I only posted on here once before, but I was so scared and had never in my life suffered from anything like this. I spent hours reading this board and got a lot of useful info from a lot of the members here.
Just to fill you in, I had never had a problem with constipation and had always taken for granted being regular. Even after 4 kids and the toll that can take on your digestive tract, I'd always been really fortunate in that area. Two months ago, for some reason I had the worst episode of constipation and actually had to manually dis-impact myself. This lead to what I now know was my AF, and the most horrendous pain I've ever had.
I put myself on a high fiber diet and doubled my water intake. I began taking stool softeners every morning as well as watching what I ate, being fully aware that what went in one end, could very well cause me torture on the other. I did sitz baths 4-5 times a day and that had to have been my saving grace. I spent a fortune in those early days buying all the creams and lotions and pads for pain, but honestly, those sitz baths helped me the most and after a horribly painful bm, I could find immediate relief with that.
I'm all healed now. I've been able to go back to eating most of the things I like, the only thing that hasn't returned to normal is my regularity. Whatever caused me to become constipated has continued and I have to keep up with my fiber and stool softeners or I start to have hard/dry stools. I no longer have any pain with my bm's. I thought I'd just come on here and give a success story and hope that this will be the end of my experience with AF.
Thank you all for the info on the boards.
Tami