My story

25 years

Please come in! Start your own personal thread, tell us a bit about yourself...and your fissure, of course. Welcome!

Return to New to the forum? Introduce yourself here




My story

Postby jay1975 » 19 Jul 2015, 14:46

Hi everyone,

I'm a 49yo male, and I've been experiencing problems since my mid-20's. Let me go back a little...In my mid 20's, I was very athletic and doing a lot of running. It was during this time that I started to notice blood during a BM (lots of blood), but no pain at all. The bleeding seemed to correlate to times when I was in heavy training. Of course, as a 25yo, I was so freaked out by all the blood that I decided to ignore it. Over the years the bleeding would just sort of come and go, but there was never any pain.

The years passed, and as I entered my early forties I was starting to put on lots of weight, so I decided to start a rigorous running program (this was January 2009). As I ramped up my running, I did lose the weight (dropped 45lbs in three months), but the bleeding returned with a vengence, and this time there was also very severe pain. To make matters worse, I also developed a fungal infection in the anal clef, so I got a delightful triple whammy of blood, severe pain, and un-ending itching that couldn't be relieved. During this time, my BM's were so incredibly painful that I started having panic attacks before going. Typically, I would sit on the toilet and go, and then afterwards fall to the bathroom floor and lie in the fetal position for about 1/2 hour until the pain subsided enough for me to get up (literally on the floor, pants around my ankles). It was so bad that I was actually contemplating suicide at this time.

I was immediately referred to a colo-rectal specialist who quickly diagnosed the fissure. He was a smart/compassionate man. He suspected that the fissure had probably developed years ago when I was training (running) because it's not uncommon to athletic people to become dehydrated which can result in hard/irregular stool. He suggested as a first line of treatment to switch to high fibre diet with lots of water, which I did and it helped immensely. At the time, I was sure I was dying, so it was a relief to learn what I actually had !

Now here I am...once again, the fissure is back, and I've been struggling for about six months. Fortunately, it's not nearly as bad as described earlier, but it's still very painful. I finally talked to my GP about a week ago, and I'm going in for an examination by a specialist in a couple weeks (they want to make sure it's not something other than the fissure). This time, the fissure once again starting acting up when I began a rigorous running program. I joined a running class last January, and we really did train at a high level. I've been running very heavily since, and I'm now convinced that this, for whatever reason, is agitating the fissure somehow (I know..exercise is supposed to be good for a fissure, but this might be too much exercise).

I've decided to take a couple weeks off heavy exercise and instead take it easy (walking, light cardio, etc).

For me, the BM itself isn't all that painful, but typically an hour or so afterwards I can count on bad pain. It feels like the entire pelvic region is inflamed. If I do nothing, this pain will last for a few hours.

So, here's the regiment I'm currently doing...I don't seem to be getting any better or any worse, but this seems to mitigate the pain:
1. high fibre, lots of water (as If I even need to mention !)
2. Immediately when I wake up in the morning, take 600mg Ibuprofen in anticipation of the upcoming BM
3. After BM, I don't wipe..instead I hop into the shower and wash everything away. Also, I concentrate a shower jet on the area.

I hate to go on with a pity party, but I must admit that I'm really in a very bad mental place these days. I don't have any friends or family that I could talk to about this, and as I'm sure most of you know this is a very lonely and excruciatingly painful situation to deal with...any positive comment would be very greatly appreciated !
jay1975
Salt Bather
 
Posts: 40
Topics: 12
Joined: 19 Jul 2015, 13:56
Has thanked: 10 times
Been thanked: 11 times
Gender: None specified

Re: My story

Postby chachacha » 19 Jul 2015, 17:05

So sorry to hear that you're suffering, and that you don't have a close friend or family member to confide in.

I hope that your upcoming appointment goes well and that the CRS can make a firm diagnosis and provide you with a treatment plan. I had a fissure for many years and finally screwed up the courage to have a LIS performed in January of this year. I don't know if that could be a solution for you too, or not, but your appointment with a specialist will hopefully shed some more light on the situation and let you know what your options are going forward. If you haven't already, try to read as many of the posts on this forum, because they're full of advice and the experiences that others have gone through. A wealth of knowledge and a "family" of compassionate and caring individuals, who know all too well what you're going through.

My story is here: lis-success-for-me-t9369.html
Fissure since about 2007
Fissure diagnosed in 2011
Diltiazem for two years - didn't work well
LIS January, 2015
Hemorrhoidectomy December, 2017
chachacha
Moderator
 
Posts: 1111
Topics: 19
Joined: 16 Jun 2013, 16:00
Location: Canada
Has thanked: 28 times
Been thanked: 207 times
Gender: Female

Re: My story

Postby LostForWords » 23 Jul 2015, 10:24

Hi.

I had a big problem with inflamation down there too. It seemed to make matters much worse with itching, pain, swelling and so on. It also seemed to slow down the healing process significantly.

I have found something that really works wonders, at least for me.
It's a cream, with the active ingredients being MSM, vitamin C and the amino acid L-Arginine.
You have to make it yourself as there's no such product on the marked but it's very much worth the time and money.

You can find the recipe that I use by going through my latest posts, as I posted about this a long time ago.

I can't say if it will work for you or not but I can't see why it wouldn't be worth a shot.
LostForWords
Salt Bather
 
Posts: 49
Topics: 12
Joined: 23 Nov 2013, 10:49
Has thanked: 1 time
Been thanked: 6 times
Gender: None specified


  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to New to the forum? Introduce yourself here



Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 16 guests