Hi,
I've been stopping in and reading for the past few months and just enjoyed seeing some words of encouragement on the website-so thank you.
I'm 22 years old, and struggled intensely for 3 months. My life was not going so well. I finally found a way to stop the spasms after BM's back in march. From there, it was only a matter of time until the bleeding stopped. I've had to use magnesium very generously because I do not trust in my ability to maintain the strictest of diets.
Well, I've been spams free for about two months. The only problems I've been having are light, light pink blood (so in other words, not fresh bright red blood) occurring after the use of TP and not baby wipes. Furthermore, this past weekend I took less magnesium than I have in months, and while it hasn't been "hard", apparently it wasn't soft enough. Initially I had an intense itch and no blood on the stool or anything. No pain either, as I was still out of baby wipes, I used TP. that light pink blood (this occurs in very small amounts) happened. Same thing happened today. It's been about a month and a half or two since my last bright red blood on stool or TP incidient.
Is it just not fully healed yet? I know this isn't strictly because of the minor use of tp because I usually don't use it. And yesterday during my BM I could tell it was a little different than my previous easier ones. How much longer before I can expect this thing to not worry me anymore?

By the way, this light pink blood only occurs once and awhile. Not frequently.

Jmtg12,
Hi, - It takes a long time to heal completely if your fissure has become chronic, but to be honest, from what you write, it sounds extremely encouraging! and it does sound like you have the healing process well under way. We all heal very differently at different speeds, in different ways and if the spasms have ceased, the pain is no longer intense and the bleeding as you describe, then these are great signs that you are getting there - As long as those good days are outweighing the bad, that is significant, and as long as the fissure is still healing, be aware, that there may be good and bad days but as time progresses, they become more "good" and even a "bad" day is not really that bad. (Just cast your mind back to the sheer agony that fissure caused in it's earliest days!!)........
Only a CRS would be able to determine if the fissure has completely healed but just keep believing that you are there (or almost) and you will be......Also don't ever let a healed fissure lead you back into old bad eating & toilet habits. The scar tissue from the fissure in that area is extremely fragile, meaning you need to allow plenty of time for it to strengthen up again! Fingers crossed, you are healed or extremely close to and all the very best to you :)

Optimist,
Thanks for your reply. Today it broke open and I had a small amount of bright red blood on the stool. In your opinion, how long will it take me to get back to where I was before all this happened again...

Hi Jmtg12,
I'm so sorry you're dealing with a fissure. I know we all have days when we thing "GOSH will this ever end!?"
I wish I could tell you a timeline that it will be healed by but I can't. Optimist was right in that we all heal at different rates and we all have different experiences. That seems to be one of the big problems with fissures.
I would recommend sticking to whatever works for you. I sincerely hope you have more good days than bad. Just know that you're not alone and I'm hoping for the best for you.

Hope,
Thanks for your reply. The thing is, I have almost no bad days anymore. My main concern is having a day where I back off the magnesium and my stool is more solid. That's what happened this weekend and it tore open today. I had a bit of bright red blood, as opposed to the no blood or light pink blood I described in the post. The BM wasn't painful today either. It's just mind blowing how sensitive these things are.

I couldn't agree more! I'm glad it wasn't painful!!

Jmtg12,
The fact you have no real bad days, yet some bleeding, makes me wonder if you have an internal hem or two? These will bleed (bright red blood) if a solid stool aggravates them in anyway - but are generally painless.- They can also itch if aggravated!
It could well of course, be the fissure itself but it's interesting that some of us bleed and some don't (I never have in the whole history of dealing with my fissure)
If you had retorn, I suspect, you would be in a lot more pain than you describe.......Do you have a follow-up appointment with a CRS? Definitely worth doing, even at your stage, because it might actually confirm a healed fissure and maybe not what you are thinking........