Anal Fissure Self Help Page


Summary

This is a self help page for those seeking more information on anal fissures. Since hemorrhoids often appear to happen with anal fissures, I talk about them too. My goal is to help others by providing information on these ailments.

Why Do This?

I had an anal fissure and was in a lot of pain and did a web search only to find two pages that dealt with anal fissures and I wished there were more. I appreciated reading Joe's saga. I especially liked the last few paragraphs where he said that his fissure receded into oblivion in the two weeks following surgery. I think my self help pages are like an anonymous self help group. It is obvious from the many hits my pages are receiving that they are filling a need. Many of the hits are from searches on "anal + fissure" so people are looking for these pages when they find them. If you would like to contribute anything from a patient or physicians perspective, please do (I will keep your name off of any material you give me unless you want it on the material).

Isn't this embarrassing?

Sure it was embarrassing when I told the first five people but then I got used to it. I think some of the people I told were more embarrassed than I. Besides, my name is not anywhere to be found on this page or on my account. I made sure of that.

How common are anal fissures and hemorrhoids?

I told about 15 to 20 family members, friends, and work related people that I was going in for surgery. Of these, two had had an anal fissure and gotten over it and one was currently dealing with one. Many had dealt with hemorrhoids. This may be an unrepresentatively high hit rate, but maybe not considering the very significant shelf space at drug stores devoted to hemorrhoid treatments, laxatives, and stool softeners. There is obviously a big demand for these products. Several Drs. that I consulted that give company physicals for a living said that hemorrhoids are very common.

First Hand Accounts

These accounts have been submitted by people who found the anal fissure self pages and wanted to share there experiences. Most of the accounts are different from each other. The more of them you read, the more you will learn. Some of the accounts are similar. I include the similar accounts to show that their experiences are not unique but shared by others.

I would also like to hear from more patients so I can include their experiences. Perhaps some will have their ailments fix by different methods and we as readers can see what is available, what works best, and what to expect. Perhaps this knowledge of what to expect will lower patient stress and speed healing.

Surgery Patients

Non-Surgery Patients

Pregnant Women and New Mothers

Cure seakers could probably benefit from reading these accounts too. These women deserve special treatment. I have received many stories from these special women through the years. I am going to try and go back through my archives (they are all probably still in my inbox) and add the stories here. I am going to start with the one I receive last month.

Children

I have had a few parents write me about their children. The love and devotion of a parent is a wonderful beauty to behold. Here is where I will chronical their stories.

Causes

So what causes people to get anal fissures? The patients below tell us what they think is responsible for them getting this affliction. Some of these stories will be duplicates from other places on the website and some stories not mentioned here also talk about causes. If I ever get a huge chunk of free time, maybe I can do something better but for now, this is what we get.

General Information

Some visitors offer up general advice. I have been putting such advice in the other categories, but I will now start putting some of them here.

Random Information

Let's face it, I am having trouble taking much of the new information that I have been getting and putting it into self help web pages. So I have decided the best way to deal with this reality is to add a page where I can stick new information quickly. I will still put some new information into new pages and update old pages, but I will more likely just stick it in this Random Information Page. I will put the new information in the top of the page so you can quit reading it as soon as you see something that you have read before. If you periodically visit these pages to see if I have added new information. I suggest that you check both the Modification History and the Random Information Page.

Medical Pages

Clinical Trials

None currently that I know of.

If you participate in a study and want to let others know more about your experience, please send me an email.

Fan Mail

Some email does not quite fit into the First Hand Accounts sections but is still valuable.

Email List for Anal Fissures

If you want to talk to others via email, you might want to try Wayne Macdonald's Anal Fissure List. It is a list open only to those who subscribe. As with any self-help group, there are no "experts" - only members who have their personal experiences to share. The list is known as the Anal Fissure List. Subscribe to it by going to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/analfissure/join.

What would I do now at the first sign of trouble?

First realize that hemorrhoids and anal fissures do not happen over night and they will take time to heal on their own under the best conditions. If I had it all to do over again, I would have figured out how to live so I never got a second hemorrhoid after I got the first small one. I progressed from getting small hemorrhoids to big ones and then on to a very painful and long lasting anal fissure. I am going to do everything I can to avoid getting another small hemorrhoid ever again. I certainly do not want to find out what ailments are beyond an anal fissure in the progression of ailments. At the first sign of a hard stool, painful bowel movement, or hemorrhoid, I suggest people:

Contacting Me

Sometimes it takes me two or more weeks to respond to an email message. Sometimes I respond in a few minutes. It depends on if I am in town or not and how busy I am with family, work, and play. I am sure you understand. (I have about 170 email messages in my inbox from this list. Some are very old. I try to reply to them as I have time. All of the old ones are related to suggestions regarding the pages and patient accounts. I respond to some simple questions and comments within a month. Sometimes I don't respond to messages. I will probably only add accounts to these pages that are significantly different from the current ones. However I am still interested in hearing how people get well. This helps me learn what is likely to help people get well. With this said, please let me (email to Self.Help.JackGmail.com) know what you think about my pages and how I might make them better. (For the record, my name is not Jack. I used to use Jill here but people mistakenly assumed I was a woman.) Please do not send me Microsoft Word .doc files. I do not read them. I use Gmail to read your emails and it deals well with HTML and text emails. I promise that I will never post anything that identifies you without your permission. By default, I will remove your name and contact information unless you ask me to include it. If you see something that I have posted that is your's and you want it changed or removed, let me know and I will do my best to accommodate you. So far, no one has complained about anything that I have done.


Site Search

You can use this Google Advanced Search page to search this website on a word or words. For example, here is what is found by searching the site on Caffeine. Leave "boardsailor.com" in the "Search within a site or domain:" box.


Anal Fissure Self Help Survey request

From January 17, 2001 until August 4, 2001, page visitors were invited to complete a survey that was created by Dr. Dee Vernberg from the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Kansas and Jack. She wanted to survey people who visit the Anal Fissure Self Help pages. She believes the Anal Fissure Self Help Pages are unique and helpful and that the format of this site could be useful in helping people with other problems.

She collected 209 survey responses. She and Jack both want to thank these people for taking their valuable time to help us try to better help others. She is still working on analyzing and publishing the results. We hope to provide links to the results when they become available.

Thanks,
   Jack and Dee.


This is the  visit to this page since 27 Jan 97.


Modification History: