Please help desperate

Thanks Marcus ,

Is this the only alternative to heal if it is a fissure ? Surgery? Can some one live with this condition without any serious complications ? Everyone so far , points to a fissure . I guess in my desperation I name every illness in the book ! Cancer , colitis , chrons, ibs , everything in the colon family I have ! I know I sound like a hypochondriac , but it's anger to feel this everyday ! Some days are ok , but when it attacks there's no mercy on my rectum ! Which is where I feel all these symptoms .

Erick,

I found a doctor in NY who does a new procedure that does not require cutting the sphincter. He says he has such good results he doesn't proform that surgery ever. I have not gone to him as I am doing so well and planning of healing totally but if need be this would be my next step prior to sigmoid ectomy. But in the end I would do anything to make this horror stop. It is hideous and effects every area of your life. I wish you the best and hope you get to a good colorectal specialist to get diagnosed.

Daniel L. Feingold, MD

.

NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia

To be honest, with no sign of blood, I wouldn't jump directly to a fissure. However, fissures are known to cause tremendous pain (pain hard to even describe because it is so bad), and is the worst for a few hours after going to the bathroom. 

I would recommend seeing a colorectal surgeon or someone high up in the medical department of an anorectal doctor to help diagnose you.

You might possibly not have an anal fissure. But if you do, and it is not helaing on its own, then you should see a doctor. Surgery and botox (I do not know how well botox works as I have never done it) are used as kind of last resorts..however there is cream to help relax the sphincter muscle anx can help you heal.

With most fissures, the problem is that once you go to the bathroom, you irritate the fissure and cause the internal sphincter muscle in your but to spasm, which prevents the fissure from healing. Without this spamsing, the fissure would heal a lot quicker. However, you have to go to the bathroom so there is no real way to stop it without medical ointments, like diltazem creams, surgery, or  botox.

Hope this helps you.

Sincerely,

Myles

Hi Jennifer ,

Based on what you said not to have the sigmoidoscopy perform? Can a doctor determine by doing a standard rectal assessment ?

Thanks again. And these things to apply are only prescribed meds ? Or can anything over the counter help? Yes, as I said before there's no bleeding at all . Only that discomfort , pain, throb, irritation. Sometimes I get the impression that maybe it's a hemorroid that is thrombose , or prolapse .

You can probably find some kind of over the counter, but to be honest is you want the most effective treatment, I woul go to a doctor and get checked out. Or else, you are just guessing and might do more harm then you want to.

I would not say not to have it. I would certainly have it if need be and I can not heal this on my own.

Yes you need to make sure you see a colorectal specialist and let him have a look. If you have a fissure he should be able to determine that in a matter of 2 mins-let us know

I will thanks .

Will do thanks again for your feedback .

Hi Marcus,

I would like to learn more about your surgery. I am hoping to avoid it and have been making good progress after many many setbacks. It has been about 4 months since I had it ...and 3 since I knew I had it and seeker treatment. The cream the doc gave me made me constipated and it re tore it twice!! It was brutal. I eventually found a new doc who told me about zinc and I have been doing so well. But not completely healed it has been 3 weeks-no pain, no burn just discomfort. There are a couple other things I would try prior to surgery by would still like to hear of your successful story to help dispel fear. I feel I am past the throbbing stage and almost 70% better but can't seem to get 100% this far.

Thanks for you time ..Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

yeah no problem. I will attach a previous post I put about how my surgery went down. Good to hear that you are healing a bit though.

In my case, when I first discovered I had an anal fissure, with some possible hemmroids too, I was devastated. After about a week of doing home remedies (sitz baths, coconut oil, calmoseptine), I gave up because the pain was so bad and I could not hold out anymore. SO I went to the doctor and he prescribed me diltazem cream. 

Again in my case I was bleeding a good amount of blood every time I went to the bathroom. 

So I gave the diltazem cream about 3 weeks. The doctor said to give it 4 weeks and it should probably do the trick. The diltazem cream was used to relax the sphincter muscle. In my case, the cream did not work. I had major spasms in my butt muscle, aside from just the pain of the fissure.

After about 3 - 4 weeks, I gave up and decided to geet the surgery, as you probably know, the surgery has itws good reviews and its bad reviews. There is also the optinon of botox. ALthough I never had botox, some people I have heard have good outcomes with it and others don't.

In my opinion, the surgery is better as with botox I am pretty sure your likelihood of getting another fissure is more likely. 

The surgery is called a sphinteronomy and cuts into your sphincter muscle, preventing the muscle from spasming and thus allowing your fissure to heal without a throbbing and spamsing muscle beside it.

As with anything, some poeple get varied results. However, you must look at the percentages of people who get these results. I am pretty sure that the percentage of people who encounter incontinence from having the surgery done are less then 10% (maybe even 5%), but it is still something to take into consideration with.

