Hey guys, I have the pleasure, well not really to be honest, of joining this great group so to speak! In other words I would much rather not have to be part! But that is not to say how thankful I am that this site exists and that there are other people that share my pain and can give advice and I can gain know how from. I had a AF about a year ago just a small one for about a week/week and a half, but its come back with vengeance now! I had diarrhoea bout a week ago really bad and it bought it all back, but about 3 this time, great. It wasn't so bad but 3 days ago I had a massive BM and it hit the already sensitive part hard! Now I am in pain basicly 24/7 only sleep and baths give me relief! No blood at least, but the expression tight ass has a wholeeeee new meaning. The funest problem of all is I live in a foreign country and going to a Dr isn't the easiest/funest experience, so thats a no go, so any tips on how I can get this cleared up asap I got tons of uni work to get done but my life currently is just thinking about this. My diets just fibre more or less at the mo and I drink at least 8 glass's of water a day, no BM in two and a half days now though, something to be concerned about? Got a feeling I'm gonna hit by a big one and that's going to ruin any good the healing has done. Im pretty new to all this, how long do you think I'm looking at till the pain goes away more or less? From what I can tell, there not too bad AF's compared to some of the people on the site. The pain's only really bad when I pass a stool or the next few hours. Normally its just a kinda throbbing sensation, maybe because I'm thinking about it too much?? Advice would be great guys, loosing that area up I hear is important, but easier said than done as touching it at all equals pain!! I think it's getting better/healing but I might just be convincing myself of that! Anyways thanks guys for listening!!

hey londonscalling (or shall I call you 'clash'?) - welcome and I'm so sorry you are here!
I completely understand what you are talking about with the throbbing and pain 24/7. I really think you should do absolutely everything humanly possible to get to a doctor who can prescribe either nitro or diltiazem or some kind of ointment that will stop the spasms and promote blood flow in the area. (BTW, spasms can cause a throbbing sensation too.) It's the spasms that will prevent the fissure from healing, and, unfortunately, the longer the fissure goes without healing, the less likely it will heal without surgery. I hate to say this because I don't want to add to your anxiety, which I'm sure is pretty high right about now ... but the pain level can also increase quite a bit the longer you go with a chronic fissure (some people report the pain decreases, others say it gets worse). So basically what I am suggesting is that you do whatever you have to do to get the right kind of medical attention now, before the situation gets worse. In the meantime, keep up the warm/hot baths, stay with the fiber and drink lots and lots of water - many on this forum also highly recommend Miralax (or Movicol, I think it's called in UK) as a stool softener. I'm sure others will chime in to offer good suggestions too.
Where are you, if you don't mind me asking? Are you on a uni exchange program?
I really hope you get some relief very soon!

Welcome, but sorry u have to be here. Without a doc healing will be hard but getting your stool soft is the key. Miralax/movicol/restoralax works well for this, I take 1 dose a day split up at dinner and bedtime. Ibuprofen and generic robaxacet helps ease the pain some and warm baths r essential. Magnesium citrate pills help with muscle spasms as well. You may not feel spasms, but if you have burning and throbbing you probably do. If you do manage to see a doc, and I recommend you do before it becomes chronic, make sure you get nitro or nifedipine ointment, not hemmeroid ointment this will make it worse. Drink as much water as u can, especially if you're eating lots of fiber. I hope you r able to heal this yourself, if you are in a Latin country look for sufrexal, this is supposed to heal fissures, I've been using it since surgery and it seems to help healing. Good luck, I hope you find relief!

Hey guys thanks for the advice, I'm feeling kind of positive at the moment, don't really want to get the doc involved if I can avoid it. It's not hurting at the moment which is a good sign......kind of inching a bit, which if I remember rightly is normally a good sign means its healing. Lets stay positive shall we, when this bm finally comes we can access the damage afterwards. I will leave it a week/ week and a half and if there's no sign of improvement then I will just have to man up and go to the doctors. Really the worst time at the moment to get this rubbish seeing as I got so much work to do. Healed on it's own last time so hopefully happens again!! Just think if that one day didn't happen when it happened wouldn't have to be dealing with all this rubbish. Only really been 3 days so far and seems to be improving fingers crossed hey!!

I had a similar situation - got a gastro bug then got constipated and voila - bad fissures. I left it a week after the first intense pain and in hindsight (excuse the pun) think it was a really bad thing to do. The pain just didn't get any better plus the last thing you want/need is to become really really constipated (trust me, I just spent a day in hospital yesterday because of this).
Doc not as bad as you think - plus the stuff to stop the spasms works a treat. And the sooner you can get things soft and moving, the better!
All the best, London.

Thing is the pain is getting better so I assume it's getting better, actually no pain at all now. Every day feels better to me this means improvement, so I will wait it out and if it gets worse again then I will go. Its not the problem that I'm scared of the doctor it's the fact I don't have a doctor here so have to go to the hospital and I don't fancy sitting there all day to be told the same stuff I already know and being given a cream that I might not need. Anyways thanks again for the advice.

Hey guys, a quick update. It feels worst today so I went to the pharmacist and got the Nitroglycerin stuff, I told them my problems and that I wanted this stuff In cream form or whatever so I assume I'm getting the 0.2 stuff! They are making it up for 2mo, tells you something I didn't need a prescription or nothing. So how do I use this stuff then??

Hi London - I'm so sorry things got worse. First thing is to make sure that you got .2%. if you got 2%, which can happen, you should cut it with petroleum jelly or something like that. You might get instructions so follow those if you do. If you don't, then I suggest that you apply a pea size amount internally (1/4 to 1/2 inch up the butt). Be careful -the first few times you use this stuff, you might get dizzy, so make sure you can lie down for a bit after you apply it (and don't drive until you know how this will affect you). You might also get a headache - that should pass or diminish at least. Dizziness and headaches are common side effects, but they should get better. You'll probably be told to apply the stuff two to three times a day, but as I said, follow the directions they give you because the meds you're getting might be different fro what I'm familiar with.
I really hope this works for you - good luck!

Thanks for the advice, you guys are life savers, another question though, is it better to use it before or after a BM? Or is it just not that important when you use it in reality?

hmmm ... good question. Some folks here prefered the pre-BM application, because it loosens the sphincter up a bit and makes the BM a bit easier. Others preferred to apply it post-BM because they didn't want to the ointment to get 'removed' during the BM and wiping (but I don't see why you couldn't just apply more, unless it stings too much). I think it may also depend on BM timing. If you go first thing in the morning, then post-BM might be better. If you go later in the day, then you should apply it pre-BM. I don't think it really matters all that much when you use it - IMHO I think what matters is that you apply it so that the spasms are eliminated or reduced for as long a period of time as possible.
That's just my advice - others with more experience may add their 'best practice' advice too.
Good luck! I really hope it works for you!