Hello everyone,
I'm back from my second surgery, which was a little less than 24 hours ago. I don't think I, or anyone else on here, expected me to need another.
It's been awhile since I posted, so here's a refresher on my story: I had LIS, fissurectomy and skin tag removal back in December. The recovery wasn't terrible, and I never took the prescribed pain killers. I was out and about within days, and even took a cross-country road trip about a week and a half after the surgery. A general surgeon did the procedure at a local teaching hospital.
The skin tag and LIS sites healed almost perfectly and very quickly. But the doc was troubled by how slowly the fissurectomy incision was closing up. In fact, he deroofed it with a cotton swab without warning or anesthesia, causing me to nearly pass out. Then he attacked it with silver nitrate a couple of times before I told him to leave me alone.
After a number of months of this, despite no pain and being basically unaware that anything was wrong from physical sensation, the doc suspected I had developed a fistula. He referred me to another physician in his office, a young CRS who's quite known in the field for this type of work.
When the CRS examined me about a month and a half ago, he was more gentle and patient than the other doc had ever been, explaining exactly every step. He said the fissure had completely healed. He also suspected a fistula, but wanted to get a better look and scheduled me for surgery Oct. 1. He explained that he would do a thorough examination under anesthesia, and lay open the fistula if it was there and needed laying open.
Yesterday, when I went in (this was at an outpatient surgery center affiliated with the local hospital), he explained that he might do a seton and have me in for a follow-up in six weeks if the fistula were complicated. But he didn't suspect this was the case.
When I woke up from the general, he stopped by and told me he had found a small fistula, laid it open, and then sutured it up so it would heal. He also found some granulation tissue around the LIS site, cleaned that up, and sent some off for a biopsy just in case -- though he had no reason to believe anything was wrong there. He found no sign of Crohn's or any other underlying disorder. Sent me home with prescriptions for Perocet and Colace.
My wife and I went home in a taxi, and I stayed around the house for the rest of the day, sleeping mostly. All night, I felt about the same as I did before the surgery (remember, the fistula wasn't causing me any pain) even though I hadn't taken any medications. I had a sitz bath, but no movement. This morning, I woke up feeling about the same as I did last night. This is light years different from my last surgery, when I felt worse the next day and had to take Advil. I'm expecting the first movement to come this morning, and we'll see what happens there. I took a Colace just in case. I am completely continent.
So that's the update. As for the healing process, I'm out of the office until Monday. I have a brief going-away party to attend this evening, and I'll probably be standing the whole time. Nothing on schedule for tomorrow, and I'm going to stay off the bike for a number of weeks.
I sincerely hope this is the last surgery. But I certainly don't mind sleeping many, many hours... not being in any pain... and yet having nobody expect me to do anything, despite it being a weekday!
Thanks for all of your kind wishes during this healing process. I wish you the same and more.

Good for you!! Hope it all continues to go well.

I'm curious about something - I too was told I had granulation tissue around the site where my LIS incision was made, not where the fissure was (or is - I suspect it might have recently come back, although the doctor couldn't see it). What do you mean when you said the surgeon "cleaned it up?" I was under the impression it was something that just...was. The surgeon never said that it could be cleaned/treated/whatever. She told me time was the only thing that would take away the pain I get from the incision site.

Well, it looks like the drugs still hadn't worn off when I wrote my last post. I've had two movements since, fairly painful afterwards, but sitz bath and an 800mg Motrin helped quite a bit. I'm trying to avoid the Percocet because of the side effects. Yesterday, I was able to go to a work function and out for dinner afterwards.
I'm playing it by ear and hoping to go back to work on Monday, especially if I can manage to use the toilet at home beforehand.
crimeofpassion - I'm not sure, but I thought granulation tissue was the body's natural response to healing a wound. I do remember my previous doc telling me that the fissurectomy incision was forming a lot of it. I wonder if one can have too much?