Hey everyone!
First, I'm happy to have found this forum. You all are incredibly supportive. Little background on my situation: I'm 24 yrs old and for the past few months I've experienced some burning and blood when having a BM. Didn't really think anything of it. About a week ago, I became extremely constipated and after forcing a BM I noticed a ton of blood both in the water and on the stools. I was in excruciating pain so immediately contacted my primary physician who basically prescribed me with hydrocortisone suppositories and referred me to a GI doctor. Yesterday, I was able to get into the GI doc who wouldn't even examine me. He immediately scheduled me for a colonoscopy later this week. All my blood work came back normal and showed no signs of inflammatory bowel disease or anything that should raise concern so I was a little frustrated. As soon as I got back from my appointment I called a CRS who was able to get me in yesterday afternoon. He said I had 2 fissures and prescribed me with 0.2% nifedipine and 5% lidocaine ointment.
It's been hard for me to walk let alone sit. Is that common with fissures? I'm hoping within a week or two I can at least start walking normal. The pain I experience having a BM is one thing, but to not even be able to comfortable walk is driving me crazy!

Hi rhs - I'm so sorry you are suffering! Your story sure sounds familiar! So many of us were given blinkin hemmie creams by GPs, it's just unbelievable! I'm so glad you finally got the right meds.
Your history and your symptoms are fissure features to a T. It hurts to walk, sit, move, laugh, cough, sneeze, and especially poop! Sometimes it hurt when I blinked!
Are you taking warm baths and stool softeners? I recommend those as well. The baths will stimulate blood flow in the butt, which will help with the healing (stimulating blood flow is also what the nitro is doing). And stool softeners will make it easier to have a BM - it's best not to strain and/or have hard stools when you're trying to heal a fissure.
I really hope the nitro works and that you beat this beast very soon! :D

hopetoheal wrote:Hi rhs - I'm so sorry you are suffering! Your story sure sounds familiar! So many of us were given blinkin hemmie creams by GPs, it's just unbelievable! I'm so glad you finally got the right meds.
Your history and your symptoms are fissure features to a T. It hurts to walk, sit, move, laugh, cough, sneeze, and especially poop! Sometimes it hurt when I blinked!
Are you taking warm baths and stool softeners? I recommend those as well. The baths will stimulate blood flow in the butt, which will help with the healing (stimulating blood flow is also what the nitro is doing). And stool softeners will make it easier to have a BM - it's best not to strain and/or have hard stools when you're trying to heal a fissure.
I really hope the nitro works and that you beat this beast very soon! :D

Thank you! I hope so too. I'm just glad I took it upon myself to contact a CRS. If I didn't, I would have had to suffer the torture of getting a colonoscopy only to find out I have fissures. To answer your question, I've been taking sitz baths religiously and increased my fiber and water intake drastically. My stools are soft, but man does it still BURN! lol.

It sounds like you are doing everything right, so I think you've got a good shot at healing. And if it doesn't work, then you gave it a great try and the surgery isn't so bad. Either way, you are on top of things and you will get better. Man, I know about those burning BMs!!

Hang in there, it is rough. At first my wife thought I was over exaggerating it. She soon realized after I came back from the CRS that I was serious when I told her I had a chronic fissure and fistula! It's no fun. Just stick with the sitz and fiber, sounds like you're doing what you should be doing.

I'm going to follow the recommended treatment plan to a T so I know I gave it my all. My doc said he thinks it will heal, but if not healed in a month he'd like to do surgery, which after reading though the forum sounds like an appropriate course of action. Now I'm supposed to apply the nifedipine 2x a day, but how much exactly are you supposed to apply?

My doc told me to use a pea-size amount and to get it a bit on the inside as well (but there seem to be different opinions about that). It sounds like your surgeon is very sensible - a month sounds about right. In the meantime, even if the dilt doesn't completely heal the fissure, at least you will have gotten a head start on healing. I think one boardie here (maybe it was Elphie?) though her post-surgery recovery went so well because she had gotten a head start on the healing from the ointments. :D

Your story sounds very familiar, and its a problem its hard to share with any friends or family for fear of being the (for example) butt of every joke. Driving was the worst for me! I found that the creams did next to nothing for me. Even the first round of Botox didn't help until i started using Movicol after reading lots of positive results on here.
I wish you all the best and keep reading the forum as its a wealth of information.

After using the nifedipine ointment for a few days now, the area where the fissure is located feels really tight. Less burning and itching just very tight. Common?

Hi rhs,
Nifedipine wouldn't cause it to be any tighter. That's probably just those good ole spasms and the nifedipine can't compete. I used the diltiazem for a couple of months or more and although it helped, it didn't stop the tightness/ spasms.