...and i'm still in pain. not spasm pain, just a real bad soreness all day and raw feeling after bms like i'm so used to. i take lots of hot baths all day and use a heating pad. i've been off work the last week and still have this whole week off, so i'm just resting and keeping off my butt. i try not to take too much pain medicine b/c i don't like to mask the pain and fool myself into thinking i'm progressing, so i've only been taking 400mg ibuprofen after bm each day. i see one of the surgeon's nurses for a follow up the end of this week. i think it's too early to worry about my lack of progress this time around, but i can't help but be a little paranoid. i've been crying a lot the past few days, very frustrated. especially when i read posts of people who have "no pain" just 5 or 6 days after surgery. any advice, experience, reaassurance would be appreciated. sigh.

Juney,
I was not pain-free in "5 or 6" days and after a week I was still taking "some" pain meds.
Now that the spasms are gone, it is still going to take 6-8 weeks for the fissure to heal over. Since your fissure causes BM pain, I can see why that would persist. I rarely had pain during the BM, just horrible spasms afterwards, so my pain curve was slightly better than yours.
That cut into your sphincter will require time to heal, too, and it will make your tail feel wierd, like you have shoe leather up there, for about three week.

juney,
don't be too hard on yourself.
i think it is best to think of a 6-8 week healing progress plan. my CRS said that things wouldn't feel better and back to normal from 6 months to 1 year but that there would be overall improvements from 2-3 months.
i also think that you have a lot of high expectations to feel no pain so quickly. i am not sure if ibuprofen is the best thing to take but i don't know what else to recommend for pain relief either.
keep your chin up!

I think you are being too hard on yourself too and I can understand after a second surgery you want to see results and feel better fast.
I think it is the pain talking and I would encourage you to take more ibuprofen or whatever was prescribed for you. If you take a narcotic maybe you can take a dose of miralax or milk of magnesia to help counteract it.

Since HA and Juney brought it up, isn't ibuprofen a constipator? I'm not trying to freak Juney out, just trying to help.
Kim, what meds did you take?
Juney, without going into a lot od detail, I think we're in the same boat with the pain factor. I was told to focus on other things outside the pain, like watching movies, and it does work a lot of the time. When I do this and then catch myself "not feeling the pain," I get just a little bit better because I then know my mind is making it worse.
I hope things get better.

No, ibuprofen is not constipating.
My CRS has told me I can take 4 (200 mg) capsules 3 times a day.

Thanks for that great info Lecia!

Chris, in the hospital I went from dilaudad right after surgery, to Percocet, which made me itch, so they gave me morphine. Upon release I had a prescription for mepergan which I took about once or twice a day for a week.
But after all these pain meds, I was constipated right when I got home, for two days. So be careful.

it'll be 2 weeks tomorrow since my surgery. i'm still frustrated by my lack of progress. it hurts to go to the bathroom, like the sharp passing-glass feeling i remember from the beginning of my fissure...except in the top instead of the bottom. i'm hoping this doesn't mean i have a NEW one. i take 800mg ibuprofen after bm and this helps a bit, but i've been avoiding sitting for the entire 2 weeks.
my days off work are winding down and i'm really nervous about going back. i bought a seat cushion so i'll just have to endure the speculation from people at work.
i want so bad for this to help me heal so i'm not completely giving up hope yet.

i feel for you Juney. My fissure feels like it has healed, but I too have this nagging, sore, inflamed feeling up top. I have no idea what it is, only that cortizone suppositories help a whole lot.

Still two thoughts come to mind:
1. It is sometimes hard to tell where the pain is coming from. sometimes the stinging I have left from the hemmie turned fissure seems to come from a place other than where it is.

2. Perhaps you have developed a hemmie from the swelling. I NEVER had hemmies until after the surgery. One swelled up like crazy for a little while. From what I understand, hemmies can feel raw and painful and are often difficult to distinguish from fissures.