Hello, all --
Long-time lurker, first time poster. AF struggle started about a year and a half ago. After seeing GP in February finally spent about 6 months on colace and fiber and it seemed to do the trick. Started weening off colace and dropping fiber amount a little to see if I could stop. Having mixed results, more bleeding this morning but no pain (pain actually has rarely been an issue for me, thank goodness).
I guess I'm still concerned something more is going on. Only exam done by the doctor with visual and digital exam. He did offer me an appointment with a surgeon, but since things had turned around I didn't bother. He figured I may be on softener and fiber forever, which I guess I'm fine with...But should I be heading to a specialist for an endoscopy or something to get a better look? Maybe I've got too may friends in my life with cancer, but I'm such a worry-wort I have a lot of anxiety that this is something more serious. If it was something more serious, would fiber/colace still do the trick and, in effect, mask symptoms?

Hey there,
I understand your fear and I guess there really are no guarantees of not having anything without a proper test, but chances are if it hurts or has hurt when you had a bm then you just have a fissure.
There are people who manage and live with a fissure for years by using stool softeners and fiber. There have been people on this forum who had managed to feel pretty good and questioned having LIS because there fissure was pretty manageable. So yeah, I'd say taking the stool softeners, etc can help manage and mask the fissure, but it usually returns with a vengeance.

ps...
a colonoscopy would probably be the test offered, and I think it's always a good idea to see a specialists (crs) who can visualize your fissure and treat you if it comes down to needing surgery, which by the way is great and will get rid of the stupid fissure for good!

Thanks -- I guess the other thing is that I haven't actually experienced pain since the very beginning. In fact, thought thing were fine until I saw blood again, and surprised there was no discomfort. I know some chronic fissures can be painless, so I'll probably take the specialist appointment at least for the peace of mind.

Well Afus,
If you haven't experienced any spasms or fissure pain and are having blood then I definitely would get a colonoscopy.
I know this may sound crazy but if you are willing to give it a try and stop the softeners and eat some rough foods like chips and nuts and still don't have the shards of glass feeling then you may not have a fissure
There were times when I saw blood and had no pain and then other times, it hurt like hell and no blood though