Diet Tips to Avoid Surgery?

[Oh Dear]

Hello! I am a female college student and have had c diff three times this year, including hospitalization, two rounds of vancomycin (one long/tapered) and one round of difficid, which ended in the beginning of February. I knew that lots of food was still bothering me and kept making me think I had c diff symptoms again, so I cut back and was basically eating a few cooked veggies and basic carbs and protein (not soy), having compiled advice from a few blogs I found, since the doctors only knew that dairy might be a problem (which I realized). Lost some weight the past few months. Went to a nutritionist through my doctor, because I was really not feeling well and wanted to get back to normal food. He suggested a low FODMAP diet, though he emphasized that the specific foods that are prohibited on the diet are not necessarily my problem, but that it would provide a way to eliminate and re-introduce food. I was also supposed to stay off of what I hadn't been eating, like raw vegetables. However, my more immediate problem became extreme pain going to the bathroom, to the point that I didn't go to the bathroom for days and lived curled up in a ball, eating only liquids. I thought it was hemorrhoids and treated it over the counter. I also took laxatives, fiber, stool softener, probiotics, etc. Finally was able to go to the colorectal surgeon, and it turned out to be a severe anal fissure, which I've been treating with prescription cream for 20 days so far. The surgeon said that I don't have to stick to FODMAP and can just eat whatever food feels good right now (I've put on some weight...) and take metamucil. Unfortunately, I'm not feeling much better (I just went back off of gluten in case that helps), and I can't go to the bathroom without taking a bath before and after (or it's way too painful). If it's not better by my next visit in about 15 days, he's going to do a surgery that could leave me with less control of my bowels, which I do not want. It's also a really bad time for surgery. I need a good diet. I need to be able to go to the bathroom without pushing too much but without having to make D.

I firstly want people who read this to know to go to the doctor right away each time you might have c diff, because the longer you wait, the worse your colon gets. I also want you to beware of the effects diarrhea and constipation can have on your bum, so that you take action beforehand.

As for me, I'm wondering if you have diet tips to get stool to a comfortable consistency and "repair the tear." What can/should I be eating/not eating? If other people have experienced anal fissures, have they been chronic? How long have the changes to people's diets had to last? Are you still dairy/gluten free years out? Also, are you tired from anal fissures like you were with c diff?
Thanks!!

[phir91]

Hello..

My problems are more so the opposite! I am a 28 year old female. I started to get pain when going to the loo and long story short ended up seeing a colorectal surgeon and was diagnosed with an anterior chronic fissure - tried the cream for 12 weeks and it didnt go away. I had to have an examination under anaesthesia (to check for nothing nasty) and botox injected.. the surgeon removed a large skin tag that had formed - BIG NO NO! Just don't let them do it - I was warned by a surgeon before that it could make the fissure worse but the one on the day of my surgery said he wanted to do it because its unsightly and I would only be back in 6 months!! Awfull.. and it indeed has made the fissure worse and has made this an extremely painful recovery period. Because the skin tag got infected I had to have a few rounds of antibiotics which unfortunately led to the cdiff

Botox did help slightly.. I would do this before considering LIS which could make you incontinent. The recovery is also short as long as they dont cut off skin tags! I have heard brilliant things about LIS and will have this if I had to but would go for another round of botox first.

Before I had the botox.. I pretty much had things under control.. I just had to have laxatives all the time which I didnt really want to be dependent on and wanted to try anything I could to rid myself completely of the problem (oh how in hindsight I wouldnt have done anything and just would have continued with laxatives).. Having procedures down there has led me to be a bit worse off but dont think I would be if they didnt get rid of the skin tag.. I havent been using it at the moment because Im trying not to ruin the good gut flora I have.. but after a few months I will get back to using laxido/movicol - its an osmotic laxative and it really helped and I didn't feel much pain whilst using it... just 1 to 1 and a half sachets a day. Other food that helps move things a long are kiwis and prunes (obviously don't go too far with the prunes).

Fissures are miserable.. I hope yours gets better soon! Don't go days without having a bowel movement.. it wont help in the long run. strive for one a day and keep them soft. I also started to do strange things with my diet - cutting all sorts out which meant I lost weight.. In the long run I think even though its horrendous, the pain is worth not loosing too much weight which effects your immune system as well as how you feel physically and mentally... also sitz baths!

[Caligirl]

I had pretty severe pain after recovering from c diff as well. I had also recently delivered a baby and didn’t know what exactly was causing the pain. I went to my PCP and it turns out that it was a fissure. She mentioned the Botox and surgery but wanted to avoid it at all costs. She prescribed two different creams that I ended up not using, but you should ask about. I think that one was a numbing cream, and one was to help things stay relaxed down there that you used right before a BM so that the opening doesn’t stretch out as much (this is what often causes the pain with the fissures). The one thing that I did do was take fiber and Miralax to help things stay soft so that passing it was as easy as possible. Mine was a pretty minor fissure but man it hurt so bad and I think it took a couple of months to get better. But one day I realized that I hadn’t had any pain in a few days. If you’re going to take a supplement, just know that some people have reactions to them. I can tolerate Miralax, but Metimucil caused me to cramp so much that I seriously thought that I was either having a miscarriage or my appendix burst. The pain went away after a day or so when I was able to have a BM and didn’t cause any damage. I just wanted to bring it up so that you didn’t get scared if that happens.

Good luck! Who knew that such a small little cut could hurt so stinking bad!

[Oh Dear]

Thank you so much for weighing in! Hope everyone feels better.

[beth22]

Before my c diff days I had an anal fissure and it kept bleeding. I remember eating bran cereal and prunes. I don't know if either of those things will agree with you post c difficile. My mother had similar issues when she got older and she was told to take Miralax every day and a fiber supplement. Fiber supplements do not agree with me, but some people have used Benefiber with good results. My mom did well on the Miralax alone. It was a small dose. I would not opt for the surgery, especially since you are young and especially now during this time of virus.

[Ali-Mar]

So sorry to hear you are going through so much. I also had an anal fissure before C-Diff in 2016. I had it for over 6 months, I was in so much pain. I was taking fiber supplement ect, but nothing was helping. I end up having the surgery, and it was the best decision, one or two weeks after surgery, I was back to normal.