The other VERY IMPORTANT  thing is to make sure you have a good colorectal surgeon doing the surgery. If you have someone who has had tons of experience, than your lucklihood of having some of the drawbacks go down a lot. SO make sure you do your research about who is actually  performign the surgery.

The surgery is cutting your msucle down there. In my case, the only drawback (if you even want to call it that), si that it is sometimes hard to hold in my farts sometimes. Besides that, have not had any issues since.

Just wanted to give you some background information before posting about my surgery. The post follows and I hope it help you out:

So basically, this is how it went down with my surgery. I had to fast the day before the surgery because they had to put me under anesthesia. I went in, waited, and then they put me under and the surgery was done. I woke from the surgery with morphine in my system, although once I woke up it had worn off for the most part. They basically told me I could get another dose of morphine, which would basically knock me out again, or I could stay up and move to the other room to wait until I was ready to leave. So, i skipped the next dose of morphine and went to the other room. As I was laying on the bed, the pain bagan to set in. The next part may scare you a bit and discourage you, but getting through this part is just part of the process of gettting better. So when the pain started to settle in, the paiin almost flt worse then the fissure pain itself. I was not only dealing with the pain from the fissure, but from the incision and cuts that were done form the surgery itself. This being said, you have to take into consideratino that the surgery is cutting into your sphincter muscle, so pain will come, but this is with any surgery. Unfortunately, with this surgery, it is in a very sensitivie area so the pain will be a little more intense. Some things I did in the hospital to deal with the pain was put ice on my butt, I bit down on a washcloth to decrease the tension that I would put into my butt area and to transfer the tension to my jaw biting into the cloth. They did give me percoset, but honestly it didn't help me a bit. I still felt the pain until I was able to fall asleep. The lady next to me said that the percoset made her feel that the ceiling was the floor and the floor was the ceiling, so I guess it affects some people differently than others. I also will recommend listening to music right after or watching a movie to distract yourself from the pain. SO that was basically it from the hospital. I couldn't leave the hospital until I could pee though,  which was not easy since I had so many drugs in my system and could  not really push to hard as it was painful and I did not want to upset the area.

Eventually I peed and was able to leave. Then, I took some percoset that night and slept. The next day I felt no pain, as I did not poop at all, and as with before the surgery,  the pain  only comes when  you poop. 

So the day after that I had to go to the bathroom. The first time you go to the bathroom will be very painful, almost more painful than pooping with just the fissure because you are trying to poop through a fissure and a surgery, but that comes with  the territory. I will not hide that I felt like I was going to puke the pain was so bad WHILE pooping. I also recommend listening to music while pooping as this distracts the pain  and gives some motivation  not to be afraid. The reason on put emphasis on the WHILE is beause after the pain is very dull and nothing compared to the throbbing unimaginable  pain of an anal fissure. Within  the next two weeks, I progressively felt myself getting better, and by the 2nd week I went back to the doctor and he gave me the ok that I was all healed up.

I never had any incontinence, although the only thing I still have is that its a bit harder to hold in my farts sometimes, but that is it....As far as the gauze, I only changed it because I would leak sometimes..I ended up just buying adult diapers at the store and used those until I stopped leaking. 

As far as numbing injectino you asked about, the only  thing I was aware of was the anastesia I was on.

As far as food after surgery, I just kept to a well balanced diet. I take metamucil fiber supplement every day since, and I squat on the toilet all the time now. Make sure not to take too much fiber as this can irritate the area.

Hope this was enough information for you, and I really wish you the best of luck.Noone should  have to go thorugh anything like this, but thank god we have means to take care of it with surgery.

Gook luck Jennifer!

Best,

Myles

​

 

Oh LORD Myles this sound horrible and scary but also wonderful that it is over and you are healed !! I am so glad you are healed !! The road to get there is just brutal no matter what!! It is the pooping after part of your story that is the scariest !! I am now mostly pain free so to go back to that place of horror is horrifying lol lol I am just praying this will continue to heal on its own. I have chemical sensitivities so getting anerhisea is also terrifying to me. Ugh!! Why???!!! Did the pain killers make you constipated ?? I am not throbbing at all so shouldn't this stupid thing heal!!? Oh so aweful I am on such a struck limited diet and so hungry all the time lol but NOT funny!! This started because I got hemmeroids and the strained through it and that is when I tore my rear !! I didn't know such a thing was possible and I am no stranger to pain(Luke disease and a snow ball of hell after wards for 24 years-much better now and adopted two babies no time for butt horror ) but this is by far one of the worst things I have ever gone through because of the pain yes but also the fear and stress and not eating much ...misery!

Can't thank you enough for your encouragement and time. It means a lot to me!! So glad you are healed it truly does give me hope that one way or another this hell will end!!

