I know I have asked you both about your post fissure diets, etc., but I wonder about something else about your after fissure life:
1. Have you experienced pain when having a BM?
2. Have you experienced any other discomfort at all when having a BM, bleeding, problems when it is big, etc.?
3. Have you had any retearing?
4. Why did you get a fissure in the first place?
The reason I ask, is because retearing seems to be a problem for some, and secondly because everybody tells me that the risk of retearing is big the first year after you are healed. My CRS even said that the skin down there would never become as strong as it was before the fissure.
If you answer, I'll promise to buy you a beer when you come to Norway

Smiley Face
Corsica

Smiley Face

1. Have you experienced pain when having a BM? Not major fissure pain. Just, once or twice, the kind of discomfort that a large dry stool will cause when passing. I bled slightly on those occasions.
2. Have you experienced any other discomfort at all when having a BM, bleeding, problems when it is big, etc.? No, not really. I seem to be less constipated than ever for the most part and just this morning passed the longest stool, it must have been half a meter long! I thought to myself if I'd had one like that with a fissure there would have been hell to pay.
3. Have you had any retearing? The couple times I have had blood (small amounts) I have to assume the membrane was torn very slightly.
4. Why did you get a fissure in the first place? I think chronic constipation caused me some occasional but painless bleeding, then I had a MAJOR bout of diarrhea in May 2006 that apparently split the fissure open enough to start daily spasms.
I'll take 2 beers, thank you!

Hey Corsi - 2 beers are too tempting - so here it goes LOL :
After LIS I had minor discomfort while healing - really , almost negligible . The most discomfort came from 2 big skin tags that formed after the LIS and they continued to bother me on and off in 7 month period after the LIS. My sphincter continued to get tighter and tighter over that period and cases of fissure reappearing started. When they would appear, they were usually superficial with no real pain - more like tiny pinch during BM , and I had bleeding only once - 2 specks of blood on my TP on one occasion.
The main cause of my fissures it "supertonic" sphincter .
I got my first fissure after holding my BM for a long time due to traveling and than really FORCING myself to go in a public restroom. My sphincter was super clenched due to psychosis of not being able to go with 20 people screaming and banging around and I just wanted to be over with it and pressed with all my might and I made a tear : (((. My poop was normal, formed but not very hard - but resistance was just too strong : (((. I was never constipated in my life - always went to the bathroom at least 2-3 times a day : (. I just have T-rex strong sphincter , my other muscles are very strong too although you would not guess by looking at me. I can arm wrestle some guys LOL and my daughters who are very athletic (one is in tennis school team, and other is gymnastic coach) can only dream of winning LOL . During both of my pregnancies neither of my babies "drop" before the labor - my belly stayed up high till the very end which made my labors a hell : (.
Anyway - LOL, I will wrestle whole pub after those 2 beers !!!

1. Have you experienced pain when having a BM?
I also have a skin tag which I call Laverne and Shirley. Sometimes it helps to name these things - your little fissure, your pimples, your skin tag, etc..... - to get through the tough times. But also, as you make friends with your diagnosis and the cause of your problem, it almost feels like you take a different approach to dealing with "it".
So after fissure resolution, I had issues with Laverne and Shirley. Especially when I had a lot of gas - force farting just doesn't help - but sometimes I just hate that feeling of having that feeling that there is air trapped in there and I just try to push it out - that is when L&S get very irritated and they let me know to not do that.
L&S have actually been good all summer and so at this time I have been as normal as if I never had anything.
I do still feel L&S though in the shower. They are just hanging out.
2. Have you experienced any other discomfort at all when having a BM, bleeding, problems when it is big, etc.?
Not any more. I haven't had All Bran Bran Buds in ages and i have been trying to have more hot meals in the morning for breakfast like oatmeal and miso soup or any other type of soup. I also have cereal like Multi-Grain Cheerios, Quaker Oatmeal Squares, Kashi's Vive, or Basic Four.
Even when I had got myself into that huge pizza eating contest in St. Louis, I didn't have any issues with BMs.
3. Have you had any retearing?
No. But I am still cautious going to BM. So it's not like I sit on the crapper and just force it all out. I still breathe to relax, and take my time and I try to mostly listen to my body when it is telling me that the moment is 'now'!
4. Why did you get a fissure in the first place?
Oddly enough it was because I was training for a marathon.
Prior to deciding to do the marathon, I was in one of my vegetarian periods - I like to give my body a break from meat at times and I was in my veggie period. Well as I got serious about the marathon, I wanted to keep my muscle mass (as I don't have much to begin with) and I treated myself to a big chunck of brisket that I made and I didn't really have any salad or veggies with it.
The brisket was soooo good that I ate like 2-3 lbs thru the evening with mashed potatoes that I drenched with butter.
This stopped me being regular and it took like four days to finally go to the bathroom to have a BM - which is why I freak out now when i don't have a BM for days!!!! - and since I knew I had something coming out it just didn't want to - I forced it. It was like having labor and I was trying to push a huge baby out.....
Little did I know that I ripped my ass up so badly despite seeing blood in the toilet. And little did I know that I would be so traumatized and haunted by eating that chunk of brisket and forcing a BM.
It was a huge (no pun intended) mistake that cost me dearly.

