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!