I have found that it is very hard to find somewhere to eat fissure friendly food when not at home. There's always and ingredient that keeps me from ordering most things at a restaurant...
The only place that I can basically eat while out of the house is Cracker Barrel. I order the vegetable plate. It's all well cooked and I love southern cooking! But, it gets old!!
Just curious if anyone else can name some other places?!

Do you like sushi, or do you try to avoid rice?

Hey BB,
I haven't been eating rice, but I think I will be trying that sometime soon. I've never liked any sea food. I know that's odd but I've always disliked it.
I started thinking after I posted this question that many of us are from different country's and may not have the same places to eat. :)

Yeah... that would be the case for me! No Cracker Barrels here, unfortunately! And everyone is so different with food... I think that I am going to avoid things that I know my stomach doesn't like - red meat and pasta especially. Otherwise, I can eat chicken, potatoes and such - as long as I eat small portions. Would that work for you?

Hey BB,
I haven't had meat in about 10 months. Crazy, I know! I wouldn't even eat chicken before LIS. I need to get brave and branch out a little more w/ my diet. I swear, the fissure put major fear in me with food. I've ate tons of sweets since LIS and have had no problems at all. I still haven't ate more than a bite of meat here and there.
Ice cream and hershey bars have put 20 lbs back on me,LOL... I honestly think I'm going to get fat if I don't slow down.

Dawn - I know exactly what you are talking about. Just recently for a birthday party on my wife's side of the family - we went to Pizza Ranch for the kids party. There was nothing I could eat.....all deep fried, pizza, etc. Right now I can't eat raw vegetables (only cooked) - so no salad bar. So I sat there somewhat embarrassed.
For the most part I am able to find something that I can eat at other places though. I do eat meat with the exception of red meat. I love seafood so I eat a lot of fish. If I didn't eat meat I think I would have a real hard time maintaining weight. Even now I am struggling to gain. I eat a lot of chicken also.
What I do when unsure about something is have a very small portion to see what happens. Usually this works pretty well for me.
If you do venture back into eating meat - we use ground turkey in place of ground beef and it works well.
I could see though not eating meat being very challenging when going out. Do you have any luck with soups at the places that the menu is iffy? We have a place called Panera Bread up here that has a good selection of soups and sandwiches.

Thanks Paul. We just had a B-day party for one of my nieces and it was at a local pizza place. I had forgotten that I actually ate a chicken wing! I just kept dipping it over and over in ranch dressing. It was so Good!
I don't eat raw veggies either, yet...
We do have a Panera Bread in one of the bigger towns we have to go to do shopping & everything. I live in a very small town with nothing really here but grocery stores and a few family owned restaurants, not much! I will definitely give it a try. I ate one turkey sandwich on wheat bread since my surgery. I had forgotten about that too. I had no problems with either, but like you mentioned to do, I ate very little.
How have you been? How's the new meds working for you?

Dawn-
I am hanging in there. The med has not been a lot of fun so far - been battling with nausea. When I first started it was 24/7 so they decreased my dose and I have been ramping up. I am at the full dose again and the nausea comes and goes. Some days I also feel like I have been run over by a truck. Gets kind of old.....
So far I have seen no improvement on the rear. Still a ton of drainage from the fistula. Nothing new has developed thank goodness..... I had one week where I thought I had another abscess forming. Takes 3-6 months for the med to kick in so it may be awhile before I even know if it works. I am in week 8.
I also been under a ton of stress which isn't helping. I have been working 55-65 hour weeks. I have a major design deadline that now got pushed out a little. So now I get to be stressed for another 2 weeks.
Thanks for asking. I just try to keep positive and pray for guidance as navigate this health issue.

Paul,
I hope the meds are going to take care of all this and be worth all the suffering you've had to go through for treatment. It would be nice if you didn't have so much stress while having to deal with this.
We were just commenting on an old thread about stress and our health.

Is the fistula painful? Does it still hurt when having bm's even though it's draining and you're on the medication?
Praying with you. I believe in the power of prayer!

My BM for the most part are not to bad - still having 3-4 a day which is getting old. The fistula will ache some days - all day. The challenge is trying to keep the thing clean. The drain, which kind of looks like a zip tie, catches a lot. So having the hand shower helps a lot at home. But at work it is tough. I have to wear a pad and tuck a cotton ball to catch drainage and to keep the drain from digging in. I then change this cotton ball often. I get really tired of the drainage......
I still bleed once in awhile from the 6 o'clock position. This then causes spasms, and into fissure pain I go. I am not sure what it is - old problem never cured or new...... I mentioned it to my CRS the last time and he said he didn't see anything other than a severely inflamed rear. He said the inflammation can cause pain.
Thanks for the prayers.