I have been a huge fan of this site for a long time now, about 4 months, and its taken me this long to actually post about my story.
It has certainly helped to read others that have had similar experiences and I have tried almost everything that people have posted about here.
So here goes, Im a 30 year old female that has in the past (approx 4 years ago) developed an anal fissure. As a result I developed an unsightly skin tag that hung outside of my anus. My doctor (in australia at the time) recommended rectogesic ointment,- which at that time seemed to heal it up and it no longer bothered me.
4 years later, (I am now living in America) I felt the fissure coming back. I couldn't sleep at night, at one time the pain was so bad my partner took me to the emergency room, I could hardly walk without tears welling up in my eyes, I couldn't bear to go to the bathroom, and when I did copious amounts of blood came out. I cried ALL THE TIME. I couldn't travel, or go anywhere- it was awful. I found a proctologist who examined me and said I had an anal fissure and he prescribed- You guessed it: FIBER and sent me on my way, but not before recommending I have the skin tag removed. I thought about it, and decided to go ahead with it as I thought it looked ugly and was somewhat annoying.
I had an "external hemmoroidectemy" done 4 weeks ago. I will not go into how horrendous the recovery was, (sitting in a warm bath for 7 hours a day- pooping in the bath because it was SO painful) but I am now regretting having had it done.
Not only was I in total agony for 3 weeks straight- unable to actually leave my own bathroom, going from the bath to the toilet- It has done NOTHING to help my FISSURE, infect I feel it has made it worse.
I have however had to develop a plan, because I was starting to feel i would NEVER be able to rejoin society or have a normal life. I followed advice from everyone on this forum, pretty much to the letter, I feel I would have sat on my head all day if someone said it would make it better, I am now for the first time IN MY LIFE having a BM everyday. and they are soft. I still have pain and bleeding but I feel like im finally getting somewhere.

I started by eating an "activa-Fiber" yoghurt every morning. I also take a probiotic culture at the same time.
I drink 2 ounces of Aloe vera juice (disgusting) in the morning
I have a salad with lettuce, lentils, chickpeas, avocado, artichoke for lunch ( NO corn, tomato or onions- Ive heard these are bad for fissures)
I have soup for dinner- vegetable soup only, and maybe 1 piece of whole grain bread.
NO red meat, chicken, or anything fried. NO alcohol, coffee, sweets/candy or soda.
I know- HOW BORING!!!!
I also DRINK WATER while eating ANY FOOD, it helps everything digest better and prevents your BM from being hard.
Following this made a HUGE difference to my BM's. They were coming out soft and smooth with less pain than before.
However I was still in pain.
Still taking 2 long hot baths a day, unable to wear jeans or a swimsuit.
I went away on vacation last week for my birthday for the weekend and ate mostly seafood and veggies, and drank some alcohol and ate 1 sausage...I didn't have a BM for 5 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I felt like I had taken 10 steps backwards, when I did have a BM I bled like crazy and the pain left me unable to even sit down.
So here I am now, I have added ZINC, MAGNESIUM, VIT B6, COD LIVER OIL to the daily repertoire (thanks to suggestions made on here)
I have also gone out and bought some lansinoh - (lanolin breast cream for sore cracked nipples) Thanks to a mothers suggestion on here, and I am for the first time in MONTHS not in constant pain.
(I will also say that rectogesic is not available in the USA so I ordered it online, and I can no longer use it as the headaches are too much for me to bear now on top of the fissure pain.)
So there it is, a work in progress. I am constantly reading everyones experiences on here, also a site called boardsailor.com that my proctologist recommended has good advice to fissure sufferers.
I am far from healed, but being educated is certainly the key. I wish I had read all this BEFORE I did the damage.
I have also read that when you sit in the bath you should "visualise" blood flowing to the area to promote healing, and do exercises in the bath ( tightening and relaxing sphincter muscle) to promote sphincter relaxation.
like I said, i'd try anything!!!!
Thats my story for now, Im hoping this Lansinoh cream will do wonders along with all the vitamins etc.
Thanks for reading my post and Thankyou everyone for their advice.

Glad you finally posted. I know what you mean, that you'd try anything to stop the pain. I ordered so much stuff from Amazon, the UPS truck was a daily visitor! Plus who wants to go out and shop when you have to walk around in pants that always ride up your a##. It's hard to be descreet when trying to pull your pants out.
I think retrogesic is the same a nitroglycerine .2%. You can get it here but you must get it made at a compound pharmacy. Your Dr just writes an Rx.
Doesn't it suck when your whole life is ruled by your Anus?

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