Hi guys,
I've been using this forum for a while now, and I've found it really helpful so I wanted to share with anyone else in need what cured my fissures.
My journey of 6 years:
For me there were
two stages to my fissures: 1) the fissure 2) the relapse
1) Anytime my fissures would come back, I learned to pretty easily how to get rid of them. All I would need is a week or two of constantly softening my stool and pooping really slowly. Here are all the things I've tried and my experience with them.
a. I started by taking Docusate. This only kinda helped to soften my stool. I gave up on this pretty quickly
b. I moved onto Miralax. This worked immediately to get my stool to the ideal consistency. I eventually stopped using this though because I don't trust the ingredients' effects on the body longterm.
c. X% nitroglycerine prescribed by a doctor. This gave me an immense/pounding headache a few minutes after applying to my anus. I never used it again.
d. triphala (ayurvedic medicine). Decent stool softener, but not quite right for my fissures. It would make me poop an hour after taking it.
e. changing my diet. This is really the only thing that helps (aside from miralax) whenever my fissures come back. Loads and loads of veggies and oatmeal. Anything low on
insoluble fiber (meat, bread aside from whole wheats) would have to be eaten with huge amount of veggies. The best option for me was going vegetarian anytime a fissure came back and eating tons of canned bean. (just so you know - going vegetarian and eating tons of pasta or rice defeats the purpose)
2) Even though I knew how to fix the fissure, they'd always come back with just one day of not eating enough insoluble fiber or not drinking enough water. This went on for 6 years. My guess as to why: scar tissure. I think I had fissures near both of my sphincters and scar tissue formed when the sphincters were closed making it impossible for the sphincters to open widely without re-tearing the anus. Even on my high-in-veggies diet, occasionally I'd have a hard stool that was also thick and would force my anus wider than it wanted.
The solution that worked for me that I read about on this forum: butt plugs.
Once the fissure was healed, I decided to start using butt plugs to expand the anus. It's probably not a good idea to do this until the fissures feel fully healed. [Then again, I did very mildly re-tear something at one point when I was using a 1.2" butt plug early on, but I kept it in for 5 hours and it seemed to heal enough to not have any problems the next day of using the same size plug.]
Here's what I bought on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01A2JHXK8/ I started with the 1" diameter one and a month later could get the 1.5" one in comfortably. It took me a long time to get the first one in....probably 30 minutes while in a hot shower (I wasted a lot of water...). The second wasn't too difficult to use, but the third size also took me 30 minutes to get in after weeks on end of not successfully getting it fully in. I keep them in for anywhere from 3 to 8 hours at a time. At first it was rather unpleasant from the start to spend a few hours with them in. Now I could keep the largest one in all day and it's actually enjoyable to have in. I keep a jar of coconut oil in the shower that I use to lubricate the plugs.
Anyway, I haven't had a fissure since. I think even if I have scarring, the scarring accommodates a 1.5" stretch, which is hopefully more than enough to handle the possible stool sizes I could expect.
I'd imagine that I don't need to use the plugs anymore, but I can't say for certain because I've come to enjoy them and use them often when I'm not leaving my apartment (I work from home).
Richard