I made the same stupid mistakes again. Went down to taking Metamucil only every couple days, forgot to take Miralax during my period, *and* allowed myself to get super duper stressed over a possible career path change.
And now after being fine for months and months, my fissure has returned. (Unless skin tags hurt and bleed. Do they? Either way, this sucks.)

I feel so defeated. I'm already dreading my next BM.
I'm leaving for work soon, the place where I tend to be the most tense, and I'm gonna have to force myself to relax my muscles because the week after a tear is always the most critical time to not stress out, I've found.
Should I make an appointment with the CRS? Or just see how this plays out? The pain wasn't that bad, so maybe this one will heal up on its own if I actually follow his orders from last time. As in, take Metamucil twice a day.

Ugh...

I'm almost crying.

I would jump right back on your regime quickly and be very vigilant about it. Maybe you can head this off before it gets bad and you need to see a doctor.
Believe me, I know the feeling. I am on my third recurrence. Totally sucks. I wish you the best!!

Yeah I think that's what I'll do. I'm just wondering... why do they reappear so much? How long is the tissue there still fragile?

Well.... I first got one beginning of Jan of last year, lasted until about end of Feb. Opened again toward the end of Aug last year, lasted until beginning of Oct. Now have it again,started middle of July. It's taking longer this time to heal.
I have heard people on here say it takes like a year for tissue to get back to normal. And I would also suspect that we will always be more susceptible from now on. :-(
We just have to be super careful. Even if we don't always watch what we eat, we always have to be mindful of keeping "it" soft.

Wow, yours takes slightly longer than mine to heal but otherwise it's the same sort of story. What do you think triggers yours to reopen? Mine is mostly stress and negligence. I stayed up til like 3am stressing out over school decisions I don't even have to make for a couple years (anxiety is a real mental illness) And I chose to do that when I knew it wasn't a decision I had to worry about for awhile, and that I had a double shift the next day. Truly irrational.

Then the negligence... I get a little too confident after a few months and start to think I don't need to take the Meta and Mira as often. I know I tend to get constipated as a PMS symptom so I need to take Miralax the days leading up to my period, but this month I didn't because I figured I was healed so why bother. Ugh. Well hindsight is 20/20 I guess.

Yep, sure does!
I know exactly what causes mine- straining. I get in a hurry, want to get it over with and ....voila. I'm so mad at myself this time too, cause I know better. But, like you, I get too comfortable about being healed and go back to my old habits. Also, I too get lax about my fiber. Stress doesn't really factor into mine, but I can see where it would make things a lot worse.
Right. Hindsight. I guess we both had better keep up our good habits for a loooong time this time. Cause I do not have time for all of this pain and agony!! I know you don't either, No one does!! :-)

Straining surprisingly isn't an issue for me. It seems that when I'm taking fiber at least once every couple days, I never *have* to strain lol.

Unfortunately once-every-couple-days isn't enough to keep stools as soft as they need to be.

I guess you and I just both need to accept, like you said- that some people will always have to be extra careful. I know people who can pass constipated stools without getting a fissure, and good for them, but I am unfortunately not one of those people. xP

Right. I think one it's healed for like a year, it will not be as easy to open, but we still have to be careful. Best of luck on your healing. I am just now beginning to heal, still have some pain in the AM. :-(

Mae- how is it going?

Already seems to be less symptomatic. It's just annoying that I can't slack on my regimen even ONE day or I'm back to square one, yknow? It's very difficult cuz I'm so busy. Everyone in my life is so demanding too. I feel like this AF has made me into an old lady before my time. I'm seriously considering not going to my best friends bachelorette party just because late nights, alcohol, and sleeping in hotels where I get limited bathroom time... doesn't sound like fun to me right now, lol.