Hello everybody.
I'm 34 years old, mother of 3 young children and will be having LIS surgery on Feb. 8th. I've suffered with AF for about 5 years, this will be my 6th year and I hope and pray to God that this is my last year to have to deal with this. My first experience with an AF was in 2005, after having a horrendous bm after giving birth to my 2nd child. Was about 5 days before I pooped and good god, I still remember the girth in that poop, it was astronomically huge! I was mis-diagnosed by a PA, that gave me hemorrhoidal cream. Before that, I didn't even know what an AF was. I went home, did the cream and about 2 months later, couldn't figure out why I was still having so much pain and bleeding. I went to a CRS, board-certified, freaking love her- took one look, sent me home with niphediphene cream. Such has been my life: cream, recover, tear, cream, recover, tear...over and over and over again. I live a pretty healthy life-style, did my colonoscopy in 2009, came out clean as a whistle....but still had occassional constipation. My body never returns to normal for awhile after childbirth. After my 3rd child, I'd had enough, after my hemorrhoidectomy, I went back to my gastroenterologist and was put on Amitiza. OMG, it works like a charm....I'm a nazi about my diet, lots of fruits and veggies, lean meats and low carb is my lifestyle. I've been on Amitiza for about a year and BAM, another fissure about 4-5 months ago, started out small, didn't hurt a whole lot, bled a little, whatever.
About 2 months ago, started having really bad pain, like much more difficult to pass a bm, like something was blocking the way...stretching and severe pain. I finally just went back in and my CRS GASPED when she saw it. About 1.5 centimeters in length, which is quite long for a fissure. I was so freaking pissed because over the last year I've been doing EVERYTHING right...fiber rich foods, amitiza, fiber pillls, 2 liters of water in a day, fruits, veggies, been feeling great, eating lean, exercising and still having freaking AF. WTH? So, finally we spoke about LIS. I'm excited, but scared to death and here's why. My hemorrhoidectomy was the most awful pain in the entire world. I almost blacked out from the pain of passing my first bm. I don't remember what I was eating after surgery, but I do know I didn't do a bowel prep and I think I will do that this time, so I'm not passing some type of "planet" out of my ass, which is what it felt like before. I was throwing up after my hemorrhoid surgery and was in extreme pain for about 3-4 days. My healing took about 3 months, which on average, takes about 1-4 weeks. I'm so excited for this surgery, because I've been in so much pain for so long that I sort of think it can't be any worse than my hemorrhoidectomy, but I really don't want it to be that bad. I've read some stories on here, that have given me hope, but can somebody tell me what the best options are for preparing for the surgery and what they did after surgery to ensure the poop passed as successfully and as pain-free as possible? I'm planning on doing a bowel preparation before the surgery a day before and upping my amitiza to 16 or 24 grams to ensure my poop is moving out and not getting compacted like before. Loads of water and soup type diet?
Thank you for listening and for all of your advice.

Hello makem3,
Welcome to the forum :) I had LIS/skin tag removal in October of 2010. I kept a pretty strict diet before and during my lis recovery- only vegetable, fruits, beans, just high fiber soft foods. I also took stool softeners through out my fissure and surgery recovery. Miralax has really been a life saver for me. I think the main thing you want to do is to not stop anything that has been working for you already. Keep up what's been working.
In my opinion, it's important to take a good stool softener while on the pain meds. I was taking colace( docusate sodium) but it wasn't very effective so I switched to the miralax after surgery.
I think you are going to probably find LIS a walk in the park after having a hemorrhoidectomy. I don't think the pain is even comparable, so try to stay relaxed as you can!
Good Luck with your surgery! I'm sure others will be along to offer more advice:) There's also some really good information in the surgery threads.
Take care,
Dawn

Thank you so much Dawn. I can tell a noticