by sailorgal » 22 May 2012, 06:28
Hey Tami,
Congratulations on healing your fissure! It's definitely going to take time to feel totally normal again. Fissures, alone, can take 4-8 weeks to heal. But it takes a good 8months to a year for the scar tissue to remodel itself back to as close to its former "strength" as before the fissure. And my understanding is that it will never be 100% strong as what it was before the fissure. This is why it is important to remain vigilant with your diet, stool softening-bulking efforts for a long while. I am personally healing from a fissure - 1 week out from my 2nd course of botox and my stool is soft with no stool softener, but i get at least 24g of Fiber/day. So that, with plenty of water is enough to keep my stool soft. How much Miralax do you take daily? When I started to cut down after the 2nd procedure, I only cut down to half a dose to see how my stool responds the next day. But at the same time, if you don't feel ready to cut it down, listen to your gut. My 1st CRS told me to cut out my stool softeners 1 week after my 1st botox-fissurectomy and that did not go well for me - i totally retore and kicked myself for listening to her instead of my gut. So, bottom line, you can not go wrong with listening and following your gut on this stuff, especially if you are still tender down there.