustrated at that point. I met with another CRS and he said I have a fissure. He put me on konsyl and colace stool softener after experimenting with just miralax. He also prescribed Diltiazem which has been working to relax the area. I have been doing sitz baths and keeping my stool soft for almost two months now.
When should I stop taking konsyl and colace? I do notice that after a lot of stool passes through, I get burning and discomfort and I feel that I am stuck at a certain point in the healing process. I have to wait several hours before the pain subsides or take half a valium just to reduce the spasms.

I am totally frustrated with not being able to do anything besides go for walks and do light yoga movements. Most of the timd the pai is from gas buildup aftrr a BM.
Deleted User 3641
 

Re: Frustrated with fissure

Postby Deleted User 3641 » 07 Jun 2014, 10:36

I also wanted to mention I that I have been following a high fiber diet with about 3 to 4 liters of water per day. I have always had a lot of water in the past. My other concern which really worries me a lot is that I dropped a lot of weight. Some of the weight loss was from stopping supplements which caused water retention but now I feel sickly thin. I went from 155 to about 136 in 3 months. I eat a lot, but feel I may be losing muscle as well. Is there anything I should be eating or exercises I can perform to keep my strength up. This is a thoroughly depressing condition and at times I really dont know who to talk to. I feel my career, hobbies, family life and anything in between is compeletely ruined. Just frustrated.
Deleted User 3641
 

Re: Frustrated with fissure

Postby Roidsfizzman » 07 Jun 2014, 11:14

Hi Miserable One,
I am sorry that you are having issues as a fissure can make life very uncomfortable. I would recommend that you stay on stool softners and Diltiazem at least 30 days after you have no symptons of a fissure as one hard stool can put you back to square one but you should always talk to your doctor for your treatment. It appears that your fissure is not getting better and your issue is beginning to impact your health with some weight loss. There are some one-off type home remedies that have helped people that you can read about on the this site, but you are doing the standard treatment with diet, fiber, stool softner and diltiazem that will ofter heal a fissure. You need to consider the next step for treatment if you have no improvement in the next month as with time the fissure may get deeper, rounded skin edges, etc and it is harder to heal. The typicall next steps would be Botox or LIS, and there are some hibird versions using using the old method of anal dialation.
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Re: Frustrated with fissure

Postby Deleted User 3641 » 07 Jun 2014, 14:51

Roidsfizzman,
Thank you for your response. I am probably 80% better, but it seems like small setbacks every couple of weeks cause a day or two of irritation. I cannot tell if I am healing properly or not. I believe the doctor mentioned that he did not see any skin tags a couple of weeks back. I have noticed improvement while on a high fiber diet and fresh cut papaya (slightly ripe or ripe) which has helped a lot in keeping the stool soft. However, I ran out and have instead substituted with apples and pears. I heard apple skin can aggravate the injury but my stool seemed to be just as soft as before.
I have never seen blood in my stool or on wipes.
What I have noticed is when I eliminate a lot at one time, I get the spasms more so. I am not sure if that can be helped but papaya seemed like the one constant for me while I was having the best BMs which were about once or twice a day. Just picked up some more today so I hope I can get back into the same minimized pain mode that I was in over the past couple of weeks.
What I tried in addition to papaya was single knee crunches by bringing my chin to one knee at a time n an exhale and inhaling on the way down through my diaphragm. This helped release any trapped gaa in my colon and gave me a lot of relief before sitting in my car to commute to work.

Pardon my long responses, but I have had no one to truly discuss this with that truly understands the suffering.
Deleted User 3641
 

Re: Frustrated with fissure

Postby Savaici » 07 Jun 2014, 15:51

Hi there, and believe me, can empathize with you. I see that you mentioned that you came down 18 lbs in three months. If you feel that this is not because you are eating less, than you should mention it to your doctor. I lost a lot of weight too at the beginning of my saga, but that was because I was definitely eating less. Now I eat more (and I took and take multi-vitamins as I was in bad shape and the definitely helped me) so have put weight on again, but I still have problems, mostly with having a BM.

Anyway, glad that some things are helping. Why did you stop taking Miralax, by the way? I take Milk of Magnesia, and find that Colace is not of much help to me.
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Re: Frustrated with fissure

Postby Deleted User 3641 » 07 Jun 2014, 16:23

Hi Saivaici,
I believe I lost weight because I was taking creatine supplement which caused water rentention. I stopped that a few months back. The other reason I believe I have so much weight loss is due to Miralax since it seemed like I was having BMs up to 5-6 times per day. Now I take I teaspoon of Konsyl (pure Psyllium Husk) in about 8-oz of warm water first thing in the morning, followed by 16-oz of warm water with lemon. I then have a breakfast with oatmeal, granola and fruit with a cup of tea and about 12 oz of freshly grated ginger tea (no caffiene in it). About 10 minutes later I have a BM. Some days the BM is delayed until the evening but it isnt hard due to the colace and I suspect the lemon juice in the AM. This routine with about 4 other meals throughout the day and water has helped. I think the psyllium husk helps to slow things down. I take 100mg of colace about 2-3 hours after breakfast and then another 100mg before bed. This system seems to work for me. My weight is stable, but my clothes seem very loose on me. Maybe it is just psychological but I think it bothers me more since I was used to being so active prior to the injury. BTW I am a 42 year old male with no other known medical conditons aside from extremely dry skin in the winter or in low humidity.
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