Apples and apple cider are both good to help "get things moving" in one's digestive system.

And let's not forget prunes...they're so powerful for me I have to eat them at bedtime unless I want to be really uncomfortable all day. But then, I tend more towards diarrhea than constipation. Pretty sure I have IBS, never been diagnosed though.

I'm wondering if anyone else tried my applesauce/oat bran/prune juice mixture that I posted in a separate food thread??

alpinestrawberry wrote:My piece of advice is that if you have any IBS symptoms, stay far far away from Fiber One bars!!!!!! I don't know if you have those in the UK. The main ingredient is chicory (contains inulin) and it is rough. Sure, they'll move on through you but they cause terrible gut pain and more farts in one hour than should have in an entire month! Anyway, I guess that's what you get for eating something so processed in the first place. So watch out for anything with chicory or inulin. If you can stomach it though, it might help with the fissure.

Whoa are we talking about the same Fiber One bars here?
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&source=imghp&biw=1024&bih=587&q=fiber+one+bars&gbv=2&aq=f&aqi=g2&aql=&oq=
I've been eating 1-2 of those every day since I got my fissure 2 years ago and I love them. My little 1.5 year old daughter (who has occasional constipation problems) eats them every day too (in small quantities obviously).
Better yet ... two of my employees just recently confided in me (since I'm now the de facto butt problem expert in the office) that they've had hemorrhoid problems for years but didn't know how to control them ... and so now my department at work has Costco-sized boxes of Fiber One bars that all of us munch on throughout the day hahahaha!!! I can just see people wondering why this one particular department needs a big collection of fiber bars. Which I guess kind of makes me wonder why all the people with ass problems ended up in the same group LOL.
To the OP: is it possible that you're just allergic to one of the ingredients in the Fiber One Bars? I've eaten a ton of those and it's never caused abdominal pain or gas for me. Seems weird that one person would respond poorly to it while others are just perfectly fine....

Better yet ... two of my employees just recently confided in me (since I'm now the de facto butt problem expert in the office) that they've had hemorrhoid problems for years but didn't know how to control them ... and so now my department at work has Costco-sized boxes of Fiber One bars that all of us munch on throughout the day hahahaha!!! I can just see people wondering why this one particular department needs a big collection of fiber bars. Which I guess kind of makes me wonder why all the people with ass problems ended up in the same group LOL.
NG,
Many other people at your company most likely have butt issues, but they have just not told anyone about their respective problems!! :roll: Maybe you could possibly get an option for your employees for 401K deductions to the company that sells the Fiber One bars. I think I have eaten Fiber One bars with no adverse side effects.
Hard to believe your little girl is already 1.5! Just seems like yesterday that she was born!!

Cheryl, yep, time definitely flies, that's for sure :) The birth of my children and my fissure are the two easy ways I can track passage of time over the last few years hahahaha. You know, what's funny is that one of my "Fiber One guys" at work (he's 15 years older than me) told me he had fistula surgery 10 years ... and it was with a doctor in the same office as my CRS! When pressed for details, we figured out that his CRS was my CRS' mentor LOL :) Small world of ass doctors, I guess. And yeah, I'm beginning to realize that these problems are actually a lot more common than most people know.
Regarding food, I'd second the suggestions to avoid red meats and go high on boiled veggies. If you stick to those two rules alone, you'll be well ahead of the game already. When my fissure was in its heyday, I ate boiled veggie soup for every meal of every single day, and supplemented it with protein intake from chicken, fish, and other seafood. That was easy for me because I like seafood better than "land meats" anyway, and seafood is generally easier to digest (it's also expensive and put a bit of a hole in my wallet ... but better one hole in my wallet than a second hole in my rear, I guess). For snacks I ate whole grain stuff like Wheat Thin Fiber Selects.
Regardless of what you eat, the most important thing is to have a good stool softener and drink lots of water. Also, try not to over do it: at one point, I was getting 50+ grams of fiber a day, and that was overkill. Yes, my poops were soft and I was regular, but it was happening like every other second which wasn't exactly fissure friendly either
I should also say that some aspects of my diet have never really returned to normal even after LIS. For example, even now, I still eat boiled veggie soup for one meal every day. Usually it's lunch so that I can home after work and eat something with actual flavor for dinner haha :) Yes, eating the same thing every day is bland and repetitive, but it keeps ass problems at bay and actually saves me money. Like anything else in life, it takes practice plus discipline and you eventually get used to it.
Another good side effect: prior to the "fissure era" of my life, my triglyceride levels were sky high (well over the high mark of the reference range) thanks to a pretty nasty diet. Fast forward to 1.5 years after living la vida fissure and they've dropped to just barely over the low mark of the reference range (in other words they're almost abnormally low at this point)! So when you're slurping down some veggie soup and thoughts of Big Macs are dancing through your head, just think, your mouth may hate you but your cardiovascular system is cheering

NG,
I think you should switch to becoming a writer. I like your metaphors and similes! But I doubt that you had much "free time" out of the bathroom when you were eating 50+ grams of fiber daily!! :roll:

Got any good soup recipes? I'm not a great chef, but can move around okay in the kitchen. Are canned vegetable soups okay, or only homemade? Help, please.

Canned soups tend to have more sodium than i prefer. I have this recipe that i like a lot and i play with it for different variations. Start by cooking ground chicken or turkey in a couple tbsps olive oil. Break up the meat into small bits while it's cooking. Then the orig recipe calls for adding a pkg of dry lipton onion soup mix but because I stay away from onions, i use lipton savory herb flavor instead. Add low sodium chicken broth. Also add as much water as needed all during the cooking process. Now add fresh carrots chopped small and chopped celery. Don't worry they will be soft by the time the soup is done. Simmer for half hour. Add dry lentils and continue cooking until they are soft. If you are ok eating tomatoes, add low sodium canned small diced tomatoes or use fresh chopped. I usually add sliced half moon fresh zucchini until cooked. Lastly add one block of frozen chopped spinach which will break up in the soup. You can substitute white beans if you don't like lentils. I've also add chopped gran beans. Use whatever veggies you like to eat. Yummm I am going to make some soon.

I mean green beans.