Hey guys, I've had a fissure since around November last year and whilst it occasionally heals for a week at most, it never really goes away and the severity of it varies.
When I started having the fissure, as I'm sure you all know it's excruciating but my doctor gave me some GTN (Glyceryl trinitrate rectal ointment) to which I'm still using and it does help but just as I start to think "no pain, no blood, this could be it this time" I feel a sharp scrape and low and behold there's a little bit of blood on the toilet paper.
I went to see my doctor recently and asked to be referred to a specialist about surgery and he said that the side effects such as soiling, letting gas go uncontrollably would be quite embarrassing and I'm still fairly young and single. I know that sounds like a stupid excuse not to get it done but I'd like to try every possibility before considering surgery so I mentioned about my diet to my doctor and he said to experiment with it so...
On weekdays:
For breakfast I have:
Overnight oats with low fat natural yoghurt, semi skimmed milk, raspberries, blueberries and 1tsp of honey.
For a mid-morning snack, I usually have either a plum or an apple.
For lunches I usually have salads which consist of spinach, cucumber, avocado, spring onion, walnuts, flaked almonds, fish (varies from mackeral, kipper, tuna, salmon and prawns) and half a pepper.
I don't really have a set plan for dinner, it's really whatever I fancy but generally quite a healthy meal.
On weekends:
For breakfast I have Shredded wheat with semi skimmed milk and a small sprinkle of sugar
For lunch I usually have a sandwhich (from wholemeal bread) that usually tuna, but sometimes ham, prawns, salmon, kipper & mackeral, spinach and low fat mayonaise.
Again for dinner, there's no set plan but usually quite healthy.
I've seen this thread where they talk about lowering fiber and eating more so maybe I could be having too much fiber?
So with all this in mind what sort of diet do you have and does it help?
Things to note:
I tend to drink 3-4 pints (1.5L to 2L) of water a day
I usually have 1 bowel movement a day; more often than not, in the morning.
I have 1 Laxido orange a day (in the morning) to help soften the stool (I have gone up to 3 before but I started to depend on it, 1 seems to work fine at the moment)
I've tried using Vaseline (petroleum jelly) to lubricate the area for a better exit but felt that it's a bit counter intuitive to try and heal a fissure by sticking your finger up there and opening the anus.
I'm not sure if this has an effect but I work in an office and whilst they are very good office chairs, I do sit down a lot. Probably for most of the day. Could that have an effect?
I know this is a lot to read but thanks in advance for any help / information you can provide :)