Juney -
I am glad you feel better. The Benefiber is great, is'nt it? If I take it in the am with my cereal, there is a 0% chance of a hard tipped poo. I also have a severe problem with explosiveness ripping me open, but the Benefiber seems to form the stool enough to where the runny poo is not an issue. No more MOM for me either. I have been going all natural with the benefiber and 250 mag a day. Once I use up my mag, I am going to try to solely use the benefiber.
Since this fissure has caused alot of anxiety for me, I am also taking 3 St John's wart a day to help maintain a positive mood. It is working too. It is making me feel alot better than that darn zoloft did. has anyone else tried this herb?
Jen

that's interesting jen, we take the same combo of magnesium and benefiber. it's definitely keeping things consistent. i'm also using 2 stool softeners and 1/2 tablespoon mineral oil, but i'm thinking of stopping the mineral oil tonight.
i'll look into st johns wart. i've heard of it. i definitely need something for my anxiety. my dr only gave me 15 valium after surgery and i've gone thru that, taking only 1/2 a pill here and there. i'm gonna ask him for more but i have a feeling he'll say no.
for those that use anti-anxiety meds, do your general drs or your crs prescribe them??

my crs never prescribed me anything - no creams no anti-this or anti-that.......all i ever got was a sample of palmers cocoa butter with vitamin e and some advice.
**
on the other hand, st johns wort (i don't recall it being wart...eeew..) also known as hypericum was also thought to fight off hiv in the early 90s. but pretty soon there were contraindications with certain hiv meds that it was discouraged to take it (personally, i bet it's the govt that makes up all these things when it comes to herbs and chinese/alternative therapies that we shouldn't take them......is it really a conspiracy against these herbs that do good for the sake of rolling in the dough to the pharmaceuticals? - i remember when i was doing hiv education theater (a group of us infected would go to junior high and high schools and put on a play as hiv characters but then open up after the show as the character and then as ourselves living with hiv....we were hired to do our theater play for a pharmaceutical who was launching a new hiv drug and they paid for us to go to san diego, which was very beautiful, but it kinda disgusted me when i got on an elevator with some pharma salespeople who were excited about the drug that they were buying more stock in the company because it was going to make them rich since it was shown in clinical trials this drug was going to be successful.....it just sounded very morbid and careless the way this lady said it, laughing - at the expense of sick people.)
anyway, please be sure to check that if you are taking other medications, that there are no contraindications with st johns wort....
two other herbs which are very safe for anxiety are passion flower and valerian root. when i had a bad case of uticaria, i was given passion flower in a syrup to take and that was divine! sweet and just put me on cloud nine and ready to go sleepy time!
i wish i had some of that because lately i haven't been sleeping well!
with regards to hard anti-anxiety drugs, i have taken effexor and cymbalta. i loved them both but effexor was less of a mood stabilizer (it was like riding a roller coaster)....cymbalta was just right.
if i ever go back on anything again, i am going to look into that new bipolar med because i think i am more bipolar that depressed.

Juney -
I went to my GP for my zoloft. I really needed it too. I have really bad anxiety from all my butt issues. It actually had the opposite effect on me - It gave me more anxiety. I may not have given it enough time to work. They say it can take a few weeks for it to start working. So far, the St Johns wart is working great. It is worth a shot to try it. I also am taking valarian root at night.
I think your CRS is cruel for only giving you 15 pills after a painful surgey. I can not hurt you to ask for more if you really need it.
I was also on the stool softeners too - we had the exact same combo of pills except the mineral oil. I stopped taking the stool softener yesterday.
Jen

I use St. Johns in my home made butt cream I AM SERIOUS !!! It has anti-inflammatory properties and is used for wound healing too !!! Also good for different intestinal disorders taken internally ! Just make you more photo-sensitive so make sure to use sun screen - not that my anus will see any sun any time soon LOL You can check if it has interactions with other meds in Google - lots of sites that do that for you ...
Poppy extract is very good for sleep ; ) too.

I got my valium from my GP. The CRS doctors are not very good about covering for anxiety or pain in my opinion. I take cymbalta and my GP prescribed a low dose of xanax to take around potty time if I get panicked.

my CRS gave me TONS of pain pills. vicadin and also darvocet when i asked for more. i have a total of like 55 pain pills now b/c i'm still so afraid of constipation from them. i think a lot of drs are hesitant to prescribe anti anxiety meds b/c of stories of people who get addicted which makes it harder for those of us who really need a few to get them. i'm sure my CRS will tell me to go to my general dr. i'll try asking though.
i can't wait for my appt on tues. i have so many things to ask him. basically i just want to say i'm in more pain now than i was in the weeks/months before surgery so what did i do it for?! deep down i know i needed it, it was never gonna heal on it's own, but it's so hard to be patient when it's already been 4 weeks. i keep repeating everyone's advice, that it could take 12 weeks to fully heal. it's just like watching grass grow i guess. ahhhhhh.

My first CRS actually prescribed Valium on her own and insisted I take it since it relaxes muscles including the sphincter but it was me who was stupid and refused to take more than one half of a pill before the sleep and one half of a pill before morning poop - oh boy, if I knew all that I know now - how completely differently I would approach the whole thing , BUT it is easy "to be General when war is over" LOL.
This time around I asked my CRS for Valium and since nurse was slow to respond I called my GP and I ended with 2 prescriptions lol. I took only one , of course, but I just want to say that I did not have problems getting relaxant . It looks like it all depends of a doctor like everything else
Juney - I hope your exam will confirm that you are definitely on your path of healing !!! I have same self doubts as you but we just HAD to do it- sooner or later , so I think sooner was better . Maybe we will need 24 weeks to heal and so what - as long as we heal at the end ! I know it is hard - I still have days when I am down and wonder will I ever be normal again - it all is draining physically and psychologically . Just do everything possible to make your life easier in this time of "watching grass" , if it means taking meds - take meds !!! I now tell myself when in doubt - " Fissy - you will get a healthy butt but will be a nutcase and what use is of that" ??? And than I take Dervocet
or Valium or both and have a normal day !
All the best

Juney -
I forgot to add that some CRS won't even prescribe anxiety meds because there should be a two week follow up after you start taking them.
Jen

fissy - you're so funny. thanks for the pep-up! maybe i should give those darvocet a chance....