Anal fissure: What helps it heal?

Hi, I have not had cancer, but I've had an anal fissure for months now. Months! I thought the aching pain was from a coccyx fracture 3 years ago. For me, an anal fissure feels like an ache, almost never a sharp pain. I think this lack of sharp pain is the result of years of constipation, all my life (I'm 68) and anal surgery in 1983 (anal reconstruction, fissure and hemorrhoids). GI was thinking I'd need surgery but I have decided to try my best to avoid it. He sent me home with just Reciv ointment and a vague suggestion to get 21 gms fiber per day. Then when I told him my stools tend to form wide, he prescribed Linzess. Disaster! Ugh! 3 out of 6 days extreme diarrhea which just aggravated the fissure. After 6 days I quit the Linzess. Never again! Here's what I've been doing for 10 days now: I use Rectiv and of course lidocaine. I'm carefully using 21 gms fiber per day (the right amount for a woman my age), and 3 Colace in the mornings. All these years and I've never carefully kept track of how much fiber I get - it's working great, too. I've been inserting homemade coconut oil suppositories before pooping to help it ease out. Then every time after a poo I'm doing a bubbling sitz bath with coconut oil and betadine in it. Since I don't have to work, I'm staying off of my tush as much as possible to avoid aggravating it. I hope this gives you some ideas. I googled "unconventional fissure treatment" and many things popped up and I've ordered a couple of them. Good luck.

I see this is an old thread. How can I find more comments here about anal fissure?

Hi, I'm 68, I have an anal fissure. I didn't experience it as a sharp pain, so for MONTHS the drs thought my previous coccyx fracture had flared up in some way. Finally had an appointment with my GI (waited for months to get in, of course) for what I thought was my usual hemorrhoids, but lo and behold, fissure.

GI gave me Rectiv and lidocaine, told me vaguely to eat high fiber, and sent me home with a 6 week followup appointment. Well, I had a very rough 4 weeks. My poops tend to be too wide, so at about week 3 my GI prescribed Linzess. I could only tolerate that for 6 days. The worse diarrhea of my life! Just horrible. That's when I decided to experiment with some alternate approaches.

I have a followup appointment scheduled for mid-January, but I really hope I won't need it. And I'm really trying to avoid surgery - I had surgery for fissure, hemorrhoids and they enlarged my anus in 1983 (fun fun fun) so I really think surgery again is a bad idea.

I carefully eat high fiber, and be sure to not eat too much fiber. Metamucil of course. I did a lot of research and found some alternate treatments. I insert homemade coconut oil suppositories before pooping to help it come out more easily. I do sitz baths and sometimes sit on a heating pad. I use "got u cream" frequently. And a big key is that I try to avoid sitting at all, I just sit in recliners or lie down, all day long. Cannot believe the GI didn't suggest at least that - every time you sit on it and it hurts, then that means it's stressed and sitting will prevent healing.

Gotta say, it's going well! It's been 2 weeks on my homemade regimen, and it has improved a ton. But I'm still a long way from complete relief. Would love any other ideas or feedback! I just want to be well again!

@mikayla68, allow me to bring in more members who have experience with anal fissures like @lisval @trishplace @stlsampsondev @jeanadair123 @susanpmadigan @richman54660, who can offer tips and guidance.

Awesome, thanks!

I had fissures after my radiation and I was in excruciating pain ever time I had a BM. I tried everything they gave me at Stanford nothing helped. I was at my gastroenterologist one day and mentioned this to him he recommended nifedipine what a life saver. I wipe first with a tucks Dab the area dry and put the nifedipine cream on. I recently found saw some latex finger cots at the pharmacy so I use one of those on my finger. (They are like baby condoms 😃) if only Stanford had mentioned that at the time I spent s lot of money on different creams that didn’t work.

I did the same as jeanadair. At first I was given a compounded prescription of Nitroglycerin, but it made me so dizzy that I had to give up on it. I called my colo/rectal surgeon back and he prescribed the Nifedepine. Again, it was through a specialized, compounding pharmacy. It really helped heal and helped with the pain. That pharmacy gave me the finger cots with the prescription. Good luck! Give it a try!

Hi, so okay, wow! So you're saying the nifedipine ointment is better than nitroglycerin (Rectiv)??? I'll ask my GI for a prescription. This is so helpful thanks so much. Finger cots are a great idea - I've been cutting off the fingers of plastic gloves!

Hi thanks for commenting here! So the. Nifedepine worked better for you too?!! Definitely asking my GI. Yea Nitroglicerin is intense. Thanks!

Thanks again for the advice! I'm looking for a new GI now. Don't know why I didn't do that sooner! I just changed PCPs yesterday, so I figure I might as well.