Hello all,
I have had my fissure for about 7 weeks. I had some oral surgery in February and in the crazy
post-surgery liquid and squishy food diet, I passed two very large and hard stools. Wish I could take that mashed potato and protein.. drink diet back, but alas. Unfortunately it took me
about a week to get to my doctor who simply didn't see or think fissure, told me I might have
and internal hem. and sent me on my way with some suppositories. Well, that pain increased
tenfold the first time I used one of the suppositories. I managed to get an appointment with
a gastro doc a few weeks later who immediately knew what was up and got me on some nifedipine cream.
I'm still hopeful that I am healing. I feel better everyday that I follow the regimen, but if I stray....oh boy. By the way, my pain usually is not too bad during a bm, it is for hours afterward...sometimes the whole day until I wake up next a.m. But, each day that I follow
the nifed. cream, fiber, sitz bath, miralax, good diet protocol, I feel a little better. The biggest factor
for me is keeping things soft, soft, soft, soft....especially since I usually go twice and sometimes three times a day.
Sadly, exercise seems to irritate me. Is that true for everyone else with an AF?

Welcome! Sorry u r suffering. I had to stop everything, treadmill, gardening, even playing with my kids became impossible. Best to take it easy until u see if the ointment and diet r working for u. When this started last spring for me I grit my teeth and worked thru it but I think that made it worse and because it took so long to see a CRS, it became chronic. Hopefully u caught it early and can heal easily. This forum is a lifesaver every question is answered for you on here somewhere. Good luck!

Welcome from me too! Seems that you are on the right track, though wish doctors would get it right for us when we have what feels like knives when having a BM. Only research on the net brought me to the fact that I had a fissure. And took three doctors before they actually examined me!
Am also on Nifedipine, since 31st March, but have come off it for the last few days as it was giving me increased spasms, as were the Sitz baths. Beginning to wonder if I am just weird, as it should be the other way round...
I too have given up exercise- even walking for a short distance has given me a lot of pain, so spend a lot of time on my sofa, like a Jane Austin heroine.
Good luck with your healing, and you have come to the right place!

Welcome - I'm so sorry you're in pain, but you've come to the right place. The folks here are very helpful and supportive. Your story sounds much like mine. I can't count how many times doctors told me to put things up my butt for hemmies. I'm actually pretty sure that's what made the situations worse for me. I don't get any exercise anymore either. I've been on the couch for months. (Which Jane Austen character are you, Em? I feel like Lady Bertram - I think I need a pug!)
It does sound like you are on the right track. Hopefully, you caught it early enough that the conservative measures will do the job - good luck and stay soft!

Welcome.
It sounds like a case of keep doing what you're doing and don't stray from the soft and narrow!

I've also had that greater pain that comes on after BM - starting a couple of hours after BM and then lasting a few hours - when sleep and work were hard going. I also used to get what I described as spasms - sort of sharp pain in the anus and an uncontrolled twitch.
The good news is it has been a couple of weeks since I had those later, greater pains; and I've been following a similar full range of conservative methods: diltiazem, fibre, water, sensible diet (lots of fruit, veg and soup, and nothing that's hard or hot on the way out), sitz bath and macrogol (e.g. Laxido, Movicol, Miralax). I also favour warm pads to sit on, I do try to get moderate exercise and I take a simple magnesium supplement (suggested somewhere and I tried it - the doctors said it wouldn't do any harm!).
For me there is no strong correlation between exercise and improvement in the AF - but exercise certainly does not seem to make things worse for me. However I would add that in the bad phase of the pain it could be uncomfortable to get much exercise. I mainly walk: gentle exercise but a fair bit of it.
I only moved onto what seems a better diltiazem (a bit like the nifed.) and from a lactulose to a macrogol a couple of weeks ago - so that's all it's taken for a substantial improvement, so I'm hopeful that you'll follow a similar route fairly soon.
When I was in the painful stage I asked my GP if there was anything to ease the pain and they said try ibuprofen or paracetamol and they also prescribed some lidocaine cream (a mild local anaesthetic). I tried all of these but I'm not sure that they helped much. Although as I always note there was no control experiment - it might have been worse if I hadn't used these.
And finally, although it's clear most of us here have anal fissures, it does seem as if different approaches work with different efficacy for different people - so again stick with whatever works for you, and give it a chance.
Good luck. Stay soft.