Oh, I bet it is hard during the PMS! I miss them every morning when I wake up! And when I get mad -- you kow, male PMS! :)

Haha man who would've guessed we'd all be a bunch of ex smokers here :)
Marlboro Reds were my fav, the taste is the most "full-bodied" and "robust" for me. I started with Camel Filtereds, but somewhere along the way they started tasting really nasty to me... And yeah the B&H's were the strong, long ones. I liked those because they tasted smooth and burnt for a long time, giving me an extended peaceful smoke break haha. There was another brand, I think Davidoff, that I used to smoke once in a while and enjoyed, but they were too expensive to be my regular poison.
I had a hard time quitting too, in fact the first time I quit, I went 4.5 years without a single smoke. Then life hit a bit of a rough patch and I started up again for a few months -- got full on addicted again in that short span of time and had to go through the withdrawal process all over again. But it was easier the second time because I knew what to expect. Both times I stopped cold turkey, tapering down or substituting with gums and patches just didn't do it for me for some reason. These days I have no urges at all whatsoever under normal circumstances. If I've had too many spirits to drink, though, I will admit to still getting a transient craving on occasion, meaning my consumption nowadays is maybe 1-2 cigarettes a year (usually centered around holidays that involve alcohol ). The next morning, my clothes smell nasty and my mouth tastes weird, but boy does it go nicely with some whiskey or cognac :)
Anyhow better stop talking so much about something that we're all kicking to the curb So the FiberSure actually softens stool, that is interesting. I'm monitoring my situation closely, if and when I see any real lasting progress with poop consistency/pain levels I'm going to see if I can find a Miralax alternative. Miralax works but it does make my abdomen a little crampy or tight at times. Tabby your being able to bike now is most encouraging. I used to mountain bike, motorcycle, and also snowboard avidly. It's ski season here in a few months, and a little part of me hopes I can somehow magically be okay by that point so I can hit the slopes. I usually go every weekend, and while I think that frequency might not be so great for my fissure, I'd at least like to make maybe 1 trip a month. I'm still scared to death to try riding my bike (both motor bike and mountain bike) right now though, the pressure of the seat on my butt just gives me all kinds of painful visions!

macymae wrote:So this calmospetine cream helps with burning? I only get it occasionally, but sure wouldn't mind something to help it go away!

Actually, it does help me quite a bit! It's a combination of menthol and zinc oxide, and it says on the label that it's used as a barrier cream and specifically says for fistulas. I use it once in a while and it really does stop the burning for me. It's fairly inexpensive and available at drugstore.com.

Might be worth a shot, Macy! :)

I used to smoke in my 20's. Can I also be in the club of non-smokers??? I might try the Fibresure after my cruise and see how it is in comparison to the Benefiber! Congrats to all past smokers who have quit (including me)!

And congratulations on being in our club of ex-smokers, Cheryl!

Make this forum should be renamed to Smoking Cessation / Anal Fissure Forum :)
BTW Kim, I just have to know the story behind your current avatar...

Oh and btw in case it helps anyone, I am still enjoying soft, mostly painless poops from the diet described in the original post of this thread. A far cry from the insane torment of weeks ago.
Most of the time I don't notice any bleeding during BMs either. The one exception was yesterday, I saw a little bit of red streaking in the stools and a tiny spot or two on the TP, but I'm not sure if it was the carrots / crab legs / imitation crab meat (all of which are red) I ate the night before or actual blood. Looked more like mild bleeding to me though.
Only problem is I'm still losing weight, not sure if that's due to the diet or because of some other underlying disease. I'm going to pop by the store later and look for some of that Ensure drink that I believe Cheryl recommended to me earlier to see if it'll add on some pounds for me. If I could poop the way I'm pooping now and stop the weight loss then I'll be a pretty happy camper.

I'd be happy to send you some of the pounds I put on, Chen. I cannot believe that I was trying to GAIN weight a year ago and was skinny. It's unbelievable to me now.

cherylk wrote:I'd be happy to send you some of the pounds I put on, Chen. I cannot believe that I was trying to GAIN weight a year ago and was skinny. It's unbelievable to me now.

If only it were that easy -- I'd definitely take ya up on it for sure Cheryl! Forgive me if you've already told me this before (can't recall at the moment) but did you lose a lot of weight due to your fissure and pelvic issue? If so gaining it back is great!
I picked up some Ensure btw, strawberry flavor and chocolate flavor. Strawberry has more protein and chocolate has more fiber so I figured I'd try both. I lost another 1.5 lbs last week so hopefully this helps some. I'm going to try the first one tomorrow morning and see what happens.