hi bum,
just keep your chin up! i know it's a challenge especially when we want results yesterday. remember that botox is a conjunctive treatment rather than a fix all or end all to the fissure.
so although i wouldn't expect the botox to cure your fissure, it will be in combination with other things you do that will add up to your healing path.
as lecia said you need to continue to act as ifyou have the fissure even after botox.
welcome to the healing tango............

If someone could figure out a solution to hard tipped poos, I think AF would become extinct. I know drinking tons of water doesn't help. I'm thinking of trying a little metamucil before each meal to see if that "buffers" it. My CRS swears that Miralax is the answer. He also said that hard tipped poos are the sign of a person who needs to use the bathroom twice a day and that these people need to condition their body for it. Makes sense, but I just can't get myself to go a second time during the day....it almost seems unnatural to me. I'm thinking if I have some coffee with lunch though, I might be in business.

it's interesting to note that if we had really great bowel movements and the system not messed up with other stuff in the instestines or colon, we'd be going at least 3 times a day and about 20-30 minutes after each meal.
i know my AF was not the cause of the hard tipped poo, but one that was stuck and i could not get out and it was way over due!!!! so due to mega-straining, i gave birth to the AF and let everything out!
before then, i never really had issues with hard tipped poos. i really think because of the fissure and its sensitivity, we feel the poo more and it can be hard some if not most of the time.

Oh, thats what is happening to me now - every time I eat or even sneck and have tea with it I have to poo!!!!!!! I feel like a newborn baby- silly !!!!!!!! Yes, my BMs are soft but come on - I have to go now 4 times a day usually : ( , full time job , believe me ! My Bms are perfectly soft from tip to the end . I usually eat 3 prunes before i start the meal, drink half glass Metamucil, than eat, than end the meal with 3 prunes and rest of the Metamucil. I take mineral oil 2 times aday, one TBS. For the breakfast I eat oatmeal mixed cocked with goat milk and mix in some prunes and some Metamucil- soooooo- when I die, a good chance you will recognize my resting place easily, ha ha ha, a PLUM TREE will grow there ; )))!!!
Love to all...

i wish i was as regular as you fissulyna!
:-)

[quote="Chris0007"]He also said that hard tipped poos are the sign of a person who needs to use the bathroom twice a day and that these people need to condition their body for it. Makes sense, but I just can't get myself to go a second time during the day....it almost seems unnatural to me. [quote]
Frankly, I think this is bologna. Hard tipped poos happen when poo has been in the intestine to long. I found it happened for one of two reasons with me 1) did not completely evacuate the first time b/c of pain/clench, etc...2) ate something solid for breakfast. If I eat anything except fruit with a lot of liquid for breakfast I get hard tipped bms. try modifying your diet rather than your pooping schedule.
Also, as someone who has been botoxed, Lecia is right, you still have to heal your fissure and lare.hard bms can cause a retear. about a week after I had the botox, I had had significant healing, but I had to go to the desert for my work (this was duringthe summer). I guess I didn't drink enough while in that hot/dry environment, and the next morning, I had a retear. Not anything major, but I had basically just undone the week of healing. After that, I made sure not to eat lunch until after I returned from the desert and loaded up on water. I was at the end of my healing and needed the botox to help with that last little bit, but I took me about a month after that to completely heal. Still, that area is still the first to get tender (but not fissured) if anything goes wrong with the bms.quot;Chris0007"]He also said that hard tipped poos are the sign of a person who needs to use the bathroom twice a day and that these people need to condition their body for it. Makes sense, but I just can't get myself to go a second time during the day....it almost seems unnatural to me. [quote]
Frankly, I think this is bologna. Hard tipped poos happen when poo has been in the intestine to long. I found it happened for one of two reasons with me 1) did not completely evacuate the first time b/c of pain/clench, etc...2) ate something solid for breakfast. If I eat anything except fruit with a lot of liquid for breakfast I get hard tipped bms. try modifying your diet rather than your pooping schedule.
Also, as someone who has been botoxed, Lecia is right, you still have to heal your fissure and lare.hard bms can cause a retear. about a week after I had the botox, I had had significant healing, but I had to go to the desert for my work (this was duringthe summer). I guess I didn't drink enough while in that hot/dry environment, and the next morning, I had a retear. Not anything major, but I had basically just undone the week of healing. After that, I made sure not to eat lunch until after I returned from the desert and loaded up on water. I was at the end of my healing and needed the botox to help with that last little bit, but I took me about a month after that to completely heal. Still, that area is still the first to get tender (but not fissured) if anything goes wrong with the bms.

Fissulyna, what if you started skipping the prunes. I am guessing they are a main culprit in your constant trips to the bathroom. Substitute an apple or some other fruit.
I would not doubt it at all that diet plays a large part in regularity, and also just what our body gets used to. Your body has adjusted to a four BM a day habit. Prunes can certainly play a role in that. They have a natural laxative.
When I re-read your post and saw how many you are actually ingesting, I think it's just too much for someone who goes so often.

Hi Kimbo : )))))!
I have trouble with my computer today (grrrrrrrrrrr...), tried couple of times to write and one hour of writing disappeared : (((( for another topic : /, so I will try to be fast and short! You might be wright, but I am so afraid of changing anything now, worked so hard to find what helps with keeping my bms so nice and soft. Before my fissure I went 2 times a day , sometimes 3, believe it or not, but it was 5 min process, each time, and no problem. Now that it is painful each time and that each time I have to hit the tub and lube myself after and before and dry area with haidrier and this and that, and still have spasms afterwords (especially afternoons : (((((, ) It is just unberable time wise : (, my whole day is revolving around my bathroom, and I can't go out for more than 2 hours because I have to be home to do my BM !!!!!! My friend wo is a doctor recommended more proteins - ouch - as they slow things down. Again, what if it slows too much ??? But, you know what, I will try to take 1 prune instead of three for one day to see what happenes ! Thanks a lot for trying to help! I was writing to you all today and lost whole thing : (((. Hope this will go ! BTW, do you remember what instrument they used to cut your muscle? I talked to 3 CRS- each uses different method!!! One uses cauter, second scalpel, third scissors @: p ?!? Thanks again, please let Lecia, Paingosouth, and Buttgirl and others that I wrote to ALL today but my computer did something strange and everything disappeared : (((. I will write again, of course, but I don't want you guys to think that I did not think of you today and did not respond : (((.
All the best, and thanks again !!!!!!

Its now been 2 weeks since the botox procedure. The botox has definitely loosened things down there. The muscle is much more relaxed. No spasms. However 2 hard tip BM in the past 2 weeks have basically nulified any healing of the fissure that might of occured. Its so disheartening. My routine is basically the same evryday yet out of the blue I'll have a difficult BM. I just don't get it. Going on 6 months and I'm trying not to lose faith but this thing is wearing me out. I have no illusions of returning to the life I use to have, that's what got me into this mess, but I would love to return to some form of normality soon.

Can you take a small swig of milk of magnesia? That has really made the difference for me in reducing the frequency of hard tipped stools.
Things will get better. They are.