Newbie to the board but glad I found it. I'm 31 and going nuts with 2 fissures.
They've only gotten really horrible in the last two weeks or so, but I'm already to the point where I don't know if I can deal with it anymore.
After my the birth of my first daughter 2 years ago I think I developed a fissure, but I thought until last week that it was hemorrhoids. My midwife at the time (wasn't seeing a primary care doc) didn't even look before giving me advice on how to deal with it (not great advice, not exceptionally happy with her), dealt with some pain but it eventually seemed to mostly clear up (with occasional relapses--but nothing horrible) leaving that tag thing behind. Had my 2nd child 6 weeks ago and I'm pretty sure that's when things started this time, there was some pain and blood, but nothing unmanageable, and since it was a "butt" issue, I didn't really want to go in for it (too embarrasing :oops:) and so just lived with it. Then I got a mastitis infection, went on some strong antibiotics and totally messed up my digestive tract. Diarrhea followed by constipation and then back and forth like that for a bit must have been the straw that broke the camel's back.
Still tried to deal with it on my own, there was a lot of blood--more than I had ever seen from a bm before, often couldn't see anything in the bowl but blood. But the pain was still not debilitating, it hurt, but I could cope, and I still just thought it was hemorrhoids. After some searching for natural hemorrhoid remedy's online, I started realizing that my symptom's were more of an AF (which I had never heard of before). Things were getting worse and more painful. My husband asked when I was going to see a doctor, and I told him "maybe next week if it doesn't clear up". The very next day I had the worst BM of my life ( absolutely awful!!!) and made an appt for that very afternoon. I was diagnosed with a fissure, but since I'm breastfeeding they didn't want to give me the nitro cream so they gave me some lidocain gel and vicodin and scheduled me for a surgical consult.
Just saw the surgeon yesterday and they found a 2nd fissure in the exam. I got instructions to use Diltiazem 0.1% (which I'm reading might be a mistake in the dosage????) warm baths, and colace (have been on this for weeks--off to buy mirilax today). Instructions are to come back in 6 weeks for a follow-up and to talk about surgery if things aren't healing.
Had another awful morning bm today, and seriously I don't know if I can wait 6 weeks. The lidocain isn't working. I'm scared to take the Vicodin as it makes things harder, and nothing's cutting the pain. I feel like I can't take care of my kids well while I'm in pain or trying to deal with a bm. I'm scared to eat--and scared not to eat (both because I'm breastfeeding, and I hear that it causes your stools to become harder if you're not eating and they're sitting in your tract longer). I'm frustrated that my my Diltiazem may be the wrong dosage and not doing anything (besides making me itch and feel worse). I'm scared of surgery, but it's starting to sound better than to try to deal with all of this indefinitely!

We've had a rather crappy year so far, with major water damage to our house from ice dams (having to move out and live in a hotel for 6 weeks while they worked on it), a tough pregnancy, our house getting hit by a tornado (no joke, but not like Joplin at all--our house is still livable, but we have like 70k in repairs to do--mostly exterior), a horrible labor with kid #2, kid #2 ending up in the Nicu for a while (she's fine now), job uncertainty for my husband, and now a flippin rip in my bumhole!? The worst part is I don't feel like I want to share this latest bit with my usual support structure. (I'm not listing everything to make you feel sorry for me--we're coping, and there are many people who have it much worse than we do and have suffered serious loss... but listing because this seems a safe place to vent and these things have all been stressful and this feels like the capstone).
I seriously don't know if I can make it 6 weeks. ...I don't know if I can do one more horrible bm. Should I just schedule the surgery and get it over with??

Aww, Pearlie, sorry you're having such a horrible time - fissures are the last thing on earth you need right now.
I think if you've had fissures for a couple of years, and now they've retorn, surgery may be a good idea - at least you would heal afterwards, suffering day after day is no joke, especially with little ones to look after.
At the end of the day, only you can make the decision to have the surgery, but most of us here that have had it are very pleased with the outcome, including myself. My one regret is not having it sooner!

