For over two weeks my diet only consists of:
1. Grilled chicken breast (200g daily)
2. Cooked vegetables (lots of Shanghai bai choy + lettuce)
3. Nuts (100g daily)
4. Boiled water (2-3L daily)
I also take probiotics but not daily to get rid of diarrhea. Now the problem is, the constipation is back, especially the first half of the stool which has a darker color and is small, round and extremely hard. I have one BM daily, always in the morning around 8:00AM. I have been using the suppositories for 5 days and decide not to use them again because they seem to make my skin very dry.
Can anyone check if it is the nuts that causes the constipation? Anyway I'm going to stop eating them today and see if I get better tomorrow.

nuts are full of fibre
you really need to drink atleast 8 glasses of water a day and eat atleast 4 pieces of fruit daily and you should have easy bm's
medication can cause constipation also
and walk....move that body.

Hi, if you increase your fiber intake you need to increase the amount of liquid you drink. Too much fiber and not enough liquid can lead to constipation too. Suzy

Thanks for the above information. But I'm really not sure if I take excessive amount of fibre:
Shanghai Bai Choy: 1g of fiber/100g
Lettuce: 1.1g of fiber/100g
Nuts: 6g of fiber/100g
so let's say I eat 2lb of vegetable + 100g of nuts, which gives me about 15g fiber. It seems that I eat too little fiber? Confused. Anyway I'll drink more water.

Levelworm,
I'm not sure your diet is varied enough from what you list and that you are eating enough?
I can understand why you are eating the way you are but I personally would incorporate more fresh fruits/ dried fruits/ fruit juices/ whole grain breads/ brown rice/ brown pasta/ oats or muesli or bran based cereal / lots more olive oil (wonderful for lubricating the BMs) / fish/ turkey.........
Remember eating too little will not produce good sized, bulky, soft stools. Your diet may need to be more varied with lots of different foods.......
A magnesium supplement (1 tablet 300 mg per night) really helps me personally produce softer than soft, well-formed & easy to pass stools. Walking at least 20 minutes a day really helps too.

Ever the Optimist wrote:Levelworm,
I'm not sure your diet is varied enough from what you list and that you are eating enough?
I can understand why you are eating the way you are but I personally would incorporate more fresh fruits/ dried fruits/ fruit juices/ whole grain breads/ brown rice/ brown pasta/ oats or muesli or bran based cereal / lots more olive oil (wonderful for lubricating the BMs) / fish/ turkey.........
Remember eating too little will not produce good sized, bulky, soft stools. Your diet may need to be more varied with lots of different foods.......
A magnesium supplement (1 tablet 300 mg per night) really helps me personally produce softer than soft, well-formed & easy to pass stools. Walking at least 20 minutes a day really helps too.

Thanks! Yes my diet is quite limited. But I do eat fish and chicken. I'm also sure that I eat enough food as I do have a healthy amount of stool and it is just the first part that is very hard. I'm afraid of fruits (and softeners) as they give me diarrhea indefinitely (even prune juice gave me diarrhea). But today I did eat three dried apricots. Someone on the forum told me that I should limit my intake of whole grain breads to 2 pieces daily, so I figured I might just eliminate it from my diet. I cook with olive oil, but would you suggest that I directly drink it? (BTW I walk 1 hour daily)

OK, so today is worse as I only have the half amount of stool and it's hard and round and small. And there is a lot of blood too, which is not surprising though. Now I'm waiting for the second BM.

Levelworm,
Do you feel you've had that because you stopped eating the nuts?........Sorry, I hope your next BM is not too horrid.
Yes, when my fissure was particularly bad, I used to take 1.5 tablespoons of Olive Oil orally before I went to bed, in addition to a Stool softener because I was scared of hard stools but I never had issues and I think the Olive Oil really helped. I switched to Magnesium tablets a couple of weeks ago and this is giving me even softer stools.
Has a GP ever checked you for digestive/ gastro-related issues? IBS? Perhaps if you're struggling, you could get referral to a dietician to help you with your diet?
I know you say you're scared of fruits, but some fruits are better than others and gentler on your system, Bananas, Apples/ Apple puree, Water melon & Grapes have lower fibre content, so you could introduce gently?? Too much fibre can also cause issues with diahrroea because it can increase BMs...Boiled potatoes & carrots are also good and pro-biotic yogurt, as you say. Probably best avoid wholemeal breads anyway for a while because of the higher fibre content and maybe just a small handful of nuts rather than too many??
Finally, do use Vaseline before you have a BM to help protect your fissure and to lubricate the anal opening? This helps an awful lot of people too.

Ever the Optimist wrote:Levelworm,
Do you feel you've had that because you stopped eating the nuts?........Sorry, I hope your next BM is not too horrid.
Yes, when my fissure was particularly bad, I used to take 1.5 tablespoons of Olive Oil orally before I went to bed, in addition to a Stool softener because I was scared of hard stools but I never had issues and I think the Olive Oil really helped. I switched to Magnesium tablets a couple of weeks ago and this is giving me even softer stools.
Has a GP ever checked you for digestive/ gastro-related issues? IBS? Perhaps if you're struggling, you could get referral to a dietician to help you with your diet?
I know you say you're scared of fruits, but some fruits are better than others and gentler on your system, Bananas, Apples/ Apple puree, Water melon & Grapes have lower fibre content, so you could introduce gently?? Too much fibre can also cause issues with diahrroea because it can increase BMs...Boiled potatoes & carrots are also good and pro-biotic yogurt, as you say. Probably best avoid wholemeal breads anyway for a while because of the higher fibre content and maybe just a small handful of nuts rather than too many??
Finally, do use Vaseline before you have a BM to help protect your fissure and to lubricate the anal opening? This helps an awful lot of people too.

Thanks for the help! I just had a second BM and, well, it was horrible, but anyway I feel happy getting rid of that stool. I'm drinking a teaspoon of olive oil in the morning and before sleep. I wish I could see a doctor but here in Canada it takes months, if not years to get an appointment, and after perhaps just 5-10 mins of talking and checking you have to wait for an equal length of time to do a surgery, so I'm going back to the home country this summer for further check-ups.
For fruits, I'm now taking dried prunes and dried apricots. I'll see if they give me diarrhea tomorrow morning (from experience diarrhea + bleeding is the worst). I also suspect my colon has a problem as the first part of the stool is always very hard ( almost as hard as a stone) and dark, so there might be internal bleeding or whatever. I do use Vaseline but I cannot get it deep enough so I'm now back to the suppositories but they are not as helpful as before.
Anyway thanks for the help! I need to rest for a while, can barely stand up :)