Hi All,
I'm a relatively new sufferer of AF, having had it for just over 2 months now. It was caused by the (overenthusiastic) use of sex toys, and it started as a tiny pain when I would sit down and over the next two weeks grew into a pretty crippling pain.
My symptoms are kind of different to most that I've read. I don't have any pain at all when doing a bowel movement or after. However sitting is a cause of intense pain within a minute of sitting down, as is lying down in pretty much any position other than on my stomach. Even walking for more than 5-10 minutes causes pain. Sometimes even standing causes pain. As you all would know constant pain like this is pretty difficult to bear psychologically and my life is pretty much on hold.
Treatment wise - I'm in Australia. I saw a GP who diagnosed the fissure and prescribed me Rectogesic (0.2% glyceryl) which I've been using for 7 weeks now, as well as fiber supplements. Five weeks ago I saw a specialist (general surgeon) who took a look at the fissure and said he was happy with how it was healing and simply said to continue using Rectogesic, which he assured me would heal it.
However in the 7 weeks of using it so far I don't really feel its gotten any better. I've gotten better at avoiding the pain - which sometimes gives me hope its healing - but as soon as I do anything that triggers it I get the pain all over again. In some ways I feel its getting worse since more things seem to trigger the pain but its hard to objectively judge this.
I've had difficulty applying Rectogesic with my finger since that seems to 'rip' the wound more ever time I've used it so I switched to applying it with the cotton tip ear things, which made it a lot easier to apply but makes me paranoid I'm not doing it right somehow.
I guess in general I was hoping to get some perspective on what other treatment options to seek, what healing times are 'reasonable' to expect with Rectogesic, and any other general advice on how to heal quicker. I don't really think I could handle having this kind of pain constantly for the rest of my life.
Thanks in advance.