by Lauren12 » 29 Sep 2012, 09:45
Hi Coconut Oil Healed me
I’m really sorry to hear of the effect long-term NSAID use had for you. I think it goes without saying that people on this forum are not doctors, so any advice people give relates purely to what has worked for them. I did use the words “a word of caution about continuous NSAID use” and reiterated that ting should consult her doctor if she considers painkillers. I was moved by her mention of pain and her using the crying emoticon – I could relate. In the days when my fissure was acute, I was sometimes in so much pain that I didn’t know how to deal with it. Obviously avoidance of any consistent painkiller use is a good thing if other things will work.
I agree that surgery should be a last resort and these days, the doctors seem to agree, as they seem to try a variety of treatments before they suggest surgery. However there are those, and I’m amongst them, for whom surgery is the only thing that will fix it. I tried a variety of things – medical (diltiazem cream, two lots of botox, banding of haemorrhoids, removal of skin tags) and alternative (eliminating dairy, adding various foodstuffs to my diet, e.g. pecan nuts because of their healing properties – in fact I altered my diet substantially in line with things I read on forums) – but only the LIS operation finally removed the pain.
Many of those who’ve had the LIS operation comment that they wished they’d had it sooner. I’m certainly amongst them. If it wasn’t for the time that was devoted to conservative treatments, I could have been cured a good year earlier. My surgeon told me that a few years ago, the only medical treatment for anal fissure was the LIS procedure. However in recent years various other treatments have been introduced like the various creams and the botox procedure. He said that in a way, I’d fallen foul of that, in that everything else had been tried for me first, whereas if I’d suffered a fissure ten or twenty years ago, I’d have had the LIS procedure as a first resort and been cured sooner.
In my case, laying down for hours every day for two and a half years because of pain has had very bad consequences for my body. I suffered muscle atrophy and the ligaments and tendons tightened up. When I tried to regain a normal level of fitness for my age when cured, I suffered a succession of injuries, joint and muscle, because my back and leg muscles were weak and in-elastic and the joints were taking the impact of the exercise. Even now, a year after my butt was cured, my body is still not back to normal – I’m suffering bursitis in one hip because the muscles weren’t strong enough to take the impact of exercise, and inflammation in the joint in the other hip through over-use, because I was relying on that hip because the other one was bad. I had a torn muscle in my back because the muscles were weak, which healed, cartilage damage in my knee and a frozen shoulder. I still can’t bend properly or squat because I didn’t bend for two and a half years when I had the fissure because it hurt the fissure. I’ve been working with a physiotherapist for a year, on and off, to try and regain condition. Before the fissure I was very fit and active.
So in my advice, I was coming from the direction of yes, try conservative treatments, and I suspect that for most people with a fissure conservative treatments probably work to cure them. I suspect we don’t hear from the majority of people like this, as they then just get on with their lives instead of seeking out forums. However if one treatment doesn’t work, keep going back to your doctor. I take your point however that sometimes doctors haven’t considered the overall picture, and as in your case, a treatment may make things worse. That’s where people posting of their individual experiences is helpful.
Btw, many people come here looking for reassurance about the LIS operation because they’ve reached the stage of having to consider it. Seeing it referred to as ‘having your sphincter sliced open” is a bit alarmist, when any surgery involves an incision, and it’s an operation with something like a 95% success rate.