Hi all,

Tomorrow I see my CRS to follow up on my LIS surgery (8/22/16). I am beginning to feel better, but this part has been more painful than I expected. It seems like, from reading everyone's posts on this forum, that there is a wide range of discomfort after LIS.

My fissure is anterior and has been there for most of my life in the same place, off and on, and it was very deep. This most recent fissure has been there for three years. After my surgery, my CRS said that the surgery went "perfectly" and that he was glad that I didn't try botox injections. I had told him I would rather go right to surgery rather than try botox, and he said that it was severe enough that botox would not have been enough.

He said that he could see the muscle fibers in the fissure.

I took a look with a mirror today to try to see where the blood is coming from. It's not enough to wear a pad, but enough that it shows in my underwear and when I wipe. Bright red. The bleeding is definitely from the LIS incision, which is on the left side of the anus. The fissure still hurts, but not quite as badly as it did before, and the green discharge I had from it seems to be improving.

It also looks like I have a giant hemorrhoid, probably from the surgery...I know that they hold the anus open with an instrument, and it probably aggravated the hemorrhoid. The hem is not bleeding, just swollen.

I am taking Advil for pain, occasionally taking the percocet that he gave me. My bowel movements have been nice and soft from Miralax and senna and solace. But after having a bowel movement, my pain is terrible and lasts about five hours afterwards. And that's when I have the most bleeding. I hope this passes.

I'm so relieved, though, that my fear of incontinence after surgery seems to not be an issue at all. I don't "feel" any different in terms of being able to control gas or stool, which was one reason that I had put off seeing a CRS (I know I'm not alone!). It's a terrible thing to see as a potential complication when you read about it. But I was so tired of being in pain that I was willing to risk "skid marks" for recovery.

Thanks, everyone, for this forum.

Hi there, thanks for the post!

We had surgery on the same day!

Like you stated, the pain post-operation has been more painful than I anticipated. Also, after I pass a BM, my butt goes into spasm for a few hours - so know that you are not alone. I think that is very normal.

Make sure you discuss your hemorrhoid with the physician - don't assume that he will be able to see it. Sometimes the doctors are too worried about hurting us post-surgery that they don't look as closely as they should (not saying your doctor is this way, but just food for thought :) )

Keep up the successful recovery!!

I'd like to add that not all LIS surgeries are done through the butt hole. I, and many others on the forum, had a surgery that involved the surgeon cutting an incision about a half inch beside the anal opening, and they then went in through the new hole and cut the inner sphincter from inside there. This way of doing surgery doesn't hold the hole open at all and is also one reason some people don't need an enema, or prep, because the doctor will be going nowhere near where the stool goes (it's still better if the rectum is empty though, so I was asked to do an enema). I had been under the impression that my hole would be held open by some sort of clamp, so was not at all careful of the area around the anus afterward, because I thought that the only cut was up inside it. I damaged the actual incision site after my LIS, because I didn't know that I had one outside at all, and caused myself a LOT of unnecessary pain.

Good luck with the rest of your recovery, and I hope that things move along quickly for you.

I also had the LIS done through a cut outside the anus, in a fact just yesterday. But they still went inside the anus to cauterize the edges of the fissure, to promote better healing. The doc definitely used an anoscope, but might have also used clamps to open up the anus. At least I have a bunch of super swollen hemorrhoids now on one side, while the LIS incision is on the other side and not swollen at all. So, something must have really aggravated the side that wasn't cut.