Dear Mrs. Amelong,
I can't thank you enough for sharing your knowledge of anal fissures on your website. I had to write you to thank you for helping me cure my anal fissure with a 14-year history.
To give you a little of my history, I was first diagnosed with a fissure in 1997 at the age of 30. During that time I first tried the usual cortisone ointments, increased fiber/water intake, and even went as far as to obtain nitroglycerin ointment (a solution I found on the anal fissure self-help page 14 years ago) with little or no success. I had more headaches than relief. Finally I opted for LIS surgery that year, with few symptoms afterwards, until December of last year. After the LIS surgery in 1997, the surgeon told me having another one was likely sometime in the future.
Back in November last year (three months ago) due to a hip injury I was on pain killers and this brought on a bout of constipation, and a host of symptoms including internal piles, and finally the ever painful fissure. This was not a pleasant flashback, to say the least. In fact, I was terrified.
So rather than see doctors who would only aggravate my symptoms (this not being my first rodeo, I knew what to expect), I decided to see a colon hydrotherapist. Initially this was a positive thing, but was extremely painful afterward. She used what is called a "closed" colonic system and I think this may have torn the fissure (due to the large specula used on this type of system), at that time not knowing I did in fact have a fissure; the piles were thought to be the source of pain. Anyway, this experience being as painful as it was prevented me from continuing my colonic sessions, mainly because the pain was so severe I would have to miss at least four days of work in order to recover from the colonic session. The pain was beyond words. Sitting for any length of time was not even an option. So after two sessions I told her I would need to heal in order to continue. This was a big disappointment for me (my therapist felt bad as well) as I noticed an immediate energy boost from the first colonic session and a better overall health. I was committed to a full detox, but could not complete the series due to the pain.
Meanwhile I continued the other parts of her therapy, eating a 90% raw vegetable diet, and juicing daily. In fact, due to the pain I wanted to do 100% only juice diet, but was informed this would not be good over time - that I must eat some solids. I tried sitz-type baths, hot compresses, cold compresses, and Advil for the pain, but nothing would cure the fissure. As you can probably guess I would withhold from having a BM as long as possible due to the pain, so this only aggravated the issue. This made any effort to clean my colon pretty much moot, as I was unable to comfortably produce a BM. I usually have one BM per day.
Then one day out of complete desperation (as I had to contemplate which surgeon I was going to allow to cut into me yet again), I did some Google searches on enemas, colonics, and anal fissures and stumbled upon your website. It was here you expressed quite a bit of knowledge on anal fissures and the complications they present to the colon. I immediately turned my focus to your
anal fissure healing protocol and followed it to the letter. It was your strong conviction that most anal fissures can be CURED without surgery that gave me hope. So I ran with it.
I immediately began taking daily:
L-Glutamine,
MSM,
CoQ10, echinacea, and a probiotic containing Bifo-something (I am at work so I don’t have the name of the ingredients handy), and administered my first home enema. I followed your enema protocol to the letter as well. My first enema was just warm, filtered water. This gave me immediate relief from the fissure pain. I then did ½ TSP of
Celtic sea salt - again very positive results. I even read that enemas may be needed daily for this type of problem but was too afraid to do them every day, so I opted for every other day. This worked fantastic (for the first two days) and allowed me to at least resume a normal working schedule. Due to my bowel schedule, I did eventually have to do daily enemas; I would do them at night a couple hours before bedtime. Every other day was not fully effective, as if I did not clean the solids out. I would have a normal BM the following morning, and this would spike the pain right back up. So daily enemas were the trick for the pain of the fissure. I did this for a week. My schedule was pretty much dictated by my enema schedule. Having a normal (natural) BM was not an option as this would cause the pain to return.
After a week of the daily enema schedule, things were moving so well, my body just decided it wanted to produce a BM (quite persistently too, I might add) shortly after arriving home from work. Knowing I would be taking an enema later (and being on a Friday of that week), I sat down and had a normal BM. But it was at this time, after the week of daily cleansing, that I noticed there was no pain during the BM, and there was no pain after the BM. None. This was a huge eureka moment in my fissure pain challenges. But I did not want to jinx the success, so I still maintain a weekly enema, and the daily supplement listed in your fissure protocol. So today, about one week later, I have no fear of having a BM, and I have not needed to take an enema for fissure pain. I will remain on the daily supplement (L-Glutamine, probiotic, MSM, CoQ10, and echinacea) and maintain a maintenance enema once per week, or if there is any sign of constipation or diarrhea, I know just what to do. Now BMs require no effort to pass stool, almost as if my colon is on auto-pilot. I go at the slightest urge. For a while I forgot what having a normal, pain-free BM was like!
So needless to say, I just received your book in the mail,
Ten Days to Optimal Health, and am reading it to learn your overall strategy to optimal health. I look forward to learning a lot more about improved health from your book. I cannot thank you enough for helping me regain my life back. I only wish I had stumbled upon your wisdom sooner, as each day of pain was very difficult to say the least, and I am considered to have a high threshold for pain.
I am going to give the fissure a few more weeks’ time to heal (while I read your wonderful book) and then I will consider another detoxification colonic series (using castor oil packs the night before each session) to rid my body of toxins accumulated on the SAD (standard American diet). Right now I am just enjoying full days of no pain, and no fear of moving my bowels! As well you have removed the terrifying fear of the fissure returning!
Again, I can not thank you enough!
Derek
