I have had AF for more than a month. It began after I started straining to have BM in the mornings due to irregular sleep schedule. Initially I thought it was hemorrhoids because I could feel skin hanging out of my anus. I have pain while passing BM and then the hours following it too. Throughout the day the pain lessens(but doesn't go away completely), however the discomfort of having stuff hanging out of me never does.My doctor, after examination told me I had 2 Fissures and the skin hanging down were two sentinel piles. He prescribed me stool softeners and diltiazem gel. He told me it will be cured in ten days and that it wasn't chronic since I don't have spasms. It did get better, the pain reduced significantly and the piles went away too. However after 5 days everything came back with the same intensity. I tried again and the symptoms reduced, but again 5 days later, pain and sentinel piles... I don't know why... my water intake was perfect and I'd been avoiding spicy foods. Now I'm scared to go to the doctor in fear that he'd suggest surgery or something worse... What should I do???

Try taking Mirilax at night. It will help with the straining. If you read through some of the posts here, you'll read that it really takes months and months for a fissure to heal, and reoccurrence is likely. One of the posters here, Gus, has a plan for healing that is starting to work for me, but I've been dealing with this for four months with one reoccurrence. Good luck!

Thanx, Glorybee.. I'll give Miralax a try .. I'd just started to worry that if my fissures recur, then itd become chronic and surgery the only solution...

I know how you feel Chrystalline! That still worries me.