Hi Lorie. How are you doing now? Better I hope! I developed an anal fissure in September and, like you, it stopped me dead in my tracks. I've never given birth, but the level of pain these suckers cause is crazy! I've been healthy and active my whole life, going to the gym a few times a week, monster hikes on the weekends and working 12 hour shifts at the hospital. Long story short, I ended up taking 3 MONTHS off work because of the pain and subsequent mental duress. I felt like my body had totally betrayed me. I wanted to tell you something my naturopathic doctor told me that helped me a lot: Your body is trying to tell you something; if you listen, you'll start on the road to recovery. I know it sounds corny, but I wish I would have thought this way in the beginning instead of conceptualizing my body as the enemy. You said you are a teacher and I'd imagine that's a high stress job. Try to be kind to yourself while you heal. Maybe see about taking a medical leave for a bit so you don't have to stress about going back to work so soon. Also, I'm 36 and it turns out my body doesn't like me eating the same (delicious) garbage food as when I was younger. Cutting out gluten seemed to help me quite a bit, but I think it's different for everyone. Anyway, thanks for sharing your story and best wishes for a speedy recovery!

I was diagosed with an anal fissure in 2007. I had conservative treatment (i.e. no surgery) which included diet changes, suppositories, stools sofeners and a calcium channel blocker for a while. Since this time I’ve had hemorrhoid banding twice, and the second time got some narrowing of the anal canal. The two things that I’ve found that work for me are Restoralax, and anal sphincter massage. I recently found a reference for the massage, but I do it a bit differently (insert index and middle finger and dialate sphincter manually for a few minutes in the morning) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articl ... 30-438.pdf