Thanks for the advice kim, youre definitely right. I think I do start feeling that way when I have a few painless BMs, then slack off a bit with my water, etc. I must keep persistent!
Dano, my doc said the same thing. Neither my family or specialist docs prescribed stool softener - just metemucil, but I quit the metemucil because it was creating these huge stools that would killl.. The only prob now is that my BM's sometimes happen at different times (e.g. they don't always happen at 9am in the morning - sometimes at 9 am, sometimes at 12pm, etc.), but I think I have had less pain or less blood after quitting metemucil.
My grandma's doc told her that bathing can be more helpful for problems like this than medicine! I bathed yest & today, and will try at least on days when I'm off, then hopefully I'll move upto everyday. Thanks all

There are a couple tricks you could try to stimulate your bowels to move at 9:00 AM. Make sure you eat right before that time, and maybe 15 minutes before, drink hot tea, coffee , or even warm water. Try to make a ritual of "ingestion" right before BM time. This will train your body to respond regularly.

bless, kim, thats a great suggestion. sometimes if i'm up studying until 2 am, i don't get up until 10 am, and sometimes don't eat until 12 pm which will obviously delay my bm... I think a healthy schedule helps the system stay normal/regular (or I hope, at least)
Do any of you know any other tell-tale signs of healing? Is there any way of knowing whether you are healing?

Other than the pain going away and the itchiness, that's about all I know of, Sunshine!
You really need to keep your BM on a regular schedule. Even if you have to wake up at 8:00 and have a BM and then go back to sleep, that's better than delaying your BM, which can cause harder stools.