To Anne37, fellow fibre addict, you may have heard this already from me, but I really think I overdid it with the medical advice to eat a 'high-fiber diet.' Ever since I have backed off of as much insoluble fiber (e.g., very high fiber cereal in the morning, lots of raw veggies, plus psyllium huck/bulking agents) I have had softer, easier to pass stools. I just encourage others to look for that balance. I do eat various proteins (animal and veggie) but that doesn't seem to be as much as a problem. I'm using mainly healthy oils (olive etc.) vs. cheese and butter. Anyhow, trying to spare others the awful bulky stools of my early days on the high-fiber diet. BTW, the naturopath I went to recommended a 'general diet' but with pysllium husk (in Metamucil, for example). So I think it was the combo of high insoluble and extra fiber supplements that worked against me. :o

I thought you might like the "crack the case" comment! :p My husband said the same thing, "Man, we talk about poop all the time." He put me on notice when I insisted on showing him the poop drawings on the Bristol stool scale. He started gagging just looking at the drawings, and I was completely baffled by his response. I look forward to the day when I'm a little less comfortable looking at poop! Hopefully this makes me one heck of a mom when/if the time comes.
I have the same problem with fiber-loading. I've changed my diet so much that I don't know what AF-friendly food I can eat that isn't chock-full of fiber! Luckily, this AF was drug-triggered and not food-triggered, so I don't think I have the sensitivity to food that other AFers have. Aside from yogurt (so binding!), small amounts of dairy have been okay for me. So when I need to dial down my daily fiber, I'll make dinner for breakfast: a scrambled egg with a half a teaspoon of grated cheese, some sausage links, and turkey bacon (well, well chewed). I haven't done the veggie/vegan diet, so I don't know about tofu and soy products- do you? I have used soy "ground beef" in the past, and I think that I'll use it again in lieu of the real deal (mouth watering just at the THOUGHT of a burger... Nom nom!).
So glad you haven't crapped your pants in front of the kids! Something tells me you're gonna be a-okay.

15 days post op
Hi Guys,
Its been a while so I thought I should do an update and let you guys know whats going on!
Well the news isnt all that great. My wound from the surgery has settled down quiet nicely and I didnt have any discharge what so ever other than the day of surgery itself. But as the wound settled I have noticed a slight increase in the fissure pain, not sure if that is incidental or maybe my brain was too focused on the pain from the wound before??
Also, I can walk pretty ok now, almost no discomfort while walking. I also notice that my pain is the least while walking and lying on my side. Sitting is the worse position and standing is only a bit better.
But 15 days post op and I still feel the knife edge pain + burning for most of the day, some days it starts right after the BM which is usually around noon and other days it kicks in an hour or two later.
I have been fairly successful with my BM's in terms of keeping them soft. There have been a couple of days that I felt a bit constipated and required a bit of straining but all in all taking docusate every night before bed seems to be doing the trick.
I have read varying responses here in terms of healing time but most people for whom LIS worked do get better within 2 weeks and thats what my doctor said as well. Knowing LIS is kind of the last thing you can do medically to make the AF go away and not having it work is a bummer and I seriously am starting to contemplate whether this is the way I will be forever
I am supposed to go back to work next Tuesday and its giving me so much stress because I am required to sit and also my job is pretty stressful so I need to be fully focusd. And so far I can probably only manage an hour of sitting at one go and that too isnt all that easy.
I do call on those for whom the LIS was successful to let me know just a brief bit on how long it took them to recover, how long they took off from work, how long before they were able to sit for long periods and how long before you stopped freaking about about the water and fiber intake.......
And also, the fact that I had no discharge from my wound could that mean that the cut was too conservative and that is why Im not healing? Another reason why I say that is that I have heard here that you get temporary incontinence for a few weeks and I did have some gas leakage fore about 1.5 weeks but that stopped and never had any stool leakage of any sort. Also, I just dont get that relaxing feeling that I was hoping for in the sphincter, its not as tight as it used to be a couple of months ago - when it was at its worst but I still feel like its tightening. Also, whenever I do need to strain a bit for BM, I never feel constipated and the stools are proper ( not super dry) - so it must be the sphincter getting tight? I have IBS which results in gas and a lot of times it requires pushing out as well!! - May be its just in my head and Im overthinking this all a bit....
Part of me wishes I hadnt gone for the surgery because I was doing fine before it with the use of NTG ointment, it wasnt fun but I was able to get around relatively pain free most days and it had taken me 3 months to get to that level and now it feels like Im back where I was. Hoping Im totally wrong though and the LIS will eventually somehow cure me. Praying for the best!
I wish I was a more positive person............every day of pain seems to be bringing me further down and I just hate the fact that there isnt anything I can do to make this go away, its so draining.

6 weeks post op
A week ago I had my first follow up with the surgeon that did my surgery. And I hadnt been feeling as good as I thought Id be able to as described above. I had consistent pain throughout the day and sitting was a major concern.
So the surgeon told me that he was pretty sure the fissure had healed, the funny thing is that hes not a CRS so he doesnt have the table and the scope to look inside, he just did a "finger test"!! I dont get it, why doesnt he have the right equipment, it seemed like he was just guessing.
This surgeon said that the pain I still have may be because of haemorrhoids, so he has given me corticosteroid suppositories to try, it has been a week and I have to tell you that these things really did work right away, I would have the usual pain after BM and I stick one of these in and I would feel better free until the next time I had to go for a BM. Just today, exactly a week after I started using, it seemed like they arent working anymore, the mild and itching + discomfort are back today. Also during this week, there were two days when I saw blood on the TP and some on the stools as well, not sure if that was a retear or a hemmy but there wasnt any increase in pain right after so I guess thats a positive but seeing blood after months was a total bummer....
I read a post about these suppositories being bad for fissures but I dont know what to do - stop or continue because they did help me. I have been prescribed these for 10 days so I might as well use them for the remaining 3 days and then assesss where Im at.

Milk of Magnesia is a stimulant laxative, not just a softener.  You should really only take stimulants if really necessary.  It's designed to work in a shorter period of time and agitate the digestive tract to expel waste.

4 months post op
LIS is a fail for me unfortunately. I had a period in between when I felt like I was getting better but the pain never really went away fully. I am back to using nitro again as of two weeks ago and started noticing some improvement.
Over the last week I relaxed on my diet a bit and ate out and also did some sports and light work out and this morning there was blood in the BM, a new tear and the god awful familiar tearing knife edge pain.
Back to the depressing times. Life sucks........

I'm sorry to hear that  howtobepositive, but on the other hand, although I haven't had the LIS, I do have IBS, and believe me with IBS and a fissure, diet is everything, so please read the many post's on diet , soluble and insoluble food's.
Please re-book an appointment with your Doc, take care,

Hello Howtobepositive, sorry to hear that you're having trouble. I haven't had LIS yet but I've read a couple of stories on here in which people had retears after the surgery and they healed in a short time. It may be a setback that will improve in a short time. How have you been feeling otherwise? My physician told me that stress after LIS can cause a retear for quite a while after the surgery, so if stress has been a problem in the last few weeks, that may be the cause. I know that diet is important shortly after LIS too. I hope that it is short term and that things start to improve. Keep us posted.

Hi Jojo1, Milk of magnesia is not a stimulant laxative it's an osmotic laxative, miralax is also an osmatic laxative. They draw water into your colon to make your stool softer and easy to pass. Many in this group take these types of laxatives safely. More doctors now recommend miralax for long term use but some people prefer milk of magnesia. Suzy