So here we are again folks!
This is second time around for me. Last time, it started in 2002. There didnt seem to be much awareness and my doctor had little to suggest treating me for piles for a while which I am sure made the fissure worse. I researched on-line and discovered that some people in Austrailia werer using 2% GTN. I had ask my GP to prescribe something that didnt exist in the UK then and find a Pharmacist to make it up for me. You know it now as Rectogesic. To be fair it did help for a while but never healed me completely and I had a constant head ache to go with the pain from my bum. Had Botox 2003/4 when the GTN cream just didnt work anymore and the daily pain became unbearable. After which followed even worse pain and absolute hell for about 6 weeks... but I did eventually heal. There was talk that I may have been allergic to the Botox but who knows maybe it had just got that bad!
Anyway, I have managed for 6/7 years to keep the fissure from coming back by looking after my bum carefully, always cleaning/moisturising the area after BM with Vasaline and by not getting constipated. It did start up from time to time but when I felt it coming back (after a couple of hard stools) I got some GTN cream for use for a couple of weeks and was very careful about what I ate. No alcohol etc and got even more fastidious with my routine to include vasaline before and after BM.
All good till this year when I thought I maybe had piles. I had been straining a bit an felt a roundish lump on the outside of bum so used some standard issue hemorrhoid cream which had a local anesthetic in which seemed to help at first. Big mistake, HUGE! I think the steroid in the cream thinned the skin over the old fissure site and opened it up. Pain worsened over several weeks of trying to settle it down and more GTN cream but to no avail. Past the point of no return I fear. Saw the Consultant last week and have a tube of the Anoheal (Diltiazen) Is it just me or does it hurt even more after applying the cream? Sort of burning and stingy as well as the usual pain. The Consultant did say it would take 6 weeks to heal and its only been three days so I know I have to give it a chance. What else can I do? Everyday BM followed by 4-6 hours of pain. Ibuprofen tablets 3 at a time - they dont work but I am too frightened to take anything else as it will make me constipated. I am keeping my stools soft with a good diet as if I take additional fibre I go to the loo more than once a day which just adds to the duration of the pain. Its 4-6 hours from the last BM no matter what. I am a tough old bird normally, dont even have injections at the dentist but this pain is so distracting I just can't deal witrh it. Warm baths dont help really since any relief is so short lived. I work from home thank goodness coz I need to stay sitting on my bum, the pain is worse when standing up is like having a stabbing pain ( small kitchen knife being stuck into an open wound again and again..) so I dont go out in the mornings till the pain backs off. Made the mistake of popping to Asda last week and was ready to scream while waiting in the queue at the checkouts.
So like I said here I am again.I am worried I wont heal, that Fissure no2 in scar tissue from Fissure No1 is too deep. Will keep on with the Diltiazen and post how I get on. If it doesnt work then it is Botox and absolute Hell.....again! Great choices we have dont we?!
Good luck everyone else whos out there trying to heal.