I second Hope's post.
I am in my 40's too and only had minor constipation through out my life. A couple of bad BM's and fissure hell. I am now 4 wks. post LIS and hopeful again.
The miralax has been a godsend for many of us; you just have to figure out when to take it and how much. I was taking it in the AM and was still having firm BMs so I switched to after dinner and that helped me.
I was worried about all the things you are too. I worried and worried from the moment I woke up til I went to bed, but I had to let it go and focus on healing. Keep reading posts on thi site and you will see that you are not alone.
I don't want to be on miralax forever but I am sticking with it til I am healed and then I will worry about weaning off of it.
I did get some adivan (some people get valium or Xanax or anti depressants) from my doctor to calm me down when I was in major anxiety mode. I was going through a rough patch and hypervenilating, dry heaving, sobbing, etc. I realized the anxiety and stress were hurting my healing process almost as much as the firm BMs.
There IS a cure but there is a lot of experimenting and changing of diet before you find what helps. It IS very frustrating and depressing but don't give up.
I have a friend who is vegan and eats super healthy and she is chronically constipated. My boyfriend is a somewhat poor eater and he poos everyday sometimes twice a day. She worries constantly...he worries about almost nothing. Is there a correlation? I don't know, but everyone is different and you might make a few missteps along the way (I did), but trust that you will get better someday.
Take care Alpha.

Thank you guys. You guys are being a lot of help to me. I have pretty much no one who I can talk about this around me. But it's good to know that I am not alone.
Yes I am in major anxiety mode. I've never had this much anxiety in my life before. I've never imagined that constipation could eat up one's life this much.
I was able to go this morning thanks to a dose of miralax yesterday night and another dose this morning. I am 90% feel OK now. Very very mild bloating and some mild pain from fissure. I hope every day to be like this....

That's great, Alpha! I am so glad the Miralax helped. We all definitely understand all about anxiety here. I have never had so much anxiety in my life - this fissure business has been just awful! I keep telling myself that I will see better days very soon. Even though I am still in some pain, I feel like I'm getting better. You will get better too!

Last year, I had big-time problems with my usual lifelong constipation issues, which led to my bigger problems with a AF. The pain from the AF was driving me to eat too much fiber (2 salads a day, the most fibrous cereal I could find for breakfast) plus taking fiber supplements after each meal. I was crazed about buying foods according to the fiber listed on the label.
I think it worked for me in the beginning, but then it was way too much for my body to process. I was drinking a lot of water but I think I should have drank a bunch more to be able to process the fiber overload. So, I got very large stools and they were pretty firm and even hard sometimes, making my AF worse.
I discovered that my body doesn't like eating the same routine things over and over each day so it reacts by getting constipated, even though there was a lot of fiber in me. Now, I've found, through trial and error, a better balance for my body between getting the needed fiber, adding variety to my diet, and eating food that I've enjoyed pre-fissure. Everybody's body is different and I think it's pretty important that I pay attention to how it reacts (through BMs) to particular foods, no matter what a label or diet is prescribing me to eat.
Hang in there! Let us know how things are going for you. There's light at the end of the tunnel.

rockpine wrote:Last year, I had big-time problems with my usual lifelong constipation issues, which led to my bigger problems with a AF. The pain from the AF was driving me to eat too much fiber (2 salads a day, the most fibrous cereal I could find for breakfast) plus taking fiber supplements after each meal. I was crazed about buying foods according to the fiber listed on the label.
I think it worked for me in the beginning, but then it was way too much for my body to process. I was drinking a lot of water but I think I should have drank a bunch more to be able to process the fiber overload. So, I got very large stools and they were pretty firm and even hard sometimes, making my AF worse.
I discovered that my body doesn't like eating the same routine things over and over each day so it reacts by getting constipated, even though there was a lot of fiber in me. Now, I've found, through trial and error, a better balance for my body between getting the needed fiber, adding variety to my diet, and eating food that I've enjoyed pre-fissure. Everybody's body is different and I think it's pretty important that I pay attention to how it reacts (through BMs) to particular foods, no matter what a label or diet is prescribing me to eat.
Hang in there! Let us know how things are going for you. There's light at the end of the tunnel.

I've been doing the similar thing too. Eating lots of fibers. Now I only take metamucil twice a day. No more fiber cereals and fiber one bars... Seems like this works better...
I too feel like food that I was eating pre-fissure days has some special meaning because I was fine through out my whole life with normal foods that I've been eating. I believe that the only reason I got the fissure was vitamins that I was taking. (Vitamins gave me constipation in the past. So I know it by experience.)
After fissure, the first thing I started to do was eating fiber pills. That worked for about 2 months then it stopped working.
I was still regular (once a day) even after fissure for several months. Then started to develop chronic constipation. I don't know what was the cause of this chronic constipation, then recently this constipation developed into IBS-C.
I just have no idea why this is happening. But what I do know is that there has been no drastic change in my food before fissure and now. So in my case, the cause of constipation is something else I guess. I just don't know what it is though....