Piles and and an anal fissure advice please sorry it’s long

[Daddylonglegs1965]

I have been suffering with discomfort for many years and mentioned it to GP not long after my children’s births (eldest now 15 natural child births) and mentioned it again on a couple of other occasions over the years and GP said just use over the counter medications (so I did).
Anyway after struggling to sleep for a severe itchy anus and the pain becoming more and more unbearable after each bowel movement I went back to my GP and this time I was advised I have piles which are on ‘the big side of big’ (they are so grotesque looking it’s putting me off sex). When I saw the specialist he advised as well as my big piles I also have anal fissure. He prescribed a cream beginning with D (it took me about a month to get hold of this due to liscencing/dispensing/budgeting issues between the specialist and GP). Eventually I tried the cream for a week the headaches everyday were manageable but I felt so dizzy, lightheaded and out of it after 5 days I couldn’t function and felt so lousy that I had to stop taking it. I rang the secretary and was told to persevere with it as the other medication had even worse side effects. I can’t face trying it again. I am seeing the specialist again at the end of next month. He also told me in a broken English accent to use a bidet (which we don’t have and I explained this) and to soak my bottom in a bath of salted water after every motion and about 4 times a day in total. A couple of years ago DH renovated our small bathroom so we just have a large shower and no bath. I explained we didn’t have a bath and he said to look on Amazon and find something or adapt something??? I am a size 20 so it would need to be a big vessel. Does anyone have any advice for me please. Thanks

You can buy a squirty bottle with angled nozzle or a basin that sits in the bog.
When you've BM wash it gently and pat dry never wipe, if they are out use hairdryer to dry them.
Then Vaseline.
I'm halfway through getting mine repaired.
Also get a poo step.

Thanks. Sorry for my ignorance does the bottle thing squirt toilet water from the bowl up your bum and how acurate is it? How do you go about soaking your bum in salt water or do you not and have you used the cream beginning with a D?
At the moment I am using wet toilet paper then blasting myself with the shower if I’m at home. Drying with hairdryer I wondered whether to put anything else on as it feels like it’s cut. Did you use ordinary pile treatment creams alongside the cream beginning with D or did you not use this? Many thanks

I've had similar problems to you. It's horrible. The cream is called diltiazem. To avoid the light head feeling, apply it with plastic medical gloves so it doesn't touch your hands. I did this and it made such a difference. The reason you feel dizzy and light headed is because the cream makes your blood flow to the area it touches, so by using a glove you reduce that.

Also read up on how to poo better (bowel retraining) . I'm not kidding. I was referred to a physiotherapy class and saw a nurse about this so you could ask for a referral for bowel retraining. I've also had haemorroids removed with banding and surgery.

Unfortunately the next time I got an anal fissure, I had a skin reaction to the diltaziem and with my GPS advice stopped using it and instead she gave me a steroid which had a pain reliever in it. Fissure healed up.

Thanks AntiHop. I used plastic gloves to apply the cream. I have low blood pressure, and an under active thyroid normally and it just sent me so wiffy that I wouldn’t have felt safe driving the kids or being out on my own. My bum often feels sore chapped in the middle the piles and the fissure are both painful.

If you search on Amazon for 'portable bidet' you'll find they sell a sort of plastic bowl that fits over your toilet. You fill it with warm water and use it just like a bidet. They are cheap but work pretty well, and it's much more soothing than using the shower.

Thanks I have never used a bidet had a simple up bringing but never really known how they work if they have one in a hotel or apartment abroad and never fancied the thought of it going wrong and wiping up pooey water from the toilet/bathroom floor.

AntiHop - my bun is often bleeding and it said something on the instruction leaflet of the cream about it getting into your blood stream quicker if that is the case so I was thinking that was maybe why I felt so light headed. I have just been to Morrison’s to get some haemorrhoid relief ointment by Care + I find this easier and miss less stinging to use after a poo than the more famous creams associated with piles.