Hello fasters,
I am living with chronic anal fissure which creates extreme off the charts pain after any bowel movement, for up to 15 hours.
I’m currently waiting to see a surgeon, but the surgical options are not that simple either. You could say life is really pretty tough at the moment.
The only thing I have found that helps me have pain free days is fasting to the point my bowel motions stop.
I have been experimenting with different fasting styles for the past month. I had to learn about refeeding the hard way (I’m not at my best at the moment with my usual research and sharp mindedness).
Basically I have landed on mostly water fasting for 5 days at a time. As I am Not so worried about ketosis, I have been having hydralite, salt and magnesium supplements and the odd fruit juice icy pole, as I was struggling with dizziness and nausea (partly due to my anti spasm meds). I begin the fast on Sunday or Monday and try to fit most of my working days wed-fri, and then beginning refeeding on Friday again.
I know this isn’t ideal in any way but the pain honestly makes me want to jump out of my skin, so this regime is helping me to live some semblance of a normal life and keep being able to work (I work from home the rest of the time).
My question is what can I do to make this more viable? My main goal is to not crap, so I am happy to take in calories and sustenance doing a partial fast if that could work. I make a lot of bone broth, but I believe that makes me crap. Same with watermelon and other juices.
Right now I don’t want any stool bulking and I do take movicol when i eat.
Refeeding is the hard part because by the time I get back to a ‘normal’ style meal it’s time to fast again. I’d be happy to bring some food in earlier but the goal is stopping bowel movement for as long as possible.
If anyone has tips on how I can do this more safely I’d be grateful. And yes, my doctor knows I am doing this, he is skeptical of fasting but my pain free days speak for themselves.
I am losing a lot of weight. I had some to lose but it won’t take long for this to be pretty dramatic. Hard to get the calories in on the refeed schedule!
I have to tell you. I dealt with a fissure for quite a while. Had it calmed down. Then. Maybe 8 or 9 years ago. I coughed harder and farted harder than ever and boom. Blood. It was excruciating. I cried. Did the warm baths all of the ointments etc. Got to a really dark place because of the pain. Started thinking about suicide. I wanted the pain to stop. I would work and come home, lay in bed and cry. My wife would say call off from work. And I had to explain. It doesn’t matter. As soon as you go again the pain starts. Anyway. I found a good surgeon here in Atlanta. The surgery took less than an hour. I could tell when I woke up it was already better. It took a week or two for it not to be painful to poo. It was the best choice ive ever made. My sphincter has been going like a champ ever since. It was life changing. Never hugged a doctor before. Find a good one. I wish you well and healing. That pain is awful.
There are people who have bowel problems that live quite well on raw milk only, (I myself have done this for one month and didn’t gain or lose any weight) the waste from this is very small and not daily. Also pure carnivore where only fatty beef is eaten has very little waste and bowel movements not every day even when lots of calories are taken in. There is a website thats called meat heals or something similar where the guy had a colostomy bag and could see how well the meat he ate was absorbed and how little waste product came out.