Hi there!
It's my first post after weeks of reading yours - and any advice/word of wisdom would be oh-so-very-welcome! I know my story's long, sorry about that, but i'd really love to hear your thoughts.
I had already had an encounter with an anal fissure 2-3 years ago: a few days of disconfort (not actual pain, just the feeling something was wrong there), a quick visit to the doc after a sudden bout of very sharp pain for a few hours, lidocain for a week or so and - voila, done with it!
BUT at the end of october (this year) while going to the bathroom, i felt kind of as if... stool was getting stuck on one side on its way out, so i strained, felt like a tear then saw some blood on the toilet paper... was going on a trip at the time, so i asked the doc for lidocain, had like a bad week (constant pain during day time, but always bearable) then it seemed as if it was gone...
...which brings me to this last episode: mid december i had a big stomach flu followed by harder stool and it seems i re-tore. For the second time (these were the only two) i saw a few drops of blood. But the pain since then....... omg. It started, for a few weeks, as a constant "pulling" feeling, from the time i was going to the bathroom in the morning to bedtime. It was exhausting, but I could live with it. But this last week it has turned into more of an acute burning/cuting/twitching pain, 8-9 out of 10 pain still from morning to late at night. And i havent yet found a way to control it. Like none. Ive tried lidocain, steroid cream, sitz baths, acetaminophen, ibuprofen, nitrol cream... Ive been to the doctor 3 times in the last month, ive been to the emergency room yesterday cause i couldnt even function anymore, and should get an appointment with a general surgeon in the next 10 days. But in the mean time half of the day or more i feel like im going to throw up or pass out from the pain. AND (whats worrying me even more) neither my doctor or the one at the ER has been able to actually see the fissure while doing rectal exam and confirm its really that. Are these fissure symptoms, can anyone relate? This last week ive also had the feeling that even passing gases hurts/is difficult, could this be because of the spasm, has anyone experienced that...? Pleaaase help me out, I just turned 32, Im terribly scared and hurting, and ive stopped doing anything cause all I can think of right now is "ouch-ouch-ouch-ouch-omg im never gonna live through this" :'(