Anal Fissure Support Forum

[ouchgirl]

Hey everyone. About two years ago, I posted a success story about Miralax helping me heal. I also talked about things that worked for me, and things that didn't. Unfortunately, I've had a few relapses since then (but nothing as bad as when I was in the worst of it), learned some stuff and tried new things. That said, even when I had relapses, I'd go months without much of a problem, but the fissure always seemed to rear its very ugly head again at some point.

So I feel like a vet when it comes to fissures, and I'm back to talk about the things I tried since March of 2021, those that didn't work, and more importantly, the one thing that I think really does, which is Pranicura.

But first...

Miralax is great. I still think it's a very good way to soften your poops and make it easier to heal, and I wish I'd done this in the very beginning when my fissure was still acute. But for me, Miralax sort of stopped working as effectively as I wanted it to at some point.

So I tried a couple of other things. One was anal dilation. There is good and bad to this. The good part is it makes you feel like you're in some sort of control, that you're actually doing something proactive. And in some ways, the dilation did help. It made me less afraid of my anatomy and helped me to relax a little. I used small vaginal dilators from a company called Intimate Rose (you can get these on amazon). I did seem to start healing, but then doing the dilation caused a new fissure on the other side. Thankfully, I recognized what it was, stopped dilating, and did the stuff I recommended in my other post (namely hot sitz baths), and it healed pretty quick. Late last year, after I was dealing with another recurrence, I tried dilating again. This time I used dilators made specifically for anal dilating, also made by Intimate Rose. For the most part, that went okay, but again, this caused that newer fissure I had to pop open once more, and so I stopped the dilating, a little disappointed that this just doesn't seem to work for me as well as I'd have liked.

Another thing I'd tried since my last post was infrared light therapy. There's a post by LemonMan that talks about this. I'd done this off and on, and for the most part, I think it's helpful, but it's a commitment as well. The other thing you need to be careful about is how much heat you're getting from the unit. During a recurrence late last year when I wanted to nip the fissure in the bud, I apparently put the unit too close and ended up with a lot of bleeding, kind of giving myself a heat burn. But even though I don't use this anymore, I think it's a good tool to use so long as you're careful about how you use it.

Next up is the good old heating pad. Again, here's a good tool to both soothe your fissure while you're sitting for long periods, but also to hopefully get your blood moving, which is good for healing. But crank that heating pad up as high as it will go like I did (because more heat must mean more healing, right?) and you end up with what I'd call a heat burn (like from the infrared being too close), draining your skin of moisture, and making that fissure even worse. So if you use a heating pad, keep it on low. Slow and steady!

Before I get to the Pranicura, there's one more product I tried called Proktis-M. It's a suppository you can use for fissures and hemorrhoids, which I ordered on amazon. After one night of using this, the acute fissure I'd mentioned above, the one I got when I did anal dilation again, healed up. So I think this is a great product for acute fissures, but I ended up realizing it's not so great for chronic ones. For one, it's very hard for me to use a suppository, and I had to be quite brutal with myself to get it up in there. I tried melting the suppository and applying it that way, but the ingredients (one of which is a tea tree oil) just didn't seem to work well with my skin.

Now we get to Pranicura 5. Most of you have probably seen the ad for this. If you type "anal fissures" into a search engine, this is what first comes up, and it makes some big claims about healing. Probably because I'm skeptical about miracle cures, I disregarded this for years. It's not available on amazon, and somehow this made me feel like it was a scam, and I will say that they seem to curate the reviews on their site so they only show you the good ones. However, you can find other reviews on Google reviews I think, which aren't curated by Pranicura, and while there are a few bad ones, they're still mostly positive. But it wasn't until I started watching Dr. Albert Chung on youtube that I really gave trying this some serious consideration. Dr. Chung is a rectal surgeon and seems very focused on helping people, and I didn't think he'd be putting his name to this product if he didn't believe in it.

So I tried it.

