by Canadabum » 13 Sep 2017, 22:34
Berlin - first of all welcome to the forum. Glad you found it but soooo sorry to hear of your experience. Fissures suck - everyone here knows how you are feeling in terms of pain, worry, anxiety etc.
The good thing (if there is any good) isnyounare early on in identifying the AF. That means you still have time to treat it before it gets chronic. The key to healing is to try and reduce the resting pressure of your sphincter muscle so that more blood can flow to the area and you can heal. So...how can you help yourself:
1. Go get another fissure cream like nifedipine or diltiazem. Both do the same thing - help reduce the resting pressure of the sphincter - some people including myself over time have reactions to diltiazem for some reason.
2. Keep your stool soft - very glad to hear you are using movicol. This should help.
3. Eat well - get soluble and insoluble fibre to help you pass easy and soft stools.
4. Drink a lot of water, herbal teas, juice...hydration is important for soft stools.
5. Take a magnesium supplement - I found mangnesium citrate the best. Mag also helps relax smooth muscles in the body - and your sphincter is a smooth muscle.
6. Take as many warm/hot baths as you can every day. Warm baths are great because they help deal with the pain, help relax you (you can use Epsom salts in the bath...also made from magnesium...added bonus) and help out you in a frame of mind where you can deal better.
7. Keep the area clean - after bm- take a sitz bath or shower. You can sitz bath in warm water instead of regular bath.
8. Don't wipe hard with toilet paper - use wet paper of some sort, dab, be gentle.
9. If in pain...try sitting on a heating pad. It helps and added bonus it stimulates blood flow to the area (cold can also work)
10. Talk to family and friends about this -- I found the more I was able to share the less stressed I was,..and I do believe stress is a factor in our recovery.
11. Try hard to be positive about your healing. Tell yourself you are getting better each day -- we want the muscles in our body to relax...try coaxing them (sounds weird, I know...but helped me)
I hope some of this helps. First thing though - call your doc and get a new cream (the ones above will not give you the dreaded headache).
Come back and tell us how you are doing.
All best - Canadabum