After suffering AF for 9 months it is safe to say that I'm finally healed.It still feels a bit tender down there but for the past two weeks I've had no stinging,tightness,dull ache,pain,and spasming and I've been feeling normal.I just wanted to thank the founder,admins,and all the folks who gave me useful advice in managing my AF for without you guys and this website in general I would've never been healed.With the proper info,dilligence in your regimen,and medical help you can be healed.Once again I would like to thank everyone here and I hope I can set an example to everyone suffering that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Your post gives lots of hope to others. We should probably continue this thread where all can post when they feel healed. Good going!!

Congrats!
What worked for you and what didn't?

What worked for me was I really focused on keeping my sphincter as relaxed as possible by bombarding it with heat.3-4 sitz bath a day plus putting my butt under a heat pad as much as can when I'm at home,I even used the heat pad when I'm on the nitro.What really helped me get over the top was using a hot tub 2 times a day for a whole week when I was staying at my moms house when my cousin got the flu.Its amazing how relaxed your bum would be when it spends 20 minutes in 103 degree water temp What didn't work for me was the use of hydrocortisone.

But what really worked for me was the nitroglycerine.I think the heat bombardement just sped the healing process by bringing more blood flow to the area.

What's up dude, so you can have pain and blood free BMs without stool softeners these days? I guess that's a fairly personal question but enquiring minds just have to know :) It seems like the holy grail of fissures.

LOL no I'm pretty much sticking with the stool softener but I'm switching to Citrucel in mid November than I'm gradually gonna lower the dosage thru the course of next year.Bad news though,I got an acute fissure below or above...well closer to the rectum and more to the left of my old one.I had a few tiny drops of blood on the tp and I can definately feel it up there.I think I got it because I didn't clip my nails when I applied the nitro. :( even with the gloves I scraped something awful last night.I'm not too concerned though since it's still acute and hopefully it will heal before my follow up with the doc on thursday.

Ok I was gonna say, from fissure to no stool softeners over a few weeks, that's gotta be some kind of miraculous recovery! I've actually scraped while applying nitro with long fingernails too, now I trim them about 2x as frequently as I used to :)

Ya if I stopped using stool softeners I would probably rip it open again.It's still a fresh heal so if I stopped I would probably rip it open again,from my understanding AF takes over a year to get a 100% heal so I'm going to be careful with it.I didn't get any blood my last 2 bm's so I think the acute one has healed already.I trim my nails more often now also but I decided to use my pinky finger instead and I gotta say it gets in there easier even though it's harder to target :)

Bwahaha ok this is gonna be a bit personal, but regarding which fingers to apply ointment with... My MO is to use the pinky first and get some ointment in there to loosen things up, then for the second wave I use my index finger for the more targeted assault now that the enemy lines have softened up a bit :)