Well I have two weeks still til I see the surgeon. Today and yesterday have been awful maybe the worst yet in my history of having an anal fissure. Mostly after a bm I have about two hours of pain, spasm, and burning. I have a terrible feeling it is getting much worse, I can't see what is going on, but I'm scared to death of having two more full weeks of pain-not to mention waiting for the surgery, out of narcotics he only gave me twenty to last...Is there a cream I can put on to numb it or anything??? I am starting to feel really deppressed if this is how it's going to be! How do you deal with this pain without wanting to jump off a bridge?? Sorry I had to vent.

Hey Noelle,
I can totally relate to the pain! On my good days I am in pain for 4-5 hours but there are days I have pain all day. Now the pain isn't terrible the whole time but lets just say I am aware of it.
Have you tried advil or aleve? I take advil along with a narcotic in the morning. I know it is not recommended due to constipation but there are times that treating the pain to stay sane takes precendent and as long as you are keeping up a fiber full diet with water and maybe even a stool softener to avoid this complication.
After I go to the bathroom I take 3 advil and then a vicoprofen which is a vicodin/advil combo. My doctor said I could take 12 advil a day. I usually just take 4 in the morning and then take baths to help with the pain if it continues. Now if I have to be out and driving and doing a lot of sitting I would take more.
There is a cream that was prescribed to me that helps to deaden the nerves-lidocaine. I wonder if you can see if your doctor could call in a prescription. I think you can get a lower dose otc like tronolane. If you go to the hemorrhoid aisle they usually have some kind of numbing gel. I also wonder if using anbesol (the gum numbing gel for babies) would work in a pinch.
I feel for you-the pain can be consuming and there are times I wonder if this is how it is going to be forever but it will get better. I have been in pain for months after hemorrhoid surgery and before and then from this complication but I can see there has been improvement though it is like watching grass grow.
Take baths, apply a warm washcloth or cool however it helps, lie on your stomach when you can, take some advil to stretch out your pain pills and do what you can to keep going to the bathroom easier.
Do you bleed after you go? I am using kY jelly and A&D ointment to cover up the fissure which seems to help.
Just take it day by day and if you have to moment by moment. And feel free to vent here-we understand!
Hang in there,
Lecia

Noelle,
Please feel free to vent, get it out if need be. I know if you're having the burning along with the spasms, then you are enduring a lot!
When you get the burning, jump in a warm tub and use your fingers or something soft and really clean your self down there...It should help.
If you use lidocaine, use extra.
Try not to get too depressed -- once you have the surgery and recover, everything will be back to normal, in all likelihood.
You will get your life back.
Hang in there, kitty!
Kim

I am a bit better today, and I haven't been bleeding lately. I just worry though if it hurts this bad now after surgery with the limited amount of narcotics they will give how I will make it. I guess I will have to ask when I meet with him. I was going to call my regular dr., I just don't have the energy to go through the whole story with him and plead for narcotics-he was the one who initially never checked it out, and as you know I had called the surgeon's nurse and she was terribly rude! Thanks again everyone!

Noelle,
If you have LIS, then only the burning, in all likelihood, will be a problem after the operation. The pain from the actual "muscle cut" isn't really too bad at all; it's a dull ache for the most part -- whatever they give you for pain will almost certainly ease that a lot!
My worst pain after surgery (other than two occasions when I had the "burn" from having used laxatives) was immediately after waking up from the surgery. It did feel like a cherry bomb had exploded in my butt!! But I had a nurse standing by who gave me a quite powerful opiate-type pain killer that took care of the problem. I was doing crossword puzzles in my hospital bed just an hour or so later.
Never was I in horrendous, breath-yanking, nerve-trembling pain during or after the surgery. But I did have one or two days with the fissure at home, *before* the surgery, where I thought I was just going to lose it!!!!
Keep in mind you'll be free of the spasms IMMEDIATELY after the surgery.
So in many ways, a really bad AF episode can be worse than surgery in some respects (you don't get painkillers and the attention of the hospital staff with a day-to-day AF episode!!)
But I'm not trying to minimize the surgery experience -- complications can and do arise.
Keep on feeling better!
Kim

Pain management is not always handled very well by doctors but I know in hospitals during surgeries and procedures they always have you rate your pain on scale from 1 to 10 and it is actually a patient's right to be comfortable and they do try to manage your pain. They will give you something to take afterwards at home too and make sure they put a refill on the RX.
I haven't had this surgery but from other surgeries I have had the pain from recuperating at least was from healing and not pain from the condition so in a way it is easier to cope with.
I am glad you are doing a bit better. My doctor told me to just take a pain pill before I go to the bathroom and not wait until I am in agony. This actually controls pain better throughout the day because then my body hasn't gone into this pain spiral and the nerve fibers are spazzing out from the pain so they are easier to quiet.
Lecia