Within days of starting, I had no pain or discomfort with a BM. Started to have some issues again, but I was still using Proktis-M at night, so I stopped that, as instructions that come with Pranicura say not to use with any other product (and there are some ingredients in the Proktis-M that I don't think were good for me). And again, after maybe two days, no problems. It's been about four months now, and while I might have the odd twinge or itch, I've been doing great. I definitely get anxious at the smallest sign of recurrence because it's so scary to think of going back down that road again, so the littlest things can worry me. But I do remind myself that I've always healed, and now I'm hopeful Pranicura is what will help me stay healed for good.

A few things to consider:
- I started Pranicura on a chronic fissure at a time when I wasn't experiencing much bleeding or the kind of intense pain I had before my Miralax post two years ago, though I was still having issues that needed to be addressed. It may take longer to get relief if the fissure is at its worst.
- I follow the very detailed instructions Pranicura sends with the product (though I don't take magnesium to soften stools). But I do use wet wipes after soaking in the sitz bath and spraying myself clean. Even doing that is something I would have been afraid of before.
- I still use Pranicura even though I feel like it's healed things up. They say you don't have to put it on if you aren't having any discomfort after a BM, but I do it anyway. However, I do tend to wipe any excess off at night. I just want to keep the skin as strong as possible, as I think I read somewhere a chronic wound can take anywhere from one to two years to truly heal, and most of us know that fissures love to come back! I'd think this could be good even for someone who has had LIS and has the odd acute fissure after surgery.
- I'm back to eating Almonds, a previous trigger food, because sometimes hard nuts don't fully digest. However, I pulverize them by chewing before I swallow! I hate to miss out on a food I really enjoyed before if I can help it.

Praincura's active ingredients are Glycerin, Kaolin, Calamine and Menthol. If you look these up, you'll find they are all good for healing. There are no oils, no petrolatum, and this combination works really well for me.

Finally I feel like there's a cream I can use that really does something good for me. It feels like something I'm able to do proactively. Oh, and I've even used Pranicura on small cuts on my fingers to test out its healing power, and it really does work.

Anyway, hope this helps. There aren't a lot of posts about Pranicura on here that I could find, so hopefully talking about my experience will give some insight about the product. It's $50 a jar, but I'm still on my first jar that I bought four months ago, and I use it every day, so it goes a long way. Also, to apply it, I buy medical gloves and cut all the fingers off. That way, I keep the jar clean and don't have to worry about my fingernails causing any injury.

I'll try to do another update in the months ahead!

[Sufferingbadly]

I wanted to buy this, however as you mentioned, the 5 * reviews and lack of others made me wonder… but if it worked for you, I want to try it! I’m using my nefidipine ointment still. I’ve been using that on and off since December. I want to try something else. Are you still doing good?

[ouchgirl]

I wanted to buy this, however as you mentioned, the 5 * reviews and lack of others made me wonder… but if it worked for you, I want to try it! I’m using my nefidipine ointment still. I’ve been using that on and off since December. I want to try something else. Are you still doing good?

Yes, I'm still doing well! I've had a couple of times with very minor itching or slight discomfort, but I only noticed because I always worry it's going to get bad again, but that's always resolved quickly. No bleeding at all. What I'm doing now is just using a travel bidet after BM, making sure the water is cool or lukewarm, then wet baby wipe, then pat dry with tissue, and then I apply Pranicura. Not doing a sitz anymore, which is nice because that was an entire production. But I think keeping up with better learned bowel habits is so important. I would never go back to just using toilet paper or heavy straining, etc.

Sometimes I go without it, but I'm using it as more of a preventative to keep that tissue healthy.
I'm on my second jar, and it's worth every penny. I really do wish this would be more widely available and that they wouldn't curate their reviews, but it's been successful for me. Hope if works well for you if you try it!

[dmcff]

I found that Pranicura burned and made things worse for me. I got a refund. But it seems to work for others.

[ouchgirl]

I found that Pranicura burned and made things worse for me. I got a refund. But it seems to work for others.

I'm sorry it didn't work for you. I notice in their instructions, they talk about possible burning for some people. I wonder if it's the menthol? I wish they'd make a version without it if that's the issue, but maybe they feel the menthol is an integral part of the product. I guess we all have a different physiology, like for me, it was anything with oil that made it worse or didn't help. I wish there was a product that worked well for everyone!