I'm having this issue where my BMs are easier, but the pain starts up about an hour later, peeks around noon and goes on for some hours in the afternoon. Advil works to stop it but I have to stop taking it because I've been starting to get stomach issues. I've tried massaging the butt area, but that only feels good while I'm doing it. The pain isn't by my sphincter. Its around coccyx bone and radiates towards my pelvic bones. There is also some mild irritation in the actual sphincter, but nothing terrible. I'm worried that I have a second condition on top of the AF, but the simplest answer is that this is just AF spasm pain. If you have any thoughts, please let me know. This pain is way worse than the actual BM pain at this point.

coconut, yes that is just the spams, I have experienced different intensities of it, I also massage the are with some relief, I also took pain killers when I was at the worst and it did took the pain away.
And yes it can make the entire pelvic area feels like like is hurting, but if you look for the source of most of the pain while massaging you will find out that is all concentrated around the fissure.
I used to get the worst at night time while trying to sleep. But they actually go away, mine got better with pelvic exercises and the nitro cream.

@coconut my pain schedule is exactly the same. In fact I now have virtually painless BM but still have spasms every day, although now often very minor. Saturday night I had one glass of red wine and yesterday I had bad spasms from 11am until 5pm. This was after a completely painless BM at around 8am.
I've worked out GTN lasts 3 hours as the pain always comes on exactly 3 hours after using the ointment. If I apply a bit more the pain subsides again, so it's definitely a sphincter spasm.
Today I'm not doing my usual of applying GTN after a BM - instead I'm waiting until 10am. My pain is always worst between 11am and 1pm, with a normal application of GTN made between 8am and 9am. If I'm right, the GTN should take me right through until 1pm and should hopefully mean a completely spasm free day for me.
Don't quote me on this but I seem to remember reading that if your pain is deeper it means your fissure is further inside. My current pains are a mixture between a throbbing / pressure type feeling and sharp, painful cutting pains (these disturb me the most but are becoming less frequent).
How long have you had your fissure for now? Mine was extreme to begin with but is more under control after almost 3 weeks on GTN.

@crakinup - my pain is also the same..not the schedule but the type - throbbing, sharp cut like (which reduces due to nitro) but feels a bit inside, lot of pressure, feeling like there is swelling after BM. This is my 4th wk on GTN. Nowhere close to healing but the pain is def reducing.

@sufferer I've completed week 3 as of Wednesday this week and today I am 100% pain free. Pain free BM and no spasms. Today's little trick of delaying the GTN until after 10am has worked!! I mean not even an aching pain, nothing.
I have to say though yesterday I stuck to fish, vegetables and loads of water (which I've always done). Not even one cup of tea. Every time I stray from this diet, even slightly, I get spasms the next day... so guess I have 3 more weeks of this at least. I'm getting thin though !!

CrackinUp wrote:@coconut my pain schedule is exactly the same. In fact I now have virtually painless BM but still have spasms every day, although now often very minor. Saturday night I had one glass of red wine and yesterday I had bad spasms from 11am until 5pm. This was after a completely painless BM at around 8am.
I've worked out GTN lasts 3 hours as the pain always comes on exactly 3 hours after using the ointment. If I apply a bit more the pain subsides again, so it's definitely a sphincter spasm.
Today I'm not doing my usual of applying GTN after a BM - instead I'm waiting until 10am. My pain is always worst between 11am and 1pm, with a normal application of GTN made between 8am and 9am. If I'm right, the GTN should take me right through until 1pm and should hopefully mean a completely spasm free day for me.
Don't quote me on this but I seem to remember reading that if your pain is deeper it means your fissure is further inside. My current pains are a mixture between a throbbing / pressure type feeling and sharp, painful cutting pains (these disturb me the most but are becoming less frequent).
How long have you had your fissure for now? Mine was extreme to begin with but is more under control after almost 3 weeks on GTN.