ooooooooopsssssss- I was not even invited LOL I guess that beer got my attention before I realized that Q was for Kim and Happy - sorry Corsi - still - interesting story you must admit !!!!
Sorry buddy

Fiss dear, you are always invited - always!!
Kim & Happy
Thank you for answering, I love this forum were we actually can discuss things like BM, stool, fissures, etc. = things that concern us!
It is very interesting to read about your after fissure life, and even more so because you had LIS Kim, and you healed without surgery Happy. One should think that you had a lesser chance of retearing Kim since your sphincter is wider now?
I still don't know yet the outcome of my fissure nightmare, but I guess that if I heal without surgery I will still be tight? and therefore have chances of retearing...
You have already told me both of you that you eat healthy, and pay attention to what you put in your body....I guess that is a lesson to remember for all of us...
I know I can never allow myself to have days were glutenfree food is the only thing I eat (It has almost no fibre, high in starch and carbo hydrates, etc.). (It was not constipation that started it for me, I go every morning - has done so since I had my son 13 years ago).
All in all I will have to live healthier, which isn't bad really... I only hope that I don't have to live on fissure diet for the rest of my life, because I do enjoy a class of wine or "bad food" every now and then..
What is a skin tag? Is it like external hemmies?
Quote Happy "Little did I know that I ripped my ass up so badly despite seeing blood in the toilet. And little did I know that I would be so traumatized and haunted by eating that chunk of brisket and forcing a BM.
It was a huge (no pun intended) mistake that cost me dearly".
Isn't this the mistake so many of us do? I didn't even know there was something called fissures. I bled for years, and had about three months with bad on/off pain before I went to my GP who didn't really take me seriously....
(Happy, thanks for diet tips on another thread (quinoa, etc.))
Kim, you'll get your beers! No beer Happy? What about wine? You have to come to Norway though, or wait till I visit the USA...
Corsica

Thanks, Corsi! I'll go ahead and have my beers tonight in your honor! And everyone else's who had procedures and appointments today.
Yes, I am no longer tight down there at all. In fact I am as unconstipated now as I have ever been in my life, but I think my diet helps in that -- I basically don;t eat junk food anymore.

Kim & Happy -
Do you guys ever have scratchy poo??? Do you ever have any large BM's that don't cause pain but are slightly more difficult to get out??? (if that makes any scence)
Corsi - How are you feeling??? Any better I hope??? :) :) :)
Fissy - The same thing happened with me in my labor! I think there is a connection with our strong sphincters. I was 10 cm dialated and the nurse would still not let me push because he had not dropped at all! I had to sit there for another 3 hours and wait even though I was completely dialated. She said because he had not dropped, I would be pushing forever and get too tired. The whole thing was a nightmear considering I did it all natural too.

I never "got" what scratchy poo was, so I guess I never had that.
Every now and then, rarely, I'll realized that the stool is gonna be a bit too wide, and too hard. I'll get a twinge of discomfort when that happens, and my tail will be a bit sore for a few minutes.

i am still very tight. and i think i always will be.
so i am not sure if an LIS would have helped me with that.
**
i think the difference between having the scratchy poo or a poo that is big, is to try to have it when your body wants you to make it go.
there were times when if you forced them out, then yes, you would hurt something.
however, if you went as your body called you to dump, then it wouldn't matter because it was as almost as if your body relaxed you enough and allowed you to pass whatever without too much work.
as much as i profess die hard macrobiotics - that i am not. i like to incorporate macrobiotics along with vegetarianism and also having a normal day of eating. i still do after all love my fried chicken, fuddruckers burgers, and all the meat you can eat at Golden Corral buffet! hehehehehehehehe......
now i eat pretty much anything i want but i have also made a lot of progress in making better decisions in what i eat.
i never really got into the supplements although i did dabble in the aloe vera, magnesium, fish oil, and vitamin e. i also had moments that i would use citrucel or metamucil but never stuck to it.
for whatever reason, when i just stuck to macrobiotics consistently and only, did it take a month to change my body and the way my little a-hole made improvements. so all in all, i was on a macrobiotic diet strictly as much as i could find the foods, for a good eight months.
but i think for me, my goal is to be macrobiotic 2 or 3 days, vegetarian (lacto-ovo for me, even though i haven't had eggs in a while) for 2 or 3 days, and then a carnivore for the remainder of the week.
i am sure i am prone to retearing at any time. but i am going to learn from my mistakes in the past.....and apply what i have learned too.
i won't say i will be fissure free for the rest of my life; but i really hope to stay that way.