Hello everyone. After years of reoccurring fissures and chronic post bowel movement pain, I finally had LIS surgery on Feb 14. Prior to surgery there was some confusion as to what was causing me my horrendous rectal pain. I had all the symptoms of an anal fissure, I had a history of having fissures, but my CRN told me he saw nothing. After a few months of hopeless dread it became clear to me that a fissure was present. I was bleeding with every bowel and the pain had only gotten worse. I took a look down there with a mirror and flash light and saw what was clearly a deep red fissure. I took a picture of it with my phone so my doctor could not tell me there was no fissure present.
I quickly scheduled another appointment with my CRN to discuss having LIS surgery. My doctor agreed to move forward with a closed LIS and for the first time I felt the light at the end of the tunnel. The surgery was a breeze compared to my initial expectations. Immediately after the surgery my bleeding improved and the fissure pain seemed to diminish. Everything seemed to be going fine until my 12th day post op when my pain levels spiked. After 2 soft bowel movements I began to experience pain that could not be relieved by pain killers or warm baths. I was devastated by this setback. This level of pain lasted about a week before there was any improvement. On top of that, I felt my sphincter muscle was still tight and spasming.
After my 3 weeks I had a check up with my CRN who told me that the fissure looked like it was healing well. He said it looked 85% healed and that I should expect a full recovery in another 4 weeks. This put my mind at ease but I’m still struggling with bad post BM pain.
It’s discouraging to read so many success stories of people having full recoveries in two weeks while I’m still suffering this much 5 weeks out. I also struggle with frequent urination which I thought would be relieved by the surgery. I’m trying to be patient with my recovery but it’s hard for me not to worry that the pain will remain chronic.
Has anyone else been in a similar situation where it took a long time after LIS for the pain to subside? What is the average recovery time and how do I know if I’m progressing? Please only leave words of encouragement or success stories because I don’t want to be more stressed out than I already am. Thank you