Hi there everyone!
I am a 23 year old gay man suffering from AF(s) and living in fear of every BM! Not entirely sure what caused them (I have never had anal sex) but I think it was constipation and a heavy BM!
My story begins in June/July 2012 when I started getting a lot of anal itching, but I passed it off as nothing and carried on with my life. I didn't experience any pain or bleeding whatsoever, just a lot of itching! Anyway, in Sept 2012, I noticed a large lump of skin on my anus. So, fearing the worst, I went to see a doctor who told me it was just a skin tag but also diagnosed me with the AF. She prescribed me some anusol which if I'm honest I rarely used as it wasn't hurting........... big mistake #1!
Then everything changed in Jan this year. One day after a BM I experienced an enormous amount of bleeding (red water and huge amounts on the tissue) and some low/mild pain. For some reason I didn't go back to the doctors and this bleeding/pain continued for a few months......big mistake #2. Then the bleeding stopped (hooray....not) and that's when the excruciating pain started, I had/have never felt anything like it! Every single BM was like being stabbed with a knife covered in barbed wire and lemon juice! After nearly passing out on several occasions I went back to the doctors in March/April.
He prescribed me Rectogesic which I used for a month or so and it was really working, the pain was minimal and no bleeding. But I just couldn't cope with the headaches and dizziness anymore! So I stopped using it about 3 or 4 weeks ago........big mistake #3 For a few weeks everything was fine, just a mild discomfort with every BM. And then the pain started coming back slowly but surely :( So I made another appointment with the doctors, adamant I wanted surgery as this is destroying my life!
Then on Monday last week (27th May), after months and months of no bleeding, it bled......a lot!! And this time the bleeding came with a new, sharper pain much worse than before! So I personally think I have either re-tore the original AF and made it bigger, or I have tore another one as well! Great...
So, I saw the doctor on the Wednesday (29th May) and he advised me to go back on the Rectogesic but take it every other day rather than every day to ease the headaches. With that he prescribed Scheriproct which he said would ease the pain and I can use it with Rectogesic and he would see me in a few weeks to see about getting my skin tags removed. When I asked about surgery he said he had never had anyone have to go in for surgery for an AF. And he said something that made me really reconsider surgery and made a lot of sense "Why would you try and heal a cut that is taking a long time to heal by making another cut...?". I know it isn't as simple as that and that the surgery relieves the spasming to allow the fissure to heal but I think he's right in my case.
So, since seeing the doctor on Wednesday I have been using Rectogesic every day because the pain is so much worse than last time. But it doesn't seem to be working this time round, whereas when I used it the first time I felt nearly instant relief! The pain is sharper, more intense and shoots up from my anus about an inch in the direction of my lower back (if that makes sense). And there are blood spots on the tissue after EVERY BM.
And so to today, I finally got round to getting the Scheriproct prescription and I must say after using it, within seconds nearly 100% of my pain went away. But then I applied Rectogesic afterwards and the pain slowly came back. So I think next time i'll apply the Rectogesic first, then wait a little while and then apply the Scheriproct for the pain relief :) I have been trying to increase the amount of fibre in my diet over the past few days and had a Fybogel last night! So this afternoon I had my first BM after the increase in fibre, the use of both Rectogesic and Scheriproct, and using a lot of lube. The pain was ever so slightly better and came in short bursts because my stools were very small and soft!
I am thinking that I have two fissures now because I have noticed a hole in the skin more on the outside of my anus in the same place where the shooting pain is....
So that's my story! Any advice would be much appreciated!