I've been suffering from an anal fissure and the past few days of my life have been absolute hell. I can barely walk and am thus mostly confined to lying in my bed the whole day. It's so painful that I can't even sleep properly at night. Each time I get bowel movement, the movement itself I can tolerate but afterwards the piercing pain is completely unbearable! I find myself cursing and slamming my fists on the wall each time I deal with that.
I've been doing treatment for the past 4 days, however nothing seems to be improving
Yesterday I went to see the doctor and was prescribed proctosedyl, as well as a stool softener. I've been trying to drink 2 litres of water a day, and eating a high Fiber diet as well. I've been applying coconut oil as well as Aloe vera too. Later on my parents will help get a sitz bath for me, as I'm in no condition to leave the house.
Thankfully I found this forum where I realise I'm not alone and can vent my frustrations as well as to seek help. How did you guys deal with the pain physically as well as mentally? Mentally I'm just so miserable at what my life has succumbed to and really just want to end it all from all the pain.

Welcome to the forum. I'm sorry that you're suffering like this. In my experience, the pain of AF is unfortunately something that to some degree one has to learn to live with - there are different ways of doing that, though.

What I have found most effective is an anticonvulsant and neuropathic pain agent called pregabalin (it's often sold as Lyrica), which I get on prescription from my GP. This doesn't actually remove the fissure pain entirely, but it reduces it a lot and makes it possible for me to live a normal life, at least for a while.

Others here have found that the anticonvulsant gabapentin helps with the pain. I have no experience with gabapentin, so can't comment, but it seems to be an effective drug.

Proctosedyl suppositories can help, as well as nitro cream and ointment (GTN), and learning to relax the sphincter muscle can reduce the tightness that leads to spasms. At one time I found that an antispasmodic like buscopan would also help.

But the pain is something I never had before I got my first fissure two and a half years ago, and I've had to learn to tolerate it as part of my life - I don't think there's any way around it, except Botox and LIS surgery, either of which may or may not ease the problem.

You might also want to consider some sessions of counselling or psychotherapy - I find that a weekly hour with my therapist helps me to navigate my way through this painful and difficult condition. Hope you feel better soon.

David

Thanks for reading David.
I'm going to see a second doctor, my gp later on tonight, and see what he says. Since the first visit to the doctor, things haven't been getting better. Hopefully my gp can advise better