Hullo i'm Toby, sorry about the title but i thought i'd grab your attentions by your respective sore rings!:whince:
I've had a fissure since august last year. :D
i caught an infection from a horsefly(uk) and my arm blew up like a balloon. i was prescribed antibiotics with clavulanic acid which cured the infection but made me sneeze from the wrong orifice!
i ate lots of honey and natural yoghurt (to counter effects of antibiotics on gut enzymes) along with my normal egg free, vegetarian diet.
until a week later came and i was due to go to a music festival i'd bought a ticket for months previously....
i shopped for food before i left and tried to keep healthy, lots of nuts:evil: and fruit. long story short(er!) i had a great time but ate a couple of servings of nachos with cheese and lots of jalapeno. not sure if it was diet or anxiety over not wanting to soil myself that caused me to get very constipated toward the end of the fest.
Cue anal fissure!
i went to the docs a couple of times and explained my symptoms (fresh blood on the paper and intense pain) and was told i had piles. prescribed cream, prescribed suppositories.
finally diagnosed right by another doc, prescribed rectogesic(nitroglycerine, headaches! ) after an overly "vigorous" exam.
which alleviated but didn't heal. referred to colorectal specialist who prescribed anoheal(diltiazem 2%) which has had little effect.
I'm due for an appointment next week after i described a weird back pain i've been experiencing. i dismissed it for a long time as just an ache but realised it coincided with a full bowel. he mentioned an exam with a microscope so i presume he'd be checking i don't have colitis :roll:
throughout i have been unable to produce the toothpaste like bm's needed to heal. i eat lots of fruit and veg but i've obviously been doing something wrong, probably not enough water. hence the title, seriously it's like a turdis back there! i don't know how many kurics but enough to have me in the most pain i've ever been in.
lifestory over.. sorry i'm bad at introductions.
I'm Toby, i love(d) cycling, i'm 22 and i wish i could go back in time! fun times with good friends are of great value but no price is worth a pound of flesh, taken by the drop each morning!
i hope to read lots of your advice and success stories! i've been offered botulism injections but it's not really an option for me until i've nailed a consistent diet and BM fandango. i'd much rather heal naturally
Thanks

Hi Toby,
Welcome!
I know I probably drink too much water, but it's better that than the opposite. I found with my daughter who had a fissure last xmas, that the main problem wasn't that she won't eat veggies, but that she wasn't drinking enough and regularly.
Now I have her in the habit of drinking a glass of water as soon as she wakes up and a big bottle she brings to school, another after school, another with dinner and one at bedtime.
They say 6-8 8oz glasses/day for an adult, but I think I drink more like 11.
Have you ever tried to keep track of how much fibre you have in a day and how much is soluble rather than insoluble?
Also, if the diet thing is too hard right now, there is always stool softeners like movicol. That seems to be the most popular along with milk of magnesia (MOM). Both of these seem to be alright over the long term. The movical does affect people differently though, so take with caution.
Anyways, sounds like you've done your homework.
Hope this heals for you quickly!
-Tanya

i try to drink 1.5 litres a day. 11x8floz is coming out as 2.6L! i've just bought a 'onegreenbottle' which is great!
i recommend them for anyone who hates the taste of plastic bottles in the sun. great for keeping track too.
i drink one of those and various herbal teas with honey throughout the day.
i have tried to keep track of fibresoluble/insoluble but it seems to be optional whether they have to specify on the label in the uk(correct me if i'm wrong! if i am a lot more of it has been insoluble than i planned!)
say something like dried apricots says 4.2g per 50grammes fibre. surely a lot of that is soluble but they don't specify right?
successfully had my first toothpaste like BM in a long time this morn! i find it's not a struggle getting it out for my but more a deep meditation to not spasm directly after. i always sitz after too but with no salt.
I'd not wanted to use movicol because i didn't like the sound of the ingredients. poly ethelyne glycol doesn't sound like it has any place in the human body! but today i drank half a sachet at 11:30am and tother half at 5:30pm. fingers crossed it's worked..... i've used lactulose syrup before not to much effect.
I had another small bm after my evening meal and it was small but hurt like piranha. i've had a couple of these extremely painful- after sting ones recently and it's worried me. bad to the point i can't really walk that well after.
I had a look back there with a powerful spotlight and what i saw was not good!! i've not had a proper look back there for a while.... a small tag i think near my main fissure(!?) near my perinium and red raw all around my ring. spanning about 2/3cm out from center.
by the looks of it each fold is deep red at the bottom giving the appearance of 5-10 potential fissures and main one deep and yawning wide! my sheriffs badge looks like bad geography.
I've been experiencing itch from the diltiazem ointment which has been unbearable at times, i've woken to find myself scratching and had to stop myself. more deep meditations! some days fine though, no side effects whatsoever!

Think it'll be nappyrash (zinc)cream or pile (hydrocortisone+others) cream if this itch doesn't subside tonight

Hey Toby,
sounds like you might be having a reaction to the anoheal/diltiazem...
Nifedipine is less likely to cause a reaction.
Sorry you're suffering from the cream now ontop of the AF!
epsom salts in your sitz bath can be soothing. They don't sting like sodium salt. They have a lot of magnesium in them, which is a natural muscle relaxant.
drying with a hairdryer afterwards is good for a rash, or just making sure it thoroughly air dries before you dress.
Diaper rash cream will be soothing on the outside.
I wouldn't use hydrocortisone over the long term though.
I guess I have written a ridiculous number of posts! :)
I spend far too much time checking this board in hopes I get a good idea from someone else.
It is always nice to 'pass it on' too.
hope your doc can give you an alternative topical.
-Tanya

hiya tanya,
Yeah i assumed that after first felt the itch, but laid off and continued a few days later stupidly. should have been straight on to the doc! i'm not shy i just try to avoid any more dealings with docs than necessary. i've been to the docs maybe 5 times in my adult life and very little as a child, i'm not even immunized. pretty organic human(apart from the fluoride!).
Not gonna type long coz it's after 1am here....
thanks for the tips, i've always tried to air dry but sometimes not possible. i have decent hair growth back there and i think it's been effecting the healing process.
pass it on indeed :D you should be proud, a little care and understanding goes a long way.
my medicine would be cannabis tonight, muscle relaxant and a mental tonic. i'd never touch an antidepressant, but a little pinch of a plant is another matter.
The forbidden medicine.
it's how i found this forum too.
Cheers tobias