I know I've read a little bit on here about what is normal size, but I was wondering if I am normal. Before fissure and miralax my bms were much larger than they are now. Now normal around the size of a nickel, maybe a little bigger- not quite as big as a quarter. Even with that there is pain. WHen I have a smaller bm like a penny it feels much better. Just wondering if normal bms are larger or was I having huge bms before the fissure. PS, I've had botox and still use nitro.

It's actually an interesting question. It is generally assumed that stool size is thinner when you have a fissure because the muscle is in spasm. But this is only part of it. If you are having softer, more frequent bowel movements, particularly with Miralax, your stools are going to be thinner because you are both going more often and the softer stool will not require the anal sphincter to dilate as wide in order for it to pass.
Like you, I am much better off when BMs are thinner and soft than when they are bulkier. For me, it has just meant not going so crazy on the amount of fiber I eat, contrary to popular advice of doctors to keep adding more and more fiber.
To me, regardless of what's normal for anyone else, normal for me are BMs that are soft, easy to pass, and cause no damage on the way out.

When I had a haemorrhoidectomy 15 years ago it was noticeable that the diameter of my stools became smaller afterwards, about three-quarters of an inch to an inch. The surgeon only operated on the haemorrhoids on two sectors of the anus, leaving the less serious ones alone, in an effort to avoid too much scar tissue I think. This was fine until I developed an anal fissure in 2009. At that point, I had the remaining haemorrhoids banded as the surgeon at the time thought they might be contributing to the pain, and it didn't affect my stool diameter at all. When I later had the LIS however, and once I'd healed from it, my stools became wider. Now they're frequently an inch and a quarter in diameter, sometimes even as much as an inch and a half in diameter. Sometimes (rarely) this brings a few spots of blood. However since having the LIS, it doesn't bother me at all. I was really worried when it first started happening, but it seems just fine - doesn't cause spasms afterwards and I can sit down easily, even just after a bowel movement.
I can only assume that the muscle tone is more relaxed now and this is why I'm again passing wide stools.

hopefulbutt wrote:I know I've read a little bit on here about what is normal size, but I was wondering if I am normal. Before fissure and miralax my bms were much larger than they are now. Now normal around the size of a nickel, maybe a little bigger- not quite as big as a quarter. Even with that there is pain. WHen I have a smaller bm like a penny it feels much better. Just wondering if normal bms are larger or was I having huge bms before the fissure. PS, I've had botox and still use nitro.

my stools are much thiner and like toothpaste since my AF

Ya know, I never thought about it, but yes, my bm's are thinner too??? I often wondered why and now I know....so help me, this forum to me, sometimes is better than a doctor...and its free!!

Lauren12 you know I always had very thin stools, but I remember that after my colonoscopy my stools were quite wide and easy to pass, I was very surprised by this.
But then I got the fissure attack and now they are thin again.
Now as I read your post, I can only think that yours has gotten bigger because the LIS will help with the relaxing of your anal muscle, like my colonoscopy dilated my anal cavity also.
Very interesting.
I wonder If it I have surgery for the fissure the stools will get bigger, this something I wonder all the time.

lets just hope our stools are thin cause of sphinter muscle spasm and not car tissue build up as well.
for those that enjoy anal sex or diildo's will be difficult.

Yep. Used to have big logs, tore fissure with spam so it became thin like toothpaste. Since Botox they are about double toothpaste. But they are always soft now. I need to keep them that way.

i was wondering because i have such thin stools that if my fissure healed would my stools go back to being larger or will i need to dialate myself to stretch my ass open again...any thoughts?