HAVING FISSURE

Short Medical background:  Anal Fissure is a small tear or crack in the lining of the anus.  The crack in the skin exposes the muscle tissue underneath that causes sharp pain and bleeding during and after bowel movements.  Other symptoms include a skin tag or small lump of skin next to the tear, a visible tear in the skin around the anus, streaks of blood on stool or on tissue paper after wiping and a burning or itching sensation in the anal area.

The causes or reasons are the result of passing a hard stool during bowel movement that requires straining.  Long bouts of constipation or diarrhea can caused too.  Also, women during or after childbirth are prone to anal fissure due to straining.  For unknown reasons, anal fissures are common in babies or infants during their first year.  Other common causes are due to decreased of blood flow to the anorectal area, over tight anal sphincter muscles, inflammation that occurs in the intestinal lining and those people with inflammatory bowel disease such as Crohn’s disease.  In rare case, it causes due to anal cancer, HIV, tuberculosis, syphilis and herpes. 

However, it is usually not a serious condition that goes and heals on its own within four to six weeks.  Certain home treatment can help ease pain, discomfort and promote healing like taking Sitz baths.  Eating dried prunes, ripe papaya, drink lots of water, an over the counter stool softeners and topical pain relievers can help.  But if it did not improve with these treatments, surgery may be required or your doctor may need to look for other underlying disorders that can cause anal fissures.

Personal: Of all these given medical facts, it was not mentioned unhealthy lifestyle as main contributing cause of anal fissure.  It is suggested to avoid sharp foods like nuts and popcorn since they may not be well-digested where its tiny granules hurt your bowel, while spicy foods damages the lining of the stool passage.  But generally, these foods do not fall under unhealthy.  Reading the medical explanation above, I concluded that anal fissure is basically not a result of health carelessness.  But I cannot help to ask myself how this could happen to me?

I am a big fan of vegetables today more than before, drink lots of water as always and living physically active.  Because of these, I have a regular bowel and my stool is just fine soft, meaning not hard but not loose.  I don’t have alarming medical issue.  My weight is at ideal measurement.   In several laboratory examinations, my numbers are pretty well safe at the middle of the margins like the complete blood count test, urine test, blood glucose, x-ray / ultrasound test and electrocardiography (ECG).  Due to these, I had a great fear that I often said before, that what illness can I possibly get that do not manifests in these diagnostic tests?  To have this anal fissure, I am agreed that it has nothing to do with poor health and I am convinced that the lack of enough blood flow in the anorectal area caused it. 

It really happens.  Those things you really don’t want can still happen no matter how much hard you did to avoid them.  If despite the healthy living you practiced in life yet still you had illness, do not feel regret, be sad or discouraged.  Still keep on taking care your health because if you were not been careful, it could not be the only illness you get.  There are just things that you cannot really tell.

By Alex V. Villamayor

July 20, 2016