anal pain since childbirth - breastfeeding stopping healing?

[MaeBee]

hi,
tomorrow i have a hospital appointment again. i have, i think, an anal fissure.
i gave birth to my baby 8.5 mths ago, forceps delivery, episiotomy and all that, and a couple of weeks after got this extraordinary pain when shitting, and blood etc. firstly, was diagnosed as having haemorroids, but eventually they decided it was a fissure.
last appointment it was too painful for them to look, but they said yes, probably a fissure, suggested anoheal - which i have found is safe for breastfeeding and am using and helps - but im not healed yet.
possibly might have to have surgery, which carries a risk of fecal incontinence. ugh. but im getting desperate. at the moment the pain is manageable, but sometimes it hurts not only having a bowel movement, but for hours afterwards.
i havent had penetrative sex since the birth, feel too afraid and in pain, the vagina too close to the anus.
and, im worried it might be worse than a fissure. rectal bleeding, lost lots of weight, need to shit at 5ish most mornings, often really urgently and very loose (sorry TMI!) and ive been thinking its my period coming back but now imwondering if its abdominal pain cos of some irritable bowel disease?
anyway, if anyone else has suffered this please let me know! and, im breastfeeding, and ive heard from other bf mothers that there fissures healed after stopping feeding, maybe low eostegen interfering with healing???
dreading my appointment tomorrow, cos its embarassing and probably pointless (they havent yet managed an internal examination cos too painful), but then i dread going to the toilet every morning too.
wish me luck!

good luck myrtle. i decided there was no point me going to mine,cos i wasn't ready to accept any treatment they were offering me next. so i made a fantastic decision to cancel it, rearrange it for next month, and went out shopping for sexy underwear instead!
best of best of luck today. with me they couldn't see a fissure until they did general anesthetic, so don't be too hopeful there will be definate answers. it might all remain cloudy and confused!!

Still cloudy and confused
The Surgeon looked, put a finger in and then this scope type thing and said he couldn't see anything wrong. he felt my tummy too and said that was fine. he said it could be a fissure that has healed but if that is the case it keeps healing and then re-opening all the time as I still get occasional blood and stinging. He just said, come back in April and if its still happening we'll do something then.
Frustrating as I really think it is a fissure but just wanted evidence.

sorry to hear that news Myrtle. it is so frustrating when you expect answers and there aren't any.
and april seems a really long time away doesn't it? did he not prescribe you anything?
poor you. have a glass of wine and toast the fact its much better than it used to be at least?!
heres to perfect health one day soon!

No he didn't prescribe anything, he said not to get any creams because they might dry out the skin and make it worse, I think??
D'you think you'll have another baby Maebee? I'd like to, maybe pregnancy hormones might heal it

thats odd, maybe he meant not use piles creams with the fissure?
part of me wants another baby and part of me doesn't! i dread going through childbirth and injuries and a fissure again, but the thought of not ever having a real tiny baby again feels a bit sad! im certainly not going to do it yet.

hows it going folks? seems ive become pain free again. i haven't bled since stopping breastfeeding, and had only 2 or 3 days of mild pain, i thought i'd relapsed but maybe i haven't. hmmm! don't want to jinx it.

still there?
i havent bled in nearly two months now! and i've only had two days of pain...since i stopped breastfeeding. hmmm. this isn't anti breastfeeding propaganda! im glad i did it for a year, but i do think perhaps estrogen played a role in my fissure.
maybe i've finally healed?

Wow, well done Maebee.
Mine seems ok, haven't bled for a couple of weeks but have a bit of pain on and off. Was painful this week as had that sicky tummy bug and had diarrhoea

spoke to soon blood and bit of pain again today.
have an appointment on thurs though, maybe i should accept the horrors of more surgery. god, why isn't it over!?! last time i had pain though it only lasted a couple of days and i was fine for a month. its so hard to know what to do...

Hi guys

Just wanted to let you know that I'm still up and down with mine. Pregnancy did seem to help it in the beginning (hormones?) but I think as the pg continues it may get more tricky what with higher risk of constipation and all.

I'm gonna have to increase my fruit intake (oh, god I'm so sick of buying, looking for and ordering anything with fruit out here!)Am going through a bad phase at the moment (not as bad as at the beginning tho) prob cos of limited access to fruit, water and too much chocolate (well, it is Christmas and I've been running around doing stuff)

This is such hard work....I'm so scared of the birth and afterwards. Don't know how I'm going to cope with a newborn, a toddler and being in a foreign country (really miss good old English Boots and Mothercare sigh) Anyone fancy sending me some lactulose nearer the time?!!

Luv, Basset xx (Please Santa, give me a new bum for Christmas)

a new year and super efficient arses to you all!
well, i seem to be still on the general trajectory of getting better, but every time i write that i seem to slip back! but the last few months have been overall much much better.
everyone survived xmas?

Hi maebee - just seen this and wanted to say I'm glad you seem finally to be on the mend! It's a long road, eh? The people in charge of preventing teenage pregnancies should print this thread and give it out along with free condoms....

wilbur: a superb idea! god, it would have put me off if i knew the half of it!

Hi Everyone,
I'm much the same as you Maebee, have been fine - no blood or pain for about 6 weeks and then today, a little bit of pain but loads of blood! It was so disappointing cos I had got to the point of not really even thinking about it when I went to the loo and now there is just loads of blood again and it was still bleeding for a bit afterwards too.
Wilbur - definitely agree about giving this to teenagers. I had no idea this could be a consequence, its been horrible!

well, yesterday i had an appointment and oh god, i so hope, it was my last!! the last time i write "bum clinic" in my diary!!!
the surgeon had a look and said it does indeed look like its healed. i do seem to be having some piles problems since childbirth, but thats nothing compared to fissure agony.
i am left with a large (dp says barely noticeable but he would, bless!) skin tag. i asked the surgeon about removal and he said he was extremely reluctant cos the chances of infection were over 50%. and the chances of an infection causing a fissure were about 50%. he said it was my call. well, obviously, a 1 in 4 chance of a fissure for a cosmetic procedure isn't really a gamble im going to take. so im left with this, and it does make me self conscious about sex from behind, but i think this will fade. i have an ex who is a herbalist and he is making me up a potion to shrink it for a valentines present!
so thats my story. and i hope i never get one again. and i hope you all heal, and hold in there, cos it surely won't last forever. mine was about a year all in all.
i had a bottle of wine to celebrate last night, and am off out to dinner tonight.

Hello everyone. A belated Happy New Year! Just catching up on this thread and I'm so glad that most seem to be on the mend.

MaeBee, I hope you had a lovely celebratory evening, you certainly deserve to be pain free from now on! Basset, how's the pregnancy going?

My bum is still up and down, but generally much better than it was and very bearable. I haven't had to hold on to the side of the bath for a good few weeks now, long may it last. I had almost forgotten what taking a quick (& of course painless!) poo was all about... Currently thinking about homeopathy to help promote healing (my vaginal tear/scar is still uncomfortable during intercourse too) - anyone got any advice? (I have a feeling someone might have mentioned it a few pages ago but I couldn't find it when glancing through). xx

miffymoo - (penetrative) sex hurt for me too for about a year. then when i stopped breastfeeding i just seemed to mend. are you still breastfeeding? i think it could be estrogen related. but its hard to say which came first, the anal tear heal or the vaginal discomfort. am sure they were related. its so annoying isn't it! but really pleased you aren't clinging onto the bath anymore. this morning i was feeling grumpy but remembered i'd promised myself that once i healed i wouldn't ever ever complain about anything! ha!
sounds like you are mending too, just a bit up and down. thats what my last few months of healing was like.
btw, the other thing i did, was after the dilatzem ran out i was using comfrey ointment. my herbalist ex-boyfriend made me some up. maybe the combination of stopping feeding AND the comfrey did it?
worth trying.

Thanks MaeBee. As ever, it's nice to know someone else has been there too. Yes, I'm still b/feeding, and interestingly I'm sure I've healed more since weaning and cutting down a bit on the b/feeding, but it's hard to know. It might just be time doing the healing. Will look into the herbalism/homeophathy/comfry options, think anything's worth a go!

Hi i know this thread is extremely old but just wondered if anyone is still active. Morningpaper your comments have given me some hope that my fissure might actually heal with time. Thank you

I must be on this thread somewhere (with a different user name) because it’s come up in “Threads I’m on”! Unfortunately, my fissure has never completely healed but it hardly ever bothers me. It’s a bit sore maybe once or twice a year, if I get a bit constipated. I just take some Fybogel and/or lactulose if it’s really bad, and it calms down again. I’ve had it for 20 years now but most of the time I forget that I’ve got it! It’s nothing like the way it was at first, which was excruciating. Have you got any treatment for it? I had diltiazem cream (I think-it’s a long time ago though! So I could be wrong. It was unlicensed).

Hi i was given gtn cream but its not doing anything. 8 months i have had this fissure for. Not sure what else i can do to get it to heal. Thank you for replying

@Whitacre 20 years?! Wow. I dont know how youve done it. I just learnt how to tag you in the reply lol theres such a long waiting list to be seen by a specialist and no advice that the doctors can give me. They just say use gtn but i dont feel that is working. Im getting so depressed with this fissure. Thank you for replying

Please tell me How many months continue you take lactulose to soften stool ?and please mention what helps you... I'm in hell pain from 2 years after my forcep delivery,