I've read and learned quite a bit over the paste weeks about my recurrant AF, and something just reminded me of another health problem some years back.

At 19 an in the Navy, I was diagnosed with my first ulcer. It was a peptic ulcer, and treatment consisted of a drug called Probanthene. I was also told that I should drink plenty of milk and even half & half to coat my stomach. This was in about 1973 or 1974. Over the years I had a number of bouts with either Gastritis or some form of ulcer. The meds used to treat me would change, and eventually the advice about dairy products changed as well. But I could almost set the clock that at least every six months, I'd be back to praying to the porcelin god several times a day. In 1996, during one of these bouts, a doctor at the VA hospital asked if I had ever been tested for H-Pylori. I'd never even heard of it. The doc went on to explain how recent research had discovered that some 75% of those who suffered chronic gastrointestinal issues tested positive for this nasty little bug. Well, sure enough, I tested positive. I was put on a two week regimine consisting of several different antibiotics. At one point, I thought the cure might kill me, but I survived, and better yet, I have never had another bout with gastrtis or an ulcer since.
Why I brought this up was because I'm seeing a similarity with the Anal Fissures. People are being given a bunch of different treatment regimines, all with varying success rates, to treat an illness that medical science is still unsure of a cause for. I have to wonder if ten years down the road, researchers find some bacteria or viral infection that curses us to this ailment.
Anyway, just the ramblings of a person trying to survive through the pain of post BM spasms so I can hopefully sleep sometime before dawn.