Hello Everyone,
My story...
Had really bad BMs for the past year. Maybe once a month or so and usually after a hard night dringking or eating a huge Ribeye. I thought I might have hems so I would just use some hem cream and a few days later it would clear up. About 2 mos ago, My BMs started hurting again and never quit. 2 weeks ago they got a little worse and i tried some Prep H Suppositories. This didn't help. Then on Monday (5 days ago), hard a horrible BM and I thought uhoh, something is wrong. Lot sof blood. On Tuesday morning it was unbearable. I was left trembling and shaking and blood vessels had poped on my forehead from the strain. I called up my docotr and got an appt that morning. Described my symptoms and he said it was hems, but gave me a referral to a CRS if it got worse. I couldn't handle it and called the CRS and got an appt that afternoon.
CRS told me I had a fissure. He prescribed me Diltiazem cream and Colace pills and a high fiber diet. Said I had a 50/50 chance of getting better.
I went home and found this site and have been reading it ever since.
I started taking Miralax yesterday afternoon because I didn't have a BM yesterday morning and got scared.
Finally had a BM this morning. Hard and scary at first and softer towards the end.
I am lost on what to eat. Since Tuesday afternoon, I have been eating peeled apples, bananas, pears, and Fibre One cereal with a little milk. Does anyone have any advice on food?
Thanks you all for this forum. It is so nice to know I am not alone.

Hi Lost...sorry to have to welcome you to this forum, but am glad that you found us.
My first bit of advice is to look at the different threads on the site. There is lots of valuble info.
I am glad you went to a CRS farely quickly...lots of us flounder with GPs and GI docs without much help. Also the diltiazem and miralax are a good start.
I had hemi problems for awhile pre-fissure also and the creams always worked until last September. It took 2 months before I was diagnosed with a fissure, another month before someone told me about miralax (which has been a godsend), and another month to find this site.
I am now 4 1/2 wks post op for LIS and Skin tag removal and I wish I had done that sooner too. If you don't heal with the diltiazem and soft stools, don't fret about the surgery. It's a piece of cake compared to fissure hell.
As for diet, the same thing doesn't work for everyone as you'll read in some of the threads but I can tell you what has and hasn't worked for me.
I went through a phase where I was eating too much fiber (40-50 grams a day) and was pooing too much, too big, & not softer so don't overdue it...stick to 30-35 grams a day.
The miralax wasn't working so well when I took it in the AM. My stool would start off hard then finish soft so I switched to night time. I sometimes come close to forgetting to take it though. Some people on the forum split it up AM/PM and some take it in the AM, so again it's a crap shoot. Take it everyday though even if you have a couple of good BM days.
I stay away from sugar, white flour, cheese, beef, and fried foods, but the docs all say that you can eat anything on miralax (some of us don't believe that).
I find I have trouble with BMs if I overeat or undereat. Weird but true. If I undereat I feel like there isn't enough food to push through and I'll miss a BM and the next one may be hard. If I overeat I have to go too many times and again if I don't get it all out...too hard.
Fruit and veggies have been very good to me...as have lentils and beans. Some people puree their food but I haven't done that. Soups (not cream ones) are good too.
I eat a smoothie for breakfast and have at least one salad during the day with lots of veggies (lettuce, cuke, avo, red cabbage, beets, carrots, corn, red bells, etc.) and I make a lot of mexican food with whole grain tortillas, beans, corn, avo, lettuce, steamed veggies and chicken. Fish has been good for me too.
Unfortunately, there may be some ups and downs with your BMs until you figure out what works for you. Just try to keep it soft and hopefully you can heal it on your own.
Try not to get too anxious or stressed either. The sphincter doesn't like that either.
Good Luck...

Thank you for the reply Frustrated. Glad to hear you are doing better post-surgery.
With my quick math skills, it looks like you went about 6 mos. after you diagnosed a fissure? Wow. I'm going on 4 days and my life is terrible. Its good to hear the suggestion for surgery. I am all for it. I think my CRS wants me to wait about 4 mos. before we do any surgery. I really do not want to put my life on hold for that long.
Thanks for the fiber tip. I'll keep an eye on that. I am still worried about eating in general and have really dropped my calorie count.

Yep...6 months...The GI doc I went to kept saying how "minor" my fissure was and that I didn't need surgery. Only after a near mental breakdown did he refer me to a CRS. I don't need to tell anyone here that it did not feel minor. However, I do think that if I had caught it sooner and knew all that I know now, I may have been able to heal it without surgery. Looking back, I now think that I may have had one before but assumed is was a hemi and it went away with better bowel habits.
4 months seems like a long time to wait and see if the diltiazem is working. She/he must think it doesn't look to bad? My surgeon told me it was up to me to have the surgery or not, but I had already tried everything else except Botox (which has mixed reviews here).
Like I said earlier, and have read from many others...I wish I had done the surgery earlier. My fissure pain was gone so quickly after the surgery. I am just still in pain because of the skin tag I had removed; however, mentally I am so much better knowing that there is "an end."

lost, sorry I can't offer you much advice as I'm trying to figure it all out myself! I just want to tell you
-bummer

Sorry to say welcome, lost, but you know what i mean... I dropped my food intake drastically, and have lost about 35 lbs in the just over a year that i've had this hellish thing. I am going to try and get some powder mix to buck up my calories, over the net, as i dont like the ensure and such as it has milk in it. I use skim milk watered down, breakfast with a tiny bit of coffee in it. Almost to the stage of being off coffee (sad abt that as love it). I am probably going to have a colonoscopy, though terrified of that. However, near constant pain brings you round. I use nifedipine and MOM and Peri-Colace. Not huge doses of either. I have a sensation of pain/pressure nearly from morning to night. Only relief from it all is sleep with 0.75 lorazapam. So, your choice of profile name is apt! Know exactly how you feel, but good you caught it early. Em

YES!!!
SUCCESS!!!
:D
Just had my first "goldilocks" BM, as I have found other members call them. Not too hard, not too soft. lol
The pain afterwards was really bad though. A sitz bath then a heating pad has calmed it down.

So far, I have had 3 BMs that cause me pain that lasted 9+ hours. This one this morning was about 2.5 hours ago and I can sit here and write on the internet. I can move around much better. Oh man, I hope they can only get better.
I was telling my wife it is like a sore throat, you forget what it is like to be healthy again. Or something like that to the Millionth Degree!
Thank you for your support, bummer, frustrated, and savaici. You are so great.

I forgot to mention...drink lots of water but I am sure you've read that elsewhere.

I'm sorry, lost, that you have to be here but glad you found us! You didn't mention if you are taking anything for the pain, you've probably already read it here but I was taking extra strength ibuprofen and generic robaxacet, a muscle relaxant, this combo really takes the edge off, for bad days near the end (before LIS) my GP prescribed oxazepam, a less addictive, slow release type of Valium. AF is the hardest pain I've ever had to deal with and, like frustrated, I think if I had known about this site a year ago, I might of beat it on my own. I tried everything they threw at me, begging for surgery almost the whole time.
There is an end, it takes time but you can get there. I lost a year. Don't be afraid of the surgery, I had pain after, but MANAGEABLE pain. The very next day the burn was GONE. I used my prescription pain mess regularly for two days, upped my nightly miralax to avoid constipation, a few more days sporadically and now, 4 weeks out from LIS I take the occasional ibuprofen but otherwise, no pain to speak of.
As far as diet goes, I did and still do take two doses of metamucil and one benefiber everyday, I take 300mg of magnesium citrate every morning and 3/4 dose of miralax split up between dinner and bedtime. I eat a few apples per day, oatmeal for breakfast, and aside from avoiding red meat I eat regular stuff. The key is the miralax, wish I had known sooner.
Hope this helps some, this place saved me the advice and understanding of this most embarassing ailment was what kept me from really losing it. I hope you find your perfect formula and that you don't have to suffer long! But this place is always here for when you are.

Just an update and search for advice.
I saw my CRS on Fiday. He said my fissure looked really good compared to 2 weeks ago when he said it looked aweful and nasty.
After the exam we had a little question and answer session concerning my diet and AF maintenance. He said I was doing as much as I can be expected to.
Then he threw me for a loop. He said it was totally up to me if I wanted to have LIS. He said it was quick and easy and would make the post-BM pain much more manageable.
I was stunned. I don't know what to do. I told him I would think about it over the weekend and made a followup appt the middle of July.
If I have to continue this diet anyways, should I get the LIS and have a better percentage of healing? He said it would be a 50/50 chance that I heal taking the Diltiazem and soft stool diet versus about a 95% chance with LIS.
Your advice is appreciated. My family doesn't know what to do so I look to you guys for advice.
Thanks,
Lost
ps- I'm typing this in light of having a really rough day today. About 12 hours so far of pain which keeps me in the house.