Welcome to the forum Pearlie :)
You have been through a lot and you definitely deserve to have a place to vent!
The diltiazem does sound like the wrong dose. Mine was 2%.
The Miralax seems to work better than Colace for much of us so that may give you a little extra relief if you decide to wait out the 6 weeks.
I really don't like to give my personal opinion on rushing into surgery but let me just say this- if I had it all to do over, I would have did it as soon as my fissure became chronic and I mean 6 weeks, not 8! Lol.
I had false hope for too long and could have been on my way to healing much faster had I not thought I could somehow find a miracle cure or if I did everything by the book and avoided any and everything that could hurt the fissure I would heal In the end I realized I prolonged my suffering when I could have used 6 weeks to heal after LIS instead of 8 months of suffering plus 6 weeks to really heal...By the time I had the surgery I was mentally and physically worn out.
If you feel like you can't make it 6 more weeks and you have a CRS who is willing to go ahead with the LIS, I personally don't think you are making a bad choice! The main thing you want to do is get the diet and stool softeners all figured out so that when you have LIS you want need to be experimenting and sorting out all that.
I wish you luck and good luck with the Miralax. Give it about three days to get the best results.
Please feel free to vent here. This place was a Godsend for me during my darkest days with my fissure. It felt good to talk where others understood.

Hey Pearlie! Wow - you really have been through a lot! The AF is really the last thing you need right now! I'm glad that your CRS is willing to do the surgery. Six weeks is a long time to wait when you're in so much pain. I know, I was there too! You are the one who must decide when it's time for surgery - and you will know when you are ready. I would advise going in with a list of questions for your surgeon to answer, and if you are comfortable after your questions have been answered, then you can go forward. Among the most important questions to have answered by your surgeon before proceeding, in my opinion, are "how many of these surgeries have you done?" and "what is your complication rate?". A good CRS will have done hundreds of LISs and will have a very low complication rate.
I'm so sorry you are suffering! I hope you find relief very soon! :D

thanks for the thoughts... I appreciate the ideas and hearing from everyone else's experience.
I'm off to Target in a bit and Miralax tops the list. That and some baked beans (heard they were helpful), and some Gold Bond powder--perhaps keeping things dry will help over the weekend until I can figure out if they messed up my prescription.
Any other things I should add to the shopping list?
I've been changing my diet the past few weeks, but got some good ideas here to boil the veggies instead of going raw. I was thinking roughage--but didn't think about it being just that--rough. I have some other food questions, but will post them over on that side of the board.
I don't know if my CRS is willing to do the surgery yet or not... but I think I could push for it. hopetoheal--great advice on the questions to ask first. I appreciate it. I'm almost thinking that since it seems that surgeries are scheduled out a bit, it might be good to get one on the calendar, and then I could cancel it if I changed my mind in a few weeks...?

My advice is also to try to calm down and stop trying all different things at once. Stress does terrible things to us and u certainly must be stressed. What the girls have told you is excellent. So, just take the miralax, use the diltiazem cream whatever the strength (see doc when u can if ur concerned??) and use Vaseline to help ease out poops. I remember trying all sorts all in the same week as u are that desperate I know. I wudn't take the beans though, musical fruit and all that!! Tooting bloody hurts when ur fissures and spasms are bad so don't make things worse. Good Luck and stick around.. P.S Bad luck has to run out so just u wait and see :D

hi Pearlie,
thanks for sharing, Im very new too. i have a similar story and i know the pain is very real. Hang in there, sounds like you are doing the right thing. Hope your kids give you some space to heal.
if you are interested in reading a positive story then check 'success stories' at the end. Good luck!!!

PS regarding the "sucess story" it's in "comments and suggestions"

Hey Pearlie - yep, I would schedule the surgery, just in case. Others may chime in here, but in my opinion it's better to have it scheduled and not need it than need it and not have it scheduled. Sometimes fissures get really bad very quickly, so if you're doc is willing and you have gone over the risks and benefits of the surgery and you are comfortable with the operation, then I'd say book it! You can always cancel later if you get better. That's my opinion, anyway. :D

Hi Pearlie,
I feel like we're twins! I had a baby 2 yrs ago and got a fissure. It was healed when the baby started solids and I discovered miralax. Ahhh, but that was then...and now I have a 10 week old and a brand new fissure.
With me, the miralax was all I needed to heal the first time and might actually work well for you this time around. With my second baby, the miralax didn't smoothen things out as well. I have to take it now twice a day (AM and PM) and prune juice..then pray to the poop gods that everything comes out smooth as silk...not the way I like to live life!
I had read good things about nitroglycerin and got my GP to prescribe me some. It's interesting how every doc has a different opinion..mine felt that nitro would be better than nefidipine. As of right now the nitro works pretty good. It has parted the red sea (sort of speak) but I rarely feel the BM or any pain. Where I'm at now is that I'm having bleeding but absolutely no pain. So I'm wondering if I either have another hemorrhoid (because I'm itchy) or I the fissure is just there and bleeding....
Anyhow I encourage you to use miralax..I did while nursing. I have a feeling it will do the trick!
goodluck!