Best to you -God Bless-Jen

Also right now between taking magnesium and stool softener I have my BM oosing out of me so soft and loose but am so worried it u have anything that resembles a formed BM!!! How is it that you squat- like hover above the toilet? Maybe I need to do this-sorry to be graffic I have lost all dignity with this issue! 😕😊 I mean how can you not !! Yes people say it is so embarrassing but I am so past that now !! Just make it end-I am still uncomfortable and so worried about setbacks as I have had so many!! Hoping this time to reach the end!!

Hi Jen,

I am so happy to help, especially knowing there are people still out there who were in the condition I was in. 

As far as your condition, maybe try squatting on the toilet instead of sitting if you havent already. The squatting position is a lot healthier for you and will cause you to have less strain when you try to go to the bathroom.

Hang in there!!!

Best,

Myles

As far as the squatting, search images online for the squatting position while pooping. I am sure youll find it.....What I do is put my two feet on the rim of the toilet (the toilet seat is up so I'm talking the actual rim not the seat rim). Then, if you can, get into a position where the front of your butt is touching your ankles. The poop should feel like it could slide out with litttle or no effort at all. Don;t worried about being graphic or embarassed...Once you go through something like this you don't really care. Ater I healed up, I bought a shirt that says "I pooped today" as my sort of victory shirt for getting over the anal fissure.

As far as the stool softner, you do want to take a stool softer (I take stuff called Metamucil), but you want to make sure that you are not taking too much stool softner as too much can cause the poop to be liquidy which can irritate the fissure even more due to the acidity of the liquid. Experiment with the amount you take. You do not want to stop taking it as you will have hard stools but you do not want to take it too much so that your poop is liquidy. You want a happy medium.

Good Luck!!!

Thank you SO much!!! I will try!! I am not a ninja so I am a bit worried to try and stand on the rim and get into that position but I will try for sure!!

I can NOT wait to get that shirt!!!! A true victory !!!!! I love it ! Hysterical!!

How did you avoid getting constipated from the pain killers during and after surgery

The message should have read "Lyme" disease not LUKE! 😊

Can't thank you enough!!

No problem. Glad to help.

With the pain killers, they will constipate you. As I'm pretty sure I said in my post, I went two the bathroom on a thrusday morning. Fasted for my surgery on friday, didn't go to the bathroom on saturday, and finally went on sunday.

The first time you go to the bathroom after surgery will be bad, I am not going to lie.

As far as not getting constipated, take stool softners, but make sure to drink lots of water when you do. I am still today taking stool softners (Metamucil) everyday when I wake up. But having fiber without any water is like eating lettuce without anything to help move it along. Fiber by itself will constipate you if you do not drink water with it as the mixture of fiber and water helps to move the food along. 

So, the answer to your question is stool softer with lots of water and just making though that first poop.

It was bad, but the pain after the poop was not as bad as the throbbing pain I had with the fissure (which was partly due to the sphincter msucle spasming at the same time)

what cream was it that caused discomfort to you?

​Thank you

No cream necessarily caused me discomfort. Here are the list of creams I did try though and their effects.

Diltazem- prescribed by the doctor to relax sphincter muscle. Did not cause discomfort but was not effective in relaxing the muscle.

Calmoseptine (which is basically zinc oxide and menthol)- today I use it almost every day as it it very soothing. When I had my fissure though, I put it on and it hurt a bit. So it really depends on you and your state.

Coconut oil- very soohting to the area but not sure if it was effective overall. (I would only apply this externally, not internally)

Aloe vera- soothing to the area but not sure if it was effective overall.  (I would only apply this externally, not internally)

lidocaine- very soothing to the area and numbs the pain. Docotr prescribed this. This is for temporarily relief but does not help overall I am pretty sure.

Hope this helps!

Thank you!! This is helpful!! The spasms are the worst that is for sure!!

Hello Marcus,

Sorry to bother again , there was one thing I forgot to ask you . Since you have had bad painful experience with fissures , does your fissures hurt all the time prior ? Meaning even when you didn't go poop ? When you were experiencing these effects , was there a moment that you felt OK , or found relief maybe when you were relaxing , sitting , in bed ? Or having a fissure was a constant pain even before defecation ? Everyone is sharing the pain as horrible , mine is minor to bad . Thanks again .

When I had mine, I would wake up in the morning feeling like a normal person. I would try to avoid sitting down as it was a bit uncomfortable but not the pain that most people describe. I also was worried about doing harm to the area by sitting (as I thought I was dealing with a hemmroid too).

However, after I went to the bathroom, that overwhelming indescrible pain that people say on these forums came over me. Usually last for 5-6 hours. Still hurt at the end of the 6th hour but not as bad.

This lasted up until I had my surgery for everyday I went to the bathroom.

Hope this helps put things in perspective