I'm new to this group. I'm scheduled to have surgery the day after tomorrow for my fissure. The pain has been horrific for me. It happened about six months ago, and has progressively gotten worse. I hate this.
The pain for me has pretty much been all on the inside. I thought it was just really bad hemorrhoids when I was seeing the drips of blood in the toilet and on the toilet tissue. However, the pain during the BM was so bad...worse than regular hemorrhoid pain. The pain felt like it was on the left side at first, but now just hurts all over. Sometimes I have to completely stand up to go #2, it hurts so bad coming out.
Since this has been going on for six months, I have seen my doctor about it and he diagnosed it pretty quickly based on my symptoms. He put me on a stool softner and gave me hydrocortisone suppositories. Neither did anything to help the pain. It was difficult to get the suppositories in after a BM due to swelling and pain. He also had me get Tucks wipes. None of this helped. The doc then sent me to see a surgeon, and she did her exam and found the fissure.
The pain with BMs is horrible, however, the pain after I go potty is worse. Burning, throbbing pain that eventually progresses to a feeling of a dozen butcher knives stabbing up my anus. This feeling throbs with every beat of my heart, and lasts for 6-12 hours after a BM; lately it's been more than 12 hours. There is no position I can be in to help alleviate the pain. I have to sit on a donut pillow that I take with me everywhere I go (work, meetings, outings with family, etc.) and is so embarrasing. Sitting upright is the worst. When I'm in my office chair I lean as far forward as possible, and that helps some. I've had to miss quite a bit of work due to the pain. Sometimes it is so bad that I just can't concentrate on anything but the pain. I've lost many nights sleep from it also. Today at work I had to take a vicodin just so I could tolerate staying at work; at least it took the edge off the pain.
The swelling after I start having a BM often prevents me from getting it all out, so I've had some lower stomach pain like I'm backed up sometimes. The swelling also makes it hard to pass gass sometimes too...like it's too tight for even the gass to get out.
I have to make it through one more day of work, then Wednesday morning I will have the surgery to hopefully fix this thing. I'm scared about the pain from the srugery, but hopeful it will be better than what I am going through now.

Jen, I am so sorry to hear that you are suffering such intense pain but I can relate to it all too well. For me, a BM felt like I was sitting on a hot bayonet that someone was twisting. Those after pains are spasms of the interior sphincter muscle, and for me, it would feel as if I'd been given a ground up glass enema. It was maddening. At one point, my regular physician gave me a heavy narcotic pain killer and it barely took the edge off. The pain was so intense I seriously contemplated chewing up the remaining pain pills just to end the misery.
I am now 3 weeks past my surgery. I had an LIS. I am feeling so much better, except for today, because I unknowingly ate some freshly cooked jalepeno pepper last night and that brought on some pain to go with the two bowel movements I had.
The surgery was fairly minor. Most folks have it done under a general, but in my case, I had an epidural. There was some pain after the surgery, but nothing that couldn't be managed using Ibuprofen. I've had no incontinence, and aside from last night's dinner fiasco, I've been pretty much pain free.
I have stuck to my light diet, my use of both Metamucil and MiraLAX, and I do believe this has helped tremendously.
Good luck with your surgery, and try not to worry too much about that first bowel movement afterwards. Most of us have found it to be much ado about nothing. Just relax and let it happen. Don't push.
Take care and let us know how things turn out.

Jen:
Good luck on your surgery! I go in for botox in 12 hours! I'll post some updates tomorrow, should be good ones from the pain meds too!

Fissure pain - when having a BM felt like a razor, rusty probably, being dragged down my inside along the fissure. I quite often had to stop and stand up to stop it before resuming. I tended to grip the sink and shower screen nearby and tried not to scream.
Afterwards I had anal pain which felt like someone pushing a wide knife upwards and twisting. I would also have spasms down my legs and across the front of my groin and in my lower back.
At it's worst it could last all day and start up in the middle of the night. The level of pain was about 4/10 when it was 'not bad' and 9.5/10 at it's height.
I cannot think why I didn't have the surgery earlier. I think you find yourself in a zone of pain and coping; blinkered to pretty much everything else. At some point you do find yourself ready to go for it. I think it might have been sooner had I found this forum earlier.
On another post above - Good Luck Jen for your surgery.
and Rugbybaby Good luck with the botox. Keep us posted.
Linda

Thanks everyone! Your posts have been very helpful. I would love for any else here who hasn't weighed in yet to describe their fissure pain symptoms.