I have a question to all who have had lis. I'm 3 days post op and have noticed my bm's are HUGE. This morning was a little painful. I felt things stretching and saw just a spot of blood.
I'm debating cutting my fiber intake. I crunk up my eating yesterday so that I could get things moving because I was having small incomplete bms. Not sure if I may have had too much fiber.
Any advice?? :)

Hey Dawn-
How much fiber are you eating? Did you start a new supplement? Did you modify your diet post surgery? I assume your still drinking a ton of water?
To much fiber can definitely make things to bulky. Also, it all depends on the type of fiber also - soluble vs. insoluble. Insoluble will bulk things up verse soluble which gels.
For me lately, I have reduced my fiber intake and it has helped me greatly in having only 2 BM a day. When I have to much fiber I seem to have 3-4 small BM in the morning over about a hour period. Gets really old fast running back and forth to the bathroom while trying to get ready for work. I definitely think I get carried away sometimes with the fiber since my diet consists of all high fiber items.

Hey Paul,
I didn't start a supplement but my husband has been fixing my plates and I normally measure and count my fiber grams in a day. I usually make sure to only get around 20 grams.
I've been reading some older post and I noticed a few people said that there bm's got bigger after lis?

I'm going to be sure and not get too much today and eat fruits and things that aren't too high in fiber.

I had some rather BIG stools after LIS, I put this down to the sphincter being loose thus enabling bigger things to pass out, whereas before LIS the door seemed to slam shut stopping the passage of BM.

Did they get smaller as you were healing? Mine are like a construction workers

LMAO... I know what you mean!!!
They definitely got smaller but I decided to bulk up as I prefer the bigger poop to get rid of more in one go rather than pooping all day

When did you feel it was safe to stop taking the miralax?

I stopped the Miralax about 1 month ago (2 months post-op) I felt that the soft poop was just irritating the surgical sites and I was right, after stopping I then started on Fybogel to bulk up the stools which works fine, stools are well formed and sometimes quite big but pass easily enough and I only go to the toilet a couple of times a day instead of 3 or 4, or even more on the Miralax.

Since sphincter becomes relaxed and somewhat "stretched" during the surgery it allows bigger BMs to pass. Over time, sphincter will regain some strength (or all in my case LOL) and your poop will get smaller in size. ; )
If you suffer from constipation, I would advise you to stay on some kind of stool softener forever (natural or Miralax etc.) , and especially during your LIS recovery period which is about 8 mos to a year. Actually, I found an article where CRS said the that area need up to 2 years to completely regain its strength !
If you do not tend to constipate (as Steve is, and I am also the same way), than you do not have to worry about it past 12 -16 weeks when your fissure is expected to fully close : ) .
Best of luck with it all : ))) !!!!

Being constipated "once" is what gave me my fissure, but I wasn't frequently constipated and ate terrible. I'm really surprised that it didn't happen more often the way that I ate!!
I'm still not sure if taking cough/medicine didn't cause it?!
I'm hoping with my new healthy eating habits, that I plan to keep for life, that this won't be a problem again... I will definitely be very cautious and do things slowly when the time comes that I feel brave enough to try stopping them.