So I'm probably 2 months into "this" situation and I can't seem to get relief more than one day at a time. Being desperate probably doesn't help. I have to have others driving my kids to school and back and I can hardly ever sit up or stand longer than to brush my teeth.
The first CRS told me to bulk up with Benefiber. That was really painful to say the least. I wasted time with that. Now the 2nd CRS says Colace. I had a liquid stool yesterday and today and ohhhh the burn!!! The first CRS seems to think I'll heal and tells me not to do the LIS. The second gives me a 30-40% chance and says do the LIS. I just don't know what to do anymore. Any suggestions????
My kids are going to start missing school because I can't get them there and others can't take them everyday.
Help!!!!

Hey Cagirl,
Your fissure situation sounds like mine was. I just couldn't function with the pain and spasms at all and became very depressed.
Your fissure is considered chronic by medical terms, since you have had it for over two months, but isn't that long when you read some of the other post.
My personal opinion is if it were me and I could do it all over again, I would have had the surgery for sure by 2 months. I wore myself down mentally and physically for 8 months and in the end still needed LIS. By the time I had the surgery, I was a mess and had lost 50lbs.
If it were me knowing what I know now, I'd find the CRS who said get the surgery and have it done. get it over and move on to healing! LIS for me -was much easier than the fissure. I was scared to death and kept myself in much unnecessary pain for too long. It still depresses me to think about almost losing a year of my life over something that was so easily fixed. I know some are able to function and have somewhat of a life with a fissure but that wasn't the case for me. It was my life and took away from any and all that I did. Vacations sucked, my daughters k-graduation sucked because I couldn't even set and was having spasms through the whole thing. My 1st born grandbaby came and I was in awful pain while being in the delivery room with my daughter. It's like I was there but wasn't really there.
I say get the surgery! It wasn't the night mare that I kept reading it was and I wish I'd of did it sooner.

Thank you, Dawn. I'm so sorry to hear about all you've gone through. It really is heart wrenchingto hear about all that you've missed. I feel the same. My kids are mad at me (they're 3 and 5) and don't understand.
But after surgery, will I:
* Still have to do a high fiber diet and never really "eat"
again?
* Will I ever be able to walk extensively and/or jog?
* Will my life go back to normal or will I always have
this?
* If I have this done before Christmas will I recover within 3 weeks for Christmas? I also have my FIL coming who is terminal with Leukemia and I'd be ruining my husband's last week with his father. I'm trying to hold out until past Christmas just to avoid complications and FIL's visit. Although I won't be able to do anything anyway, at least I probably won't be in the hospital.
Thank you for your heartfelt reply. I hope you're doing better now.

Cagirl..If you can search for old posts of mine from August 2009..you can see my story (and save me from typing it - lol), but in my case, I was basically fine in a few days, enough to funcrion basically normally..In my opinion, you are worried for nothing. The LIS is a breeze compared to a fissure.
Really, life just wasn't worth living like that to me..like the previous poster said "you're there, but you are not really there" So true.
It's a very minor procedure comparative to most others.

Hi cagirl,
I was in the same position not knowing if I should do it before christmas worried if I will be ok to travel to family and enjoy my daughters first christmas. I am now 9 days out of lis and I am doing everything I have not pushed my self eg have not been out or done to much around the house but I feel like I could. I was going to wait to get the lis done in jan but my crs said just to get it over with and I am so glad I did. And I only had 1 week to stress about it.
I know it sounds scary and I was scared shitless before but it really is not as bad as we all think its going to be.

Cagirl,
after surgery you will need to eat healthy to give yourself the best recovery but after 2 weeks I added things back to my diet along with my high fiber... You may need to take care of yourself and eat healthy to prevent this from ever happening again, but yes you will be able to eat what you want, jog/ and have a normal life again. Many, many people have LIS and have normal lives again! That's the whole point :)
You will have to be extra careful and take care of yourself while recovering, but life will be normal again.
I'm 5 weeks into my recovery and had a little more than just lis done and I am w/ Sidra- LIS is a breeze compared to a fissure, And as New mum said I felt like I could have did more than I allowed myself to do earlier but just wanted to give myself the best shot at healing and I've really babied myself. Plus like I said I had a skin tag removed that was caused by my fissure that added to my discomfort.
At 2 weeks into my recovery, I was at the mall shopping for probably 5 hrs. with my daughter walking all day.
It really is such a simple procedure. Please read my surgery post, sidras, small change was another good one!
My crs told me LIS is nothing and I thought she was full of it, she also told me that right after my bm's wouldn't feel like fissure pain, that I would just be sore- Right again! I was sore, but never in excruciating pain and I even had spasms after my procedure because I had a few things done down there at once. They called me in valium that I took for about a week(life saver) and it's all been up-hill since.
As new mum said it's not as bad as we all think it's going to be!

I also want to add that I only took panadol after and stopped that on day 4. When I felt sore I just jump in the bath. So it just shows u that it really is not that bad. Some days I wish I could have had morphine with my fissure before hahaha.

Hi Cagirl!
First of all *hugs* I am sorry to hear about your troubles! I am in the exact same boat as you right now. I developed my fissure when my son was born 10 months ago, and have suffered miserably ever since. I am meeting with my surgeon next week, and after all the encouraging posts and info I have read on here, I am also seriously considering having the surgery. I'm at the end of my rope, and am sick of spending my maternity leave in agony :S
Have you met with a surgeon or spoken with a Dr about your options yet? I wish now I had considered the surgery months ago, now reading how much better things can be, so instead of playing the "home remedy game" maybe it would be worth you looking into the LIS so you can heal and get on with your life! :)

I'm so Happy for you New mum!! You just keep doing what you're doing :) You will see by this time again next week that you will be even better!!
That's about how long I took otc (tylenol here) meds and just kept getting better.

hi cagirl!
hope u r feeling somewhat better today.
i am so happy to see so many positive experiences in this post with LIS.
i lived with my chronic fissure for about six years. at around year four i was going to do LIS but it wasn't done after all.
anyway, i know it's difficult to live with the horrible pain every day but until you get your LIS - if that is what you chose - i totally recommend that you attempt to continue with as much of your routine as possible - of course, without lifting heavy objects and straining on the toilet.
if you do decide on surgery, allow yourself a good six months to heal with the expectation that you should be able to return to most normal stuff in about a month if all goes well.
i did three marathons with a painful ass so you theoretically could keep your walking up instead of jogging for now.
i don't know what you can do to get back on track with taking your kids to school. when is your pain the most/at its peak? do you have to bm in the a.m. before you take your kids to school? not sure, if you have discomfort or pain after bms but maybe you can help train your body to go at another time other than morning so you can drive early.
squatting to bm and yogic breathing can help your bm process. coating your anus with petroleum or some other protective coating can help ease the process.
blow dry your butt every day and apply a moisturizer and/or baby powder. don't use soap to wash your butt!!!
use baby wipes instead of regular toilet paper.
i know not everyone can tolerate this but it works for me. where there was throbbing pain, i applied vicks vapor rub. it has an analgesic and of course menthol. it definitely works more for hemmys but i used it for my fissure too.
good luck.