My fissure is pretty deep, so maybe that's why the pain is so hard to distinguish. I tried putting more Diltiazem cream on it just now (around 11) and found that my sphincter was too tight to apply it properly, which generally isn't a problem anymore, so I guess the spasm really is sourcing from there. Fingers crossed that the extra application will help things loosen up down there.
I've had this fissure since october, but was mis-diagnosed, tried a bunch of home remedies that made things worse, and had a disastrous trial of Nitro which set off a full week of migraines and diarrhea and worsened the fissure significantly. I've been on diltiazem successfully now for 12 days. If I don't see some improvement by Thursday, I'm scheduling in a surgery.
The pain that I'm in is disabling. I can't live like this. I'm not sure if I feel like anything is changing down there or not. I had to give up taking large amounts of advil yesterday because I was showing signs of stomach damage, so I'm in more pain now, but on less medicine.

coconut wrote:

CrackinUp wrote:@coconut my pain schedule is exactly the same. In fact I now have virtually painless BM but still have spasms every day, although now often very minor. Saturday night I had one glass of red wine and yesterday I had bad spasms from 11am until 5pm. This was after a completely painless BM at around 8am.
I've worked out GTN lasts 3 hours as the pain always comes on exactly 3 hours after using the ointment. If I apply a bit more the pain subsides again, so it's definitely a sphincter spasm.
Today I'm not doing my usual of applying GTN after a BM - instead I'm waiting until 10am. My pain is always worst between 11am and 1pm, with a normal application of GTN made between 8am and 9am. If I'm right, the GTN should take me right through until 1pm and should hopefully mean a completely spasm free day for me.
Don't quote me on this but I seem to remember reading that if your pain is deeper it means your fissure is further inside. My current pains are a mixture between a throbbing / pressure type feeling and sharp, painful cutting pains (these disturb me the most but are becoming less frequent).
How long have you had your fissure for now? Mine was extreme to begin with but is more under control after almost 3 weeks on GTN.

My fissure is pretty deep, so maybe that's why the pain is so hard to distinguish. I tried putting more Diltiazem cream on it just now (around 11) and found that my sphincter was too tight to apply it properly, which generally isn't a problem anymore, so I guess the spasm really is sourcing from there. Fingers crossed that the extra application will help things loosen up down there.
I've had this fissure since october, but was mis-diagnosed, tried a bunch of home remedies that made things worse, and had a disastrous trial of Nitro which set off a full week of migraines and diarrhea and worsened the fissure significantly. I've been on diltiazem successfully now for 12 days. If I don't see some improvement by Thursday, I'm scheduling in a surgery.
The pain that I'm in is disabling. I can't live like this. I'm not sure if I feel like anything is changing down there or not. I had to give up taking large amounts of advil yesterday because I was showing signs of stomach damage, so I'm in more pain now, but on less medicine.

Coconut, that sounds exactly what I went through, over a year ago, with my fissure. It started up in Oct. of 2011, and it would NOT heal. The pain was so disabling, that I was a shut-in for a few months. I finally had enough - the various creams I tried weren't helping - and I had surgery. I've had a lengthy recovery time (because I had an LIS and a fissurectomy) - and I still sometimes have tenderness where the surgeries were done, but I'm not sorry I had the surgery. I'd do it again. It was really the only way to address my problem, because I also had a very tight sphincter.
Good luck - and please know you're not alone. I sooooo understand what you're going through, and I wouldn't wish it on anyone. --- Let us know what happens.

Bugaboo - when did you have your surgery?

coconut wrote:Bugaboo - when did you have your surgery?

I had my surgery on Jan. 30, 2012. My recovery went okay, mostly, until I had a horrible setback (constipation, then 3 days of bloody bms), about 6 weeks' after my surgery.
The important thing is to keep your stools manageable and soft, for a long while. --- I was on stool softeners and a high-fiber diet for many months after my surgery, but now I only take the fiber. Recovery is different for everyone - and in my case (due to my anatomy), my recovery has taken awhile. Again, I still sometimes get sore where the surgery was, but my fissure is long gone. I couldn't have kept living with that pain. It was the worst I've ever had in my life.

I'm starting to interpret the pain I'm having in my pelvic muscles as spasm pain. That's very helpful. I can feel that the most intense stabbing in in the area of the fissure. I've also managed to figure out what I think you'all are describing when you say "anal massage." When I first read this, I thought people were massaging inside their anal cavity. But I've been massaging the outside and its amazingly affective for calming the spasms. Too bad it doesn't last more than a second, but its interesting to observe how easily the spasm can release. I've also been using some clench and release and that is also helpful in a temporary fashion.
I was really high this afternoon thinking that I might be healing. Then I had a second BM and now I'm all in pain and thinking about surgery. This is a cruel injury.