Last night I had a BM that was painful (maybe a 5-6 on a scale of 1-10) and of course, there was some blood on the TP when I wiped. Afterward I immediately hopped into the shower, did my usual nightly routine in there, and when I was done, let the tub fill up with a few inches of really hot water. I've never taken a sitz bath since developing my fissure 5 weeks ago, so this was my first one. I sat in it for about 15 minutes, and it seemed to help with the post-BM pain.

When I got out, I dried off and then busted out my handy little mirror. I'm still waiting to get in to see my GP so she can refer me to a CRS, and I have no idea where my fissure is or if I have one or several (although I have convinced myself that I have one fissure in the 3:00 position and that I will die of anal cancer), but sometimes I can't help inspecting the area to see if I can't discover something on my own. I touched my finger to my anal ring to see if I could feel any pain that might give a hint to where my fissure(s) is (are). I didn't feel anything, but my finger came away with just the tiniest bit of blood on it. Not like a red drop on my finger, but a very, very light smear of something on the skin of my fingertip. I wiped it on a piece of white TP and sure enough, it was a faint streak of blood.

I know the point of a sitz bath is to get the blood flowing to the area, so is it possible that this is a good thing? That if I was still slightly bleeding it meant the blood was getting down there to do its healing thing? After I noticed this I dabbed the area with a cotton pad run under warm water and then dried the area with another cotton pad. Nothing showed up then and I did it again this morning and both pads came away completely clean. I guess I'm just wondering if a tiny bit of blood after a sitz bath is a normal thing, or something else to have anxiety over!

It wasn't a result of the sitz bath. It was just leftover from the BM. IT COULD BE CAUSED BY THE FISSURE or internal hemmy.

Really? Even though at that point it had been half an hour since the BM?

The sits bath will not cause bleeding. You description was not that much blood, I would think it was just residual from the BM.

Thank you :) sorry to be a pill - I know how fortunate I am that I'm not in agonizing pain 24/7 like some of you poor folks. My health anxiety has been on overdrive the last few days and I guess I'm looking for any reason to panic. Thanks again :)

No need to apologize, thats what we are all here for. Good luck