Hi everyone,
This is a long and sappy story, so grab your water (vs. coffee) and tissue :)
I'm new as of last night and am really happy to have found you all. Of course, I knew I wasn't alone in my pain, but I didn't realize just how many people suffered from AFs. So, it's good to know you're here, but makes me sad to know that so many of you have to deal with this pain. This really is something I would never wish on my worst enemy.
My story is somewhat of an echo of what others have said. I've had an all-or-nothing pattern of BMs over the course of my life. I had gained a bunch of weight during the past few years, so I decided to try a low-carb approach to losing weight and it worked! However, the extreme change in my diet must have caused the severe onset of constipation. I tried and tried to go for days, but nothing worked. Finally, I made the major mistake of taking ExLax. It certainly helped me get relief from the constipation, but the price of the relief was an AF. I didn't know what it was at first...just knew that it hurt so very badly. I talked to my general doctor, but she didn't examine me. She prescribed Mirolax, thinking that it was probably just a hemorrhoid and that softening my stool would help.
I put up with the pain for a couple of weeks after that, but finally had to go to the ER because I couldn't get the pain to stop, no matter how many pain killers I took (hydrocodone, at that point). The ER doctor poked and prodded (not fun) and told me that it was a fissure. He suggested that I do Sitz baths two times a day, for 15 minutes each. He prescribed Percocet and sent me on my way.
About a week later, after continued pain, I went to my general doctor again and she did an examination this time. Of course, the examination made things hurt worse, but she said things were healing and that I should just keep doing what I was doing.
As for "treatments": I'm taking Mirolax every day, fiber every day, Sitz baths every day and after each BM, and trying to watch what I eat. And, of course, I'm drinking lots of water. I have a heavy duty "sitting ring" (aka donut) that I use both at work and home, which seems to help quite a bit. It definitely gets a lot of questions though. I have also used Silver Sulfodine (I believe that's the wrong spelling, but it didn't really work very well), Biafine (which seems to help quite a bit, especially with the numbing before BMs), Vasoline (eh, it was OK), and cleansing lotion from the drug store (seemed to help a little).
Through all of this, my husband has been wonderful. I feel guilty when we have to cancel something because I'm in too much pain to participate, but he seems to be understanding, having gone through something similar several years ago.
The rest of my family seems to be at least somewhat understanding about it, but they cannot directly relate. I have had to miss several birthday parties and such because of it, which doesn't make them very happy. I just try my best to explain why I can't make it and to come up with another time to bring presents and such.
Sometimes, the pain isn't so terrible, but most of the time it is. I try to wait until I get home at night to go to the bathroom, but sometimes, it just can't be helped. So, I wind up being late for work any morning that I have to deal with it. Thankfully, I have a very understanding workplace and I'm not embarrassed about telling them what the issue is. I try not to dwell on it, since my job requires that I sit all day, but it's not easy (hence the donut :)).
I think the hardest part is thinking that I'm getting better and out of the world of pain, only to go to the bathroom and wind up back in bed, crying and praying for the pain to stop.
On a little lighter note, I've started calling my car the "hover craft," since I have to hover when I drive with the pain and the bathroom is the "torture chamber," since that's where most of the pain happens. :) So, I guess I can say that I've maintained my sense of humor, so far...
Ok, enough of my ramblings. Thank you again for creating this site and for reading my first post (if you made it this far). Again, it's great to know that you're all out there, but I'm sorry that you have to suffer with this.
Wishing you all pain free days!
CC