Hi All,

Little bit of background for you! I've had IBS- D for the past 6/7 years so I've always had troubles in that area but nothing like this!! Before fissure I used to have a bowel movement (usually very loose) 4/5 times a day, and sometimes I could be on the toilet for around an hour with a bowel movement.

Now to the most horrendous time of my entire life... I'm recently married (Oct 2018) and went on honeymoon to Mexico for the first 2 weeks of November. After a very long and messy day of drinking tequlia (amongst other things) I had 2 days of extreme explosive diarrhoea (still on honeymoon). After the second day I started to notice a pain when I went to the toilet, and then one bowel movement was just absolute pure and utter agony. I thought I was splitting in two. The toilet bowl was full of blood and I crumpled on the floor in pain. Luckily this was towards the end of our honeymoon! The pain continued for the next 4 days until I coul go home, and was only barely tolerable when I sat in the pool. I thought it must have been a thrombosed hemorrhoid (never head of a fissure before!), so I went to the Chemist in Mexico who gave me suppositories which were agony to put in and didn't help at all!

Somehow I managed to sit on a plane for 10 hours and get back to England where I saw a GP at the local walk in centre... He looked at the area (not very thoroughly) and tried to do a rectal examination which made me scream. He again gave me suppositories and told me it was hemorrhoids and the pain would go away in 2-3 days. As you all know... IT DIDN'T!!

By this time I'd had the pain for a week and a half so 2/3 days later I went straight to A&E after excruciating burning for 3 hours, and not being able to get an appointment at my GP and not wanting to go back to the walk in centre... After 4 hours, the ER DR again said it was hemorrhoids and told me to continue with the treatment I was on and I should show some signs of improvement.

ROll on 4 days later when my Mum comes to visit me due to the pain im in and again takes me to A&E... FINALLY I'm seen by a member of the surgical team who has a really good examination and can see the fissure (thank God! I thought, at least I know what it is). He prescribed GTN for 6-8 weeks and said it should clear up. I'm now on 2 weeks of GTN and although I'm not in the agonising pain I was in before, I'm still in a lot of pain when having a BM.

I've also been taking fybogel as prescribed by the first DR to try and help with the diarrhea.

Please can anyone give adice on whether I should keep taking the fybogel or if I should move onto a better stool softener? Also can the GTN take longer than 2 weeks to start working or should I be going to the Dr again? My mum had a fissure and she found the GTN helped her within a week.

I have some good days (normally when I have 1 BM a day or every other day), but if I have more than 1 BM a day I'm still in so much pain! I'm working through all the pain and I've lost 1 1/2 stone in 4 weeks cause I can't really eat much... I'm trying now to follow the FODMAP diet but I feel like my life has just totally stopped cause I'm too scared to do anything at all.

HELP PLEASE!!!!

I would say that you definitely still have a chance of healing with the GTN, because your fissure is not your mother's fissure. Each person is different, and so is each fissure. If you have IBS-D, the fibrogel should help keep your stool firmer, and provide you with more days with only one BM and less pain. I know how this can completely rule one's life, but you are still in the early stages and have a good chance of it not becoming chronic. Good luck!