Anal fissure. Ow!

[Germgirl]

I have a (self diagnosed!) fissure. I have a very sore bum, lots of blood when I wipe, not just when I poo but if I wipe my bum after a wee it's very bloody too, enough to stain my pants :(
I thought it was just piles as I've suffered with those quite a lot but do piles bleed that much?
Every time I go to the loo it's agony. I puff & pant & almost daren't go but I make myself because I know it'll be worse in the end if I don't.
Anyway, I'm using pile cream, which bloody kills at the time but seems to soothe it a bit, but is there anything else I can try?
Oh, and I had a colonoscopy last Friday! That was fun let me tell you!! (For abdo pains, nothing found, all completely normal)

[Ohwhatfuckeryisthis]

Id go to docs myself. I get a sore bit at top of cleft, I use sudocrem or baby bottom butter, but if it's "inside", drs.

[Germgirl]

I was hoping to avoid the GP, I seem to spend my life there. But you're right. I should go xx

[AtSea1979]

Did u see your GP? I have same symptoms. My GP looked at outside and found nothing wrong. Says he can refer me for camera job. I declined at this stage. Presumably if you have just had camera and they found nothing then that's good right?

[dillie]

I would go to the gp. My doc gave me some stuff that was brilliant! The only bad thing was it gave me a wicked headache for about half an hour after. Got round this by taking ibuprofen 20 mins before.

Can't remember for the life of me the name of it!

[ILoveYouBaby]

I'm with you on the pain. I've had one for five months since giving birth. Ouch ouch ouch. The cream is called something or other nitrate I think. Didn't work for me :'( I'm going down the route of laxatives, which can have some unfortunate side effects.

A bit of vaseline spread inside just before a poo can help ease things along...

Apparently they take months to heal, sob.

[robotnikchair]

Diltiazem cream; I got it from the specialist at the hospital and it works a treat. The only problem is it has to be kept in the fridge and the course is meant to be about 6 weeks so its difficult to remember to apply it once the pain has gone and its not handy in the bathroom.

[Monkfish79]

I had a fissure after DD was born and it was agony. A three-pronged approach worked for me: (1) get glyceryl trinitrate cream from your GP (this is the one that gives you a headache) - it relaxes the sphincter and allows the cut to heal; (2) serious laxatives - I took 25mls of lactulose 2x per day plus prunes and kiwi fruit - you need your poo to be properly runny (yuk, sorry!); (3) always going to the loo as soon as you feel the urge (and defo every day) and breathing out like a horse as you do so - it stops you involuntarily tightening your sphincter and helps breath the poo out. There are some really helpful threads on MN so do explore. 11 months later and I still have to be careful to avoid getting constipated as I can feel the fissure again when I do, but am mostly totally fine. It took around 2 months to really get on top of it, so don't give up too soon.

[Germgirl]

Thanks ladies. I've just been using pile cream & laxatives but it's still so painful. I'll speak to my GP today.

[FranksBobot]

Did you have the pain and bleeding prior to the colonoscopy?

[NellWilsonsWhiteHair]

Oh you poor thing. I had one for about a year after having DS and it was just horrible.

I found diltiazem more helpful than GTN. Used a lot of metanium before going to the toilet to create a barrier, sitz bath after to relax the sphincter. The open-mouthed breathing whilst going. Obsessed about my diet (although had never been constipated, which neither GP nor consultant seemed to listen to - ultimately I feel the issue was primarily muscular in my case, and it was osteopathy more than anything else that fixed me). Magnesium helped. I used to experiment with sitting position whilst on the toilet to least stress the fissure area - feet up on a step etc. The GP also gave me topical anaesthetic to use before going but that was just too difficult to manage, as single parent of velcro newborn. I used to take paracetamol about twenty minutes before going and that helped.

I have a vague idea (did a LOT of internet research at the time) that pile cream is actually the opposite of helpful as it thins the skin, or something. May be wrong but def worth checking in your case. I think excessive bleeding is usually much more a piles thing than a fissure thing, too, but you know your own body better.

[Germgirl]

I did have the bleeding etc before the colonoscopy yes, it's just made it worse.
I need to see the doctor, it's still bleeding quite a bit. Maybe it's not a fissure, although it's incredibly painful. The posture thing is something I tried last night, I had my feet on DSDs little foot stool thing. That did help, as does panting like a horse, which I was doing naturally anyway.
I'll stop using the cream & talk to my GP.
Thanks again for everyone's replies & help.

[Haggisfish]

I used proctosedyl suppositories and they were wonderful!