Hi all,
It took me a while to find this forum but am so glad that I have.
:)
Please let me tell you a bit about my case, I am still not totally sure that it is anal fissure, although thats what my doctor has diagnosed.
Back at the end of November I went on an early Christmas event...this led to dehydration and subsequently a very large stool being passed. It was large enough for me to notice the size!!!!
Didnt think anything much of it that day , but the next day I began to feel discomfort in the anal area.
At firsdt I thought it must be hemorrhoids, and I treated it as such. I think in fact there were hemorrhoids there and after treatment these seemed to subside but I still had the discomfort.
Sitting and sleeping on my back were very difficult, and still are.
At Christmas I went to my fathers to stay and it was still really bad, so I decided to go to see his doctor. He did a manual examination and after hearing my account, as above, he diagnosed an anal fissure. He prescribed 0.4% GTN (Rectogesic) which I started to take about a week ago.
One problem though, just after taking the Rectogesic I started a cold!! I think the sneezing and nose blowing does very little for the pressure in your anal sphincter (am I right?) and in fact just makes the thing a whle lot worse.
Also, and this is the strange part, having read these forums. I have had no bleeding at all at any time! Has anyone else had this? Not that Im complaining of course, I certainly would rather not have bleeding but it just makes me wonder whether this is an anal fissure or something else.
The symptoms as of now are:
aching and discomfort, especially on sitting down or lying on my back. Also a feeling of the pain being sort of from the anal area to the coccyx.
I have tried to make all the right dietery changes and am taking senokot bulker and lactolose.
Any input or comments would be most welcome.

hmm. hard to say if it is a fissure. The pain you describe could indicate one. also if your dr saw it that is a pretty good indication too. Mine only bled when I first got them and when they became infected. So I have had different ones for going in two years with only minimal bleeding, maybe for two weeks worth of bms total.

As difficult as it is for me to ask, have you inspected your stools closely for the slightest sign of blood? The initial stool of the day would be your best candidate.
Sometimes you have to look closely.
The two primary signs of anal sphincter would be either pain *during* the bm, which can be quite intense and has been described as "passing shards of broken glass;" or burning. The other pain would be the clenching of the sphincter, the spasms, which often occur later, for hours even, and can come in "waves." They can be exacerbated or even brought on by sitting or other positions.
Bleeding doesn't always occur, at least regularly, for everyone. As BG indicated, your doctor's primary exam can't be discounted.
If you just acquired this beast, now is certainly the time to treat it aggressively!...

I can only say this - if it hurts like hell - you have a fissure, blood or not. I was told by all CRS that I saw that nothing hurts like fissure, except abscess maybe.
I had bleeding only once and had fissure for 5 months. Excruciating pain during BM and spasms after BM for hours and hours.
Sorry if you got one : ( , but welcome to our board. You will find a ton of information about conservative treatments (diet, creams, Botox), and also surgery options if all other fails ...
Best of luck !

to the board. It sounds like you have a fissure to me and your doctor seemed to confirm that. There is another cream called anoheal that can be tried which uses diltiazem another blood pressure medicine.

I didn't always have bleeding. In fact, I could have bleeding and very little pain and sometimes I would have no bleeding and extreme pain.

Best wishes for your recovery! :elmo:

Thank you all for the helpful comments.
Just a couple of questions;
Do you think the Anoheal is better than the gtn?
Also, I used to do a lot of exercise and gym work before this and feel very depressed at not being able to do it.
Do you think gym things like weight training should be totally avoided until the fissure heals?
Thanks again

I don't think one is better than the other. Sometimes people get headaches with GTN so doctors prescribe Anoheal as it has fewer side effects but I think both are equally effective.

I had to d/c exercise because it irritated my fissure and skintag but if it doesn't make it worse then you should try to live as normal a life as you can. If it hurts, then don't do it. Don't push it. Maybe modify your exercise to floor work or lying down with weights. I think I might get a Pilates floor exerciser to get me back into working out once I heal from my surgery.

I have never had a problem with exercising. Other have. I'd try it out if I were you.

i was just worried that exercising such as weight training would increase the sphincter pressure maybe.

Well, it will. But I don't know that it would be bad for a fissure. I know it is bad for hemorrhoids though. Maybe you can lie down and do the weights.