Bettyblue,

That is very reassuring! Would you keep us posted as to how you're doing? I'm happy you made the decision and all seems to be going well!

Thanks Bettyblue that's good to hear! Especially as I fear I will have to go down that route.

Newmommy28 sorry to hear you're having a painful day are you considering the surgery then? I'd also be interested to know more about the kegel exercises your Dr suggested. I've been trying to do more kegels as ive read that they promote blood flow to the area and may help healing but I'm unsure how to go about this for fear of aggravating the AF.

Here's to us all having a better day tomorrow :)

Mummy88:

I was just thinking the same thing. It seems as though tightening those muscles may hurt the fissure? But my procto suggested it, so I guess it's worth a shot?

I'm thinking about doing the surgery. I don't know how much longer I can stay on this roller coaster ride. I'm tired of constantly worrying about what I eat, making sure I poop at the right time so I can soak in the bathtub, using my son's baby wipes to wipe my a**.... The list goes on. Prayer has helped me though. I know God is taking care of it, even though it sucks. I'm praying for wisdom re:surgery. We shall see. I hope you're doing ok today!

Hi Everyone, I think kegel exercises help healing down there. After giving birth, on top of prolapsed internal hemmorhoids (after I had them banded I got the fissure), I had a severley bruised perrineum. The specialists said that kegel exercises would help heal it and although it felt like I was doing more damage by 'squeezing the bruise', the swelling was gone after a week of doing them daily.

Does anyone have the option of Botox injections? My CRS said that the risk of incontinence after having LIS in women is higher because the sphincter is shorter than mens and he is one of those docs who refuse to do LIS for that reason. My other CRS said LIS is the way to go but the recovery time post surgery would be 3-4 weeks so that's why I went with Botox.

My plan is if the Botox wears off and the AF hasn't healed I will have another Botox injection and if that doesn't work I will stop breastfeeding. If I am still not 100% after a month of quitting breastfeeding i will then have LIS.

FDP - I don't have the option of botox, it's either the surgery or carrying on with conservative treatments Your plan sounds good, at least you know you would have tried everything before resorting to surgery, but hopefully it wont come to that! I'm trying to stop breastfeeding but my son doesn't want anything to do with the bottle! My dr says its likely my hard stools are due to bfeeding and im not replacing enough fluids, my LO has been feeding every 2hrs for almost 7 months now lol

I wanted to know if any of you have experienced somehing like this - for the past 2wks or so i've experienced a huge reduction in pain levels - the spasms and the deep burning feeling have gone. All i have is a slight stinging and slight pain on BM but I am still bleeding around 90% of the time. Sorry I may have asked this before but it's driving me crazy as I don't know whether it means I'm healing (albeit realllyyy slowly!) or whether it will flare up again soon.

Btw this is my 3rd day on movicol and its brilliant! I would definitely recommend it! I have also been on Rectogesic and I must say that so far I have not noticed much yet, fingers crossed!

Hope everyone is having a good day today! :)

On the subject of exercises, I came across this page yesterday and I will be trying these out... Who knows, it may actually help!

http://diyhealth.com/7-best-exercises-e ... ssure.html

FDP:

My doctor didn't recommend Botox injections since, apparently, they are not very successful. But that is just their experience at their practice, so maybe if your doctor has had more success its worth a shot!

Thanks for responding to my question about kegels. I'm going to start doing then regularly- hopefully it will help!

Mummy88:

It sounds to me like you are healing! No pain is a great sign. My doctor said not to be discouraged about seeing blood- since that could be a sign of new tissue starting to grow. I have had pain each time I have a bm for weeks now. And my bm's are soft. I have no clue what I'm doing wrong, if anything. This is such a long, horrible process.

Thank you for sharing those exercises! It's worth a shot, I think. I've been avoiding exercises so as to not aggravate the fissure but maybe that it where I'm going wrong...

Thanks Newmommy28 - that's very reassuring to hear, it's just that I always get worried when I see blood! Especially as I worry it means the fissure keeps tearing!

In case it helps you, my big changes over the past few wks have been to drink LOADS of water (as I am not normally very good at drinking during the day and still bfeeding to boot) using vaseline before having a BM (this has helped protect the fissure from rough stools to an extent), cutting out chocolate (although I hope this is just a coincidence lol) exercising/kegels, and eating more fruit and veg - including prunes and dried apricots. The difference in pain levels for me has been quite dramatic, I know its only been a couple of wks and that im still bleeding but I'm hoping this means I'm healing as I know that fissures have a tendency to be an on/off ailment, but at least I'm not in the constant pain I used to be.

Hope today has been a good day! :)

Thanks mummy28!

It's tough getting enough water when you have a newborn. How do you do it? ;) Especially when going out running errands. Since pregnancy/labor, there have been a few times I pretty much peed myself. Literally- peed my pants. I swear I feel ancient, like an 80 year old. I should just start wearing diapers now! I already have the hot water bottle!

Thanks for your comments. I will put them into practice for sure! I don't know if I can cut out chocolate though!!

Hi Mummys, hope today is a good day for you both!

mummy88: it sounds like you are definitely healing. i had the same experience. i read somewhere that you know you are healing when you have more good days than bad. i would count anything that isn't the horror of passing glass shards and spasms for hours afterwards a good day, so congratulations you must be on the mend!

Breastfeeding every 2 hours! wow you are running a milk factory LOL. have you tried cup feeding your baby? i had issues b'feeding and the lactation consultant said if baby is hungry they will eat no matter what. I had to sometimes feed my baby breastmilk using a syringe and a cup. i just tipped the cup in his mouth and he lapped it up. he was only days old though... also has your baby started solids? if so, maybe increase the solids to give youself a break..?

Newmommy28: kegel exercises will definitely help to stop you from peeing your pants. regular sex works better though and is more fun :). buy a nice big aluminum drink bottle and treat it like your baby. don't let it leave your side and 'feed' it water when its empty. i find i can drink so much more when its with me all the time. it does feel like im pregnant again though because im on the toilet all the time but that's a good thing because i know im getting enough water. check that your pee is light in colour. the darker the pee the more dehydrated you are. if you go to the toilet and find that your pee is dark, drink a couple of glasses of water right away.

i have been having a little bit of chocolate everyday (think im addicted!) and haven't found it to do any damage. just soft milk chocolate with no nuts. dark chocolate has caffeine in it so not good if you're breastfeeding.

mummys, I also want to say how important it is to make sure your CRS is good. my first CRS who banded my internal hemms didn't even offer rectogesic until the 2nd follow up visit 5 weeks later where i was in tears because i was still in so much pain. on the packaging it says to use it right after surgery so i could have started healing sooner if id known that. so i got a second opinion because i didnt trust the guy after that. my 2nd CRS said his botox success rate was 80%. i would have preferred it to be 90-100 but 80% is still 80 out of 100 so chances of success were still pretty high. Ask your CRS how many of THEIR female patients have had success with botox or LIS to get the best indication of how good they specifically are at fixing people.