My experience with an Anal Fissure

If you are reading this because you've got a fissure, my heart goes out to you. How something so small in somewhere so private can cause so much pain is amazing.

Like many, I thought I had piles, so spent a fortune on creams. It was eventually diagnosed as a fissure about six months ago, but not before struggling with pain for many months (if not sporadically for the last 10 years or so). The problem got to be severe and highly debilitating - I literally had to stay near a hot bath all day as it was the only relief.

My life saver is Rectogesic. My understanding is that the intense pain comes when the anal muscles constrict (hence hot baths working by relaxing the muscles). Rectogesic does a similar thing in that it relaxes the muscles and therefore promotes healing. It really was / is a life saver. Ask your doctor for it - it's fantastic.

The cream is fantastic - but as you will have read from other postings, it takes a very long time for the fissure to heal. The way I've coped with the fissure, and my advice for anyone reading this, is to follow a pretty strict food regime. The one simple golden rule is \"only put in what can make a smooth exit out again\".

Whenever I had painful stools I used to follow the advice of eating more fibre. I actually think I was doing myself more harm that good because I overloaded on fibrous foods like all-bran, seeds and nuts etc - basically stuff that your body can't easily break-down - and remember the golden rule \"only put in what will have a smooth exit out again\". Don't quote me on this, but I understand the key is the difference between soluble fibre rather than non-soluble fibre. So, brown wholegrain bread is great, but more fibrous breads with the seeds in is bad idea. Wholegrain cereals are great, muesli is dreadful. Prawns or fish are good, lamb jalfrazi....hopefully you've got the idea.

If I don't feel as though I've had enough fibre in my diet I then supplement it with Fibregel which is a soluble fibre that you can buy from the chemist or supermarket. Lots of water and anything you can do to make sure you go just once a day are other essential elements.

Sticking to that simple rule keeps the pain away, however my fissure hasn't totally healed yet - it has come back twice in the last six months, but only for a number of days. When it does come back I then follow a strict regime of lot's of water, double doses of fibregel plus milk of magnesia - basically making the stools as soft and runny as possible which stops it from getting worse PLUS the Rectogesic cream twice a day until it's no longer painful to pass a stool.

I really hope this helps.

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