by jr2 » 08 Nov 2013, 15:21
After 25 years of multiple fissures, healings, more fissures, etc., I think I've kind of seen and felt it all. I don't think there's really a single or simple answer as to what a re-tear feels like for any one person. Fissures don't always tear or re-tear at the same depth or severity. So, you can have a very minor, surface re-tear that doesn't cause spasms and can't even be seen on visual inspection by a doctor, but you know something's going on there. Then, add in the fact that during the various stages of healing all kinds of different irritations and pains can occur, and maybe even minor re-tears do happen that don't necessarily take you back to the beginning but are aggravating nonetheless. On top of that, there is probably also some "muscle memory" of the injury. So, even after the actual wound has healed, the muscle is still receiving messages from the brain as if the wound is still there. And if all that isn't enough, because fissures can take such a long time to heal, and the pain can be severe for a very long time, there is, as in any chronic pain condition, a re-wiring that takes place in the central nervous system that makes what would normally not even register to you as the perception of pain, seem very painful.
I never understood how wide and complex the range of fissure pain can be for different people until reading countless stories by countless people. Fissures can cause pain on BMs, sometimes severe, for some people, and not others. Fissures can cause burning for some people and not others. Fissures can cause itching in some people and not others. Then there is coccyx pain, pain in the vagina or testicles, pain with urination. Some people have pain when they walk, others feel better with activity. Some people feel razor blades when they poop, others only feel stinging set in afterward.
Any way you slice them, fissures are a medically under-rated affliction for the range of suffering they cause. (ouch, pardon the pun)