April 2019 - now (back and forth; now in healed state)

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April 2019 - now (back and forth; now in healed state)

Postby appleapple » 08 Apr 2019, 20:27

First time fissure sufferer. 34 yr female.

Started feeling rectum discomfort around 3/27. I work long hours sitting down. All hell broke loose after another long day at work on Saturday 3/30.

3/31: in bed (on stomach) pretty much all day. in retrospect this is when the spasms started. lasted all day. at this time I still thought the pain was because of my hemorrhoid.

4/1: in bed (on stomach) pretty much all day. spasms wouldn't go away. hurt to stand, sit, walk.

4/2: went to the doctor's, diagnosed as AF. doctor gave me nifedipine suppositories and lidocaine cream.

4/3 - 4/7: had to basically take the entire week off work. totally useless for the most part. BM in the morning. then excruciating spasms all day. pain level was through the roof. I have a pretty high pain threshold and this is WAYYYYY WORSE than anything I've experienced before (my comparison was to, say, almost chopping a finger off and getting hit by a car as a pedestrian). sitz bath helped some but the benefit usually ends after a few minutes out of the bath. I corrected my diet immediately after symptoms got bad and my stool was soft but in retrospect I was still straining (out of habit) to get them out at this point. BIG mistake.

On the evening of 4/7 I found this forum and read a bunch of posts, and realized I missed some important elements in my attempt to heal the previous week.

1) I needed to get my spasms in check. Spasms = no blood = no healing. Not to mention the physical sensation of pain.
2) Avoid reopening wound.

So on 4/8, I did the following (Lessons Learned)

To achieve 1) above:

- Relax the muscles. How? Stretch them! Just like how I stretch out any of my other muscles. Massage the area with ointment/cream. I supposed a variety of oil/cream would work, as long as it has the required properties (lubrication, antiseptic, soothing, etc.) I used a honey/propolis based all-purpose salve (which I had on hand and it used to work great for my cold sores, and I thought - hey a fissure is kinda like a sore in my bum).

I didn't see bright blood in stool and asked SO to check my wound. They are just raw but aren't bleeding so I figured finger dilation should be safe. Use clean fingers to massage around sphincter muscles and gentle go in and out. I ordered a dilation kit from Amazon but it hasn't got here yet - will switch to kit once I have them.

I spent most of today lying on stomach in bed (did some computer work). Probably massaged 4,5 times in total, about 5 - 10 min each time.

Also massaged immediately after BM around 1:30 PM, after cleaning of course. This is the first BM after which I did not get unbearable spasms since symptoms showed.

To achieve 2) above:

Massage and do some finger dilation before going. This relaxes the muscles AND lubricates the canal AND coats/protects the wound.

ABSOLUTELY NO STRAINING. Used a squatty potty (I got it a while ago but didn't use it religiously) and leaned forward. Just thought about relaxing the muscles and let it come out with deep breathing.

***

It is past 8PM now and I'm so pumped that I got through my first spasm-free day after having AF. Bought myself some extra healing time. Yay!!!!

In comparison, last week, my spasms last all day, non-stop, and renders me completely useless. Most of last week was spent in bed, lying on my stomach, frantically searching the internet or distracting myself from the excruciating pain with Netflix/Amazon shows.


I still felt some discomfort when walking around the house today, but felt almost like a normal person when lying on stomach in bed. Goal this week is that I heal enough to be able to sit down (and go back to work soon)!


***

Also, a recap on small things I think I didn't do quite right last week (which prevented healing)
- Ate too much chia seed to add fiber intake. Chia seeds made the stool too bulky.
- "Cheated" with some nuts here and there. Almonds and stuff. I'm going to cut out all food that's hard to digest from now on.
- Didn't apply lubricant to wound before BM. I would used a coconut oil based suppository before bed so I mistakenly thought that was enough. Nope. The pathway and the wound need some coating too.
- Obviously didn't do enough to relax the muscles. The prescribed nifedipine didn't really do much for me and was very hard to apply.
Last edited by appleapple on 20 Dec 2019, 11:27, edited 11 times in total.
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Re: fissure diary (debilitating spams from 3/31/2019)

Postby appleapple » 08 Apr 2019, 20:34

4/8

food: coconut milk + hemp oil, blackberries, protein powder+peanut butter+almond milk smoothie, two hard boiled eggs, 1 apple + 1 pear (cooked in a sweet soup sorta thing - I just wanted something warm). I know I didn't eat much veggies today but I wasn't hungry and take multi-vitamins so I figured the fruits would give my enough fibers.

bm: once around 1:30pm. usual burning/swelling sensation afterwards, but subdued after sitz bath and massaging.
Last edited by appleapple on 09 Apr 2019, 20:49, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: fissure diary (debilitating spasms started 3/31/2019)

Postby appleapple » 09 Apr 2019, 20:49

4/9

food: coconut milk + hemp oil; blue berries; banana + half avocado + almond milk shake; protein powder + peanut butter + blue berries + almond milk shake; 4 eggs

bm: around 7am. usual sensation of swelling/small spasms afterwards.

exercise: about an hour leisurely walk around 5pm

felt almost like a normal person after 2pm!!! still can feel a little bit of fissure pain (no spasm) when i move around too much though.
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Re: fissure diary (debilitating spasms started 3/31/2019)

Postby appleapple » 10 Apr 2019, 20:51

4/10

wound kept healing nicely with the help of the Farmacy salve. I could even tell the difference just by inserting my fingers. it was becoming less raw/smoother by the day. I could feel my fissure was rather long though - so still quite some healing to do.

bm: around 9am. first bm after which I did not experience major swelling/throbbing sensation around the area!!! yippie!!!!

food:
banana+protein powder+almond milk smoothie; home made mixed soy milk + a few pieces of sweet potatoes; blueberries; bone broth + 2 eggs + broccoli + tomatoes; spoonfuls of peanut butter / almond butter as snack

small setback: I also had swelling internal hemorrhoids and i've been using some herbal all natural cream to treat them. today i switched to this Australian cream, Proctosedyl, but I don't think I reacted well to the steroid in this cream. my skin felt raw/tender/itchy after application. I've been applying other ointment and the Farmacy salve around the area trying to neutralize it.
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Re: fissure diary (debilitating spasms started 3/31/2019)

Postby Abu » 10 Apr 2019, 22:09

Wow you are an example to others! Barely got the fissure and already took charge of the situation and started with good measures. Not to mention sharing your advice with us here. I am really impressed, keep up the good work and good luck with the healing.
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Re: fissure diary (debilitating spasms started 3/31/2019)

Postby appleapple » 11 Apr 2019, 09:44

Abu wrote:Wow you are an example to others! Barely got the fissure and already took charge of the situation and started with good measures. Not to mention sharing your advice with us here. I am really impressed, keep up the good work and good luck with the healing.


Thanks! I do have a sentinel pile (I learned what it is on this website. lol.) so I suspect I probably repeatedly had small/almost painless fissures before and they healed on their own? (Unless I can grow a sentinel pile in the span of about a week.) But I guess I'm otherwise healthy and work out regularly so my body kinda just brushed it under the rug and didn't send me too many "alarm signals".

I've had internal hemorrhoid since early 20s and they stay in check 95% of the time and never bothered me, but once in a blue moon I'd see blood in the stool (and a couple times it's the "murder scene in toilet bowl" kind of blood). In retrospect this happens when I pass hard stool, and now I realize I strain out of habit (possibly because of childhood training or something, no idea), and I most likely did damage to both my internal hemorrhoids and caused initial damage to anal canal when this happened.

Going forward I definitely will improve my stool habits...
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Re: fissure diary (debilitating spasms started 3/31/2019)

Postby appleapple » 11 Apr 2019, 19:06

4/11

I think I continued to have negative reactions to the steroidal hemorrhoid cream I tried yesterday, although I only put it on once. the wound felt a bit raw/tender (wasn't progressing from yesterday) and I had mild spasms (i'd say pain level 4 - 7? mostly on the lower end of this range) throughout the day. I feel like it is setting me back by a day or two. Grhhh. I so had my mind set on recovering enough to go back to work next week.

bm: around 10am.
I really need to figure out a way to have bm consistently around 8am. Otherwise I won't be able to finish BM and do my cleaning/care routine before i leave for work next week!

Any tips/advice please? (from anyone that's reading?)

food: banana + protein powder + almond milk smoothie; soup made with bone broth + broccoli + spinach + mushroom + tomatoes; blueberries; spoonful of peanut butter as snacks; a tiny little bit of dried fruits and walnuts (probably shouldn't have eaten this. not necessary nutrients); home made mixed soy milk
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Re: fissure diary (debilitating spasms started 3/31/2019)

Postby Abu » 11 Apr 2019, 22:01

Try drinking a warm glass of water or tea after waking up. Slowly. This normally triggers persistalsis.
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Re: fissure diary (debilitating spasms started 3/31/2019)

Postby appleapple » 18 Apr 2019, 08:11

Abu wrote:Try drinking a warm glass of water or tea after waking up. Slowly. This normally triggers persistalsis.


Thank you!
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Re: fissure diary (debilitating spasms started 3/31/2019)

Postby appleapple » 19 May 2019, 16:04

Darn it. It came back.
5/19/219

I ate a big piece of cheesecake last Sunday. Been feeling funny all week this week. Plus a longggg week at work (60 hours sitting down) I think the fissure kinda sorta came back. Grh...
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