Jr2,
Thanks again - I'm going to look that book up right now!
There's definitely triggers somewhere in my diet for this stuff and interestingly, when I told my boss I was suffering, she asked if I'd eaten mashed potatoes with butter recently....Funnily enough, I'd eaten them two nights running before everything got really bad!! so I was a little freaked. She told me this food is a major trigger for her IBS symptoms....
Marg, are you now considering LIS? I really didn't have many issues at all up until now with my fissure (just the skin tag playing up a bit) - Fissures certainly do have a mind of their own!! After a few days of horribleness, today my bottom feels like nothing was ever wrong with it. I can't figure it out at all!
Lubrication is definitely the way to go! Makes a huge difference in my opinion!
All the very best & please update on your CRS appointment too...

ETO,
I just posted a new study that just came out in the American Journal of Gastroenterology in the References section about the effect of diet on chronic anal fissure healing. You might want to take a peek. Some interesting findings.

Ever the Optimist, yes I am, I like you, get to the point that when everything seems good to go and I forget that I even have a fissure, something happen, then the reminder that the fissure is still there comes back.
I had a very small pink dot this morning after my BM, it seems that no matter what I do, how much I take care of the fissure it just doesn't want to go away.
After 11 months I am ready to take the next step and perhaps get an end to the waiting to look if its going to heal on its own.
Is like, "do I want to be like this for the rest of my life?", just waiting for that day that all the pain and suffering is coming back, should I wait for that day? or just keep doing what I do to make things manageable and comfortable.
Too many decisions. I am just getting tired of it.

Aw Marg,
I feel for you so much! I can so relate to that feeling of desperation, of knowing you can't do anymore than you are already doing!...I totally understand that you want an end to it all and I too have had fleeting moments of "Just get LIS and get it over and done with and work on being back to complete normality again".......
Something in me just won't do that....probably because I know generally that it isn't that bad and most of the time I don't get issues from the fissure (just the Sentinel pile). I could pin point the cause of my recent aggravation and I will NOT give in to this fissure because I am certain I can (and my body) can heal from this thing (maybe, I'm deluding myself - I don't know ) but I am not ready to give up the fight!!...
A day after all that aggravation & stress of believing I could be returning to intense pain, I have felt wonderful! My bottom feels normal again - the pains have gone and no, I can't figure out why. That is the frustrating part BUT it just enforces the belief in me that I am (still) healing and one day, I will get there! I guess I'm a great believer in following my gut instincts and I'm extremely stubborn too!
You say you saw a small pink dot but did you get pain too?
Ultimately of course, it is absolutely your choice to do what is best for you and of course, if you feel LIS is your way out, then go for it and no-one would blame you, you would not be letting yourself down in anyway or mentally "giving in" to the fissure, you would probably be on an even better path to full healing........but you do sound like on the whole, you are doing a brilliant job in achieving what you have so far and you are obviously an incredibly strong person.
Do what you feel you have to do and I truly wish you all the very best, we will all be here to offer you all the support you need in the meantime and help you in making your decision if you need that help.......Take care x

Ever the Optimist, like you when things get better I feel that I can still fight one more day, but then the set back comes back, no bad, just mild irritation after finding a small smudge of pink after a BM, that only bothers me if I touch the area, the substantial bleeding and red water is not there so far like in the beginning, but just seen some pink in the wipes tells me that my fissure is still very much active.
Pain has not come back to hunt me like when the fissure was fresh, so while I can pretty much say that it may have healed somewhat is not gone by any means, but the care is what it keeps it from getting worse.
So to me chronic fissures just feels better with proper care but they are not gone.
Thank you so much for reading my post and sharing with me.
BTW, I talk about getting the LIS but you have not idea how scare I am of having the surgery and getting things worst, right now I can at least control this thing for now.

dear optimist it's very sad to hear about it. I m feeling so sorry about ur present condition. I know after getting a little relief n then going back to to the fissure stage is undoubtedly very scary.
I think alcohol should be avoided cz u never know when ur body is in the phase if detoxification n when it is not so anything can disturb n aggravate the thing so v should avoid even looking at those temptating but aggravating thing.
u also have ibs problem but I can't say u anything about it. optimist I have a question for u y don't u go for lis? wish u a fissure free life n wealth of health.

