Hi! I, too, figured I'd introduce myself.
I was doing some googling about Diltiazem and found this forum. My insurance kicked in the first of the month so I was able to go to a specialist this past Monday and have been officially diagnosed with two anal fissures and started a twice a day Diltiazem routine. I've been bleeding and having pain since November (after taking some taking some antibiotics for some diarrhea, which appears to have completely overhauled my gut), but was hoping it would go away and was worried about how much it was going to cost me to see a doctor. Not necessarily one of my finest decisions, but considering I have three appointments with the specialist in an 8 week span, and those appointments are over $250 a piece without insurance, I'm not kicking myself while I'm down.
Between November and now I have implemented a lot of fiber into my diet, tried to cut my dairy intake (I already eat a primarily vegan diet, but that is of course only primarily), drink lots of water, use hemorrhoid creams (that didn't work to well, because they itched horribly upon contact), stool softeners, use Vaseline, use suppositories, et c. But nothing has cleared things up totally.
One problem I have been having is that I know that sitz baths in the tub help me feel a lot better. The problem is, all efforts to participate in sitz baths have resulted in fungal infections of varying places- i.e. yeast infections and/or jock itch between my butt cheeks. I tried scrubbing the tub and I used anti-fungal cream and that cleared things up, but not enough for when I tried it again, it wasn't a reoccuring problem.
Anyone have any advice? I have a potential guess (because I can't think of anything else) that I have some extremely minor athlete's foot (that I don't notice) and maybe I was giving it to myself and if I bought a toilet top one, it might make things better. Anyone have any other idea what it might be a cause of?
Thanks and see you around :)