Hi all,
I’ve been lurking for a few weeks but thought I should finally emerge and introduce myself, and most importantly say THANK YOU! I almost cried when I discovered this forum. I have gotten so many good tips about diet and softeners from you, and it helps knowing there are others with AF! I apologize in advance for the length of this post! I just figure I should get it all out there:
My AF story so far: I was diagnosed with an AF after an exciting episode of diarrhea following antibiotics for a nasty sinus infection. No actual pain during the diarrhea episode, but I had pain the next day, during what seemed to be a regular BM, and I had enough blood that I looked like I was on my period! (Sorry for the TMI!). I went straight to the Student Health Clinic (I’m a grad student), where the GP diagnosed a vaginal-side fissure and recommended sitz baths, high fiber, and lots of water, as well as Preperation H (I stopped the Prep-H early on—now I just pre-lube with Vaseline and use a touch of coconut oil 1-2x a day before a walk or if it’s feeling really dry). The next day was the worst I have had so far, with pain a 4-5 during my BM and lingering about 30 minutes after. After a few days, this diminished and even disappeared…but a week later, I foolishly drank 2 beers out on a first date with almost no water for 3-4 hours (I don’t do that anymore!!), and the hard stool retore me, though the pain and blood weren’t as bad that time. Again “healed” after a few days, and had almost 2 full weeks without pain, and then retore again, pain around 2 this time, and for reasons I couldn’t tell (I had been very good with diet since the first retear). This cycle has continued since, even though I have been using Colace 100mg 3x/day for the past 10 weeks (has kept things quite soft so far, even though I know some folks have had more luck with Miralax), and even though I have been on top of my diet for about 7-8 weeks with no more alcohol, past, bread, meat other than occasional fish, and enough water to make me pee more than hourly. It seems sometimes I don’t get it all “out” during a BM and the next time, that tiny 2-3cm piece it hard and tears…I’ve had some luck the last few weeks waiting on the toilet another minute or two and sometimes the rest comes, but I’m unsure if it’ll happen again. I don’t seem to have the bad spasms people talk about on the forum other than an occasional twitch, sometimes with a half-second of light pain, once or twice a day if at all, but I do have that “softball” feeling around the tailbone when I lie down, so I think that area must be tensing up even if I don’t feel the spasms actively.
In terms of treatment, I’m at a loss. I wanted to try either nifedipine, diltiazem, or nitroglycerin after reading about them on this forum, and researching them online—though I know my pain isn’t nearly as bad as many people’s on this forum, since I keep retearing, I feel it’s necessary at this point. I got a CRS appointment after reading about how they are really better on this forum, and the anticipated day came…and went with a lot of disappointment. The CRS started talking surgery before he even examined me, and let me do very little talking. After the exam/anoscopy, he kept talking only surgery, said my pain is worse than I think it is (??), said he doesn’t prescribe any of the medicines because he thinks they aren’t as effective as surgery (!!). I should have been more adamant about it with him, but I was so overwhelmed and surprised…I really felt as though he steam-rolled me. So, I reported this back to my GP at the Student Clinic, who was equally surprised by the surgey talk and agreed that at this point I should try one of the medicine creams, but who doesn’t feel comfortable prescribing them himself because he never has before and is unsure of dosage/duration. So, he set up a GI appointment for a second opinion, which will be Aug 4. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that finally the GI Dr will be willing to prescribe one of them! I’m particularly adamant about this now, because my current pain-free streak of 7 days began the day of my CRS anoscopy, during which he used nitro/liodicaine for the procedure, which I’m sure must have had a positive effect.
So, question 1: Is there some magic secret password for getting the prescription ointments?? I’m so baffled as to why I can’t get them, even though all my research indicates they are common first-step treatments from a CRS after just diet/baths have failed.
Question 2: My BMs have pretty much been soft and like clockwork since I mastered the AF diet 7-8 weeks ago. Then, last week, I got food poisoning and had diarrhea one night. The next day, my BMs were back to normal, and stayed that way another 3 days or so. But then, including today, I have had 3 days where my morning BM has been the usual soft-but-formed niceness, but my 5pm BM has been diarrhea. I’ve changed nothing in my diet and actually have been eating pretty much the same thing all week, foods that have always given me magic soft-but-formed BMs up to now. Given that the morning BM is fine, I don’t think this is latent food poisoning side effect anymore. The only thing I can think of is that my birth control might be messing with things. It’s been giving my spotting the last 2 months and almost non-existent periods. My gynecologist didn’t detect anything wrong with me but said I might need a new pill. If my pill isn’t as effective any more, could this be messing with my BM #2, considering that I take the pill around dinner time, and so perhaps BM #2 the next day is affected by it? I’m terrified to try a new pill because I don’t want the change of hormones to constipate me, but the diarrhea obviously has to stop. It hasn’t aggravated my *hopefully healing* fissures yet, but I feel like I’m pushing my luck after 3 days of this…So can BC which might be losing its effectiveness (been on it 4 years) be causing diarrhea once a day? I don't even know what to eat for dinner now, since BRAT foods can be constipating for AF sufferers, and my AF dinner food has been giving me diarrhea!
I’m SO sorry for being so length, and again, THANK YOU for existing and posting! I would be lost without you!!!