Marg,
Is it possible that the blood came from any other source than the fissure?
Do you or have you ever had issues with hems???
Just the fact that you are not having major pain and nothing is ever as bad as it was indicates to me that you are doing so well in your healing. I have a CRS appointment next Friday and I have a lot more questions now I am "wiser" to this all - my main one being "Do anal fissures ever fully heal?" If the response is yes and I get a proper explanation as to how, it will be enough to reinforce my belief that I will continue as I am (unless I get an extremely major setback)
Like any injury, a certain amount of care is always needed to heal - unfortunately, this is just a particularly delicate and fragile area to heal and takes an awful long time, but I do believe it is possible. This is why LIS to me is my final option. I'm not scared in any way of making that choice, hell, I've been through enough in the last year to just get it done but if I can heal conservatively, I will continue with that route. I don't see that LIS will make anything necessarily worse, to be honest, it's a simple procedure with a lot of success stories. It has helped an awful lot of sufferers and would probably promote full healing more quickly but I am not in extreme pain, happy to manage and live with things as they are right now & I'm just not considering it as an option at this stage.
If you did opt for the surgery, I completely understand your fear (I had fistula surgery last year which turned out to be a breeze) I'd suggest doing lots of research to find out more about LIS, the procedure, the recovery and some of the very successful experiences people have had with it first.
Maybe yesterday was a bad day generally for you??? You sounded so fed up and maybe today you are feeling better and a lot more positive again?? I do hope so
Ravians, I think this might answer your question too about my feelings on LIS. Thanks so much for your kind words and support but I can honestly say, things have suddenly got so much better again - I just can't figure it out!!! You may well be completely right about the alcohol but there's been times when I've had a glass of wine and it's had no effect at all - I don't drink a bottle a night or anything just very very ocassionally a glass, two max. I guess it's also part of my nature in that I don't want this to taking over my whole life and if I want a very ocassional glass, I will have one!!!....I do maintain a very careful diet, I've cut out an awful lot of rubbish and even if I drink wine, I ensure I have a very large glass of water to go with it!! I hope you are feeling better at the moment - you were in so much pain a week or so ago?

tx dear for sharing n caring my sufferings.I m glad to hear that u r back to ur routine days at least that is not worrying u.
now my story is this ..... I had an appointment for surgery this Thursday .... I went to hospital n when my turn came surgeon called me up the process began they gave me GA n I slept when I woke surgeon told me that he had done only controlled dilatation only. cz spasm was not of that intensity . he was not willing to do sphincterotomy. now that after two days I can feel that spasm is not there n my old stubborn fissure no more disturbs me while passing stool but a new fissure that said me huy around two weeks ago still caused little trouble today. I m hopeful that I will b able to get rid of all this soon. also I m feeling some pus coming out , I don't know from where but I feel it's coming out from the edge of a skin tag. any way that's just a speculation . I have an appointment with my surgeon on monday. will show him only then I can say for sure that what's going on.

Reading posts like this make me so grateful this forum exists! I don't know what I would do if I had to deal with this in my own. Ever the Optimist, I completely understand what you are going through! my fissure is healing as I have not had blood and pain like when it was at its worse. But every once in a while, a bowl movement will irritate it. The worst part is the fear that I completely retore, the disappointment and anxiety. But in most cases I've gotten better in a couple of days which makes me think I didn't completely screw up. I think this concept of two steps forward, one step back completely applies to us. I tell myself that as long as the steps forward are more than the steps back then I am good. And like you, I want to heal without surgery. I haven't had bad spasms which makes me think the surgery wouldn't be succesful in my case. Anyways, my new motto: "Strength: A river cuts through a rock not because of its power but its persistence"
I don't have IBS however in my experience the following items cause "flare ups": bread (even if its whole wheat), pasta, potatoes, red meat, strawberries, bananas. FYI my CRS recommended I avoid potatoes, pasta and bananas. I had no idea bananas were constipating!
Good luck on continuing your recovery and stay positive!

Ever the Optimist, no hems, just the fissure, I am still a bit sore from yesterday, but hey this life while trying to heal.
I am still trying to figure out how I got the set back this time.
I even started to use the nitro but only can use it for a few days as it gives me itching.
Let see what happens.