My overall tips for AF:
Eat Fruit, Veggies, minimize carbs and grains and nuts, fish is the best meat to eat, flax seed ground up and eaten w fruit is great. Lots of water. Treat your fissure as a wound not a hemmoroid. REDUCE Stress!!! Stress makes it all so much worse. Do not strain to poop. Do not force yourself to poop. Cocacola helps pain for a short time better than anything else.
Try to reduce the throughput on your body. Soups are great for making you feel full with less bulk. The flax seed can help keep u regular, just don't overdo any fibers either. For me I found too much fiber could make a fissure worse. Eliminate all bread and flour. For me bread and flour is the worst. Avoid eating too many nuts also. i found they tended to plug me up. Make sure you are gettin probiotics and enzymes to help your body fully process food better. A lot of the laxatives out there kill the good bacteria in your gut which contributes to hard poops.
One other thing to consider is stress. My AF started and occurred during a time of a lot of stressors in my life. If yyou can reduce stress in general it should help. Easier said than done I know, but perhaps realizing that stress can contribute might help you to deal with it better. Foods and things that lower stress might help. So matbe consider some relaxing teas like peppermint tea, etc. whatever helps you.
Coffee also was a big cause of problems for me. I was down to one cup a day or less before surgery. Now I have been able to. Increase it some after surgery sgain.
I found most hemmoroid medications made my fissure worse, once I started treating it like a wound to heal it, it started doing better. But, in the end it was food that unexpectedly made me constipated that would not allow it to heal. I travel a lot for work, and the result of eating out a lot causes problems because you have no idea exactly what is in your food that might be causing constipation.
I almost got my AF to heal and then it came back when I ate food that made it split again. I ended up doing surgery and what follows are my post surgery tips. Some of the tips below can help you before surgery also.
Hope it helps
Lessons:
Eat fruit every meal. Eat lots of veggies and salads. Eliminate all breads and cereals they add bulk.
Eat ground flax seed a couple times per day. 1tbsp at a time. I miss it with dried fruit or fresh fruit and warm milk.
Cherries are fantastic for keeping your poop moving - eating them all day is helping me tons Thank god they are in season.
Avoid preserved meats. For me fish and chicken have been best. Tuna fish with Mango or other fruit is really good to get protein without constipation.
In terms of alcohol - i have found that wine seems to help heal hemmoroids.
Caffeine - I have found Cocacola is the best fastest pain killer for rear end pain from fissures and hemmoroids. It has helped after surgety. Coke was better than any pain killer i have taken whether it was over the counter or prescription. Combined with tylenol it is best combo for pain.
Ibuprofen after pooping is a must - up to 800mg if you need it
Ice - is a lifesafer. Get one of those ice tubes from your doctor and place the tube of ice right on your anus. A frozen water bottle might work too.
Don't wipe your butt with toilet paper- it makes the pain way worse and scrapes against the sore areas. Instead get in the shower right away and wash the poop off with water. after the shower sit in a bath til the pain is manageable.
Pain killers didn't work for me and made me super emotional. Motrin has been the best thing to reduce swelling along with ice.
A few other tips-- take a baby wipe or gauze pad or even tissue paper fold it into about a 2-3 inch square soak it with Witchhazel and put it right up next to your anus. Use plenty of witchhazel is key. Do this for the first week or so after surgery or as needed til bleeding stops. It really helps reduce swelling and pain, plus it keeps it clean up there.
Take extra vitamin C and maybe E to help give your body tools to heal.
Also after 12 days I am off all pain meds and no motrin either. I am still taking ginger capsules every morining though. Ginger helps reduce inflammation and pain some too.
Hope this all helps someone else endure their recovery. The whole fissure and surgery experience has been excruciating!!! Good luck and god bless anyone suffering from this!