Hello I am new here but not new to anal fissures!! I've had them for years but was only diagnosed with one 7 years ago. Anyway (what a lovely topic!) they come and go and I use creams, try to keep my stools soft, lean forward when having a BM and have sitz baths when I need. However, my jobs requires me to sit for long periods of the day and I sit on a cushon with a hole in the middle as my legs and bottom become painful and I try to walk at lunchtime to relieve the pain and also increase the blood flow to any fissure I might have. To get to the point, I may be painfree(ish) with a BM and it may be soft and I feel no pain afterwards but after sitting at my desk for a couple of hours I feel pain in my bottom. I am a bit anal (pardon the pun) about it in that I check when I get home to see if I have a fissure or tear and most of the time I don't have one. I think they could possibly be further inside where it is too difficult to see but I have noticed and I don't know if this is normal or not but if laying on your back, at 6 o'clock inside the anus what looks like a red line going all the way back. It isn't bleeding and I rarely have any blood when passing a stool. Is this normal? If not what is it? Could it be causing the pain when sitting for so long? I went to the doctors in September 2011 and she could see nothing (although I didn't mention the red line because it is very obvious it is there and so thought it must be normal because she said she couldn't see anything). I don't know how long it has been there at least 7 months but could be for much much longer. So I was thinking if it's that obvious surely it would bleed or I'd have more pain when I pass a stool, unless it is perfectly normal. It feels a bit more comfortable when standing. When I get up in the morning it's great, no pain, feels fine it's as if the ache of sitting all day has gone so I just want to put my mind at rest really.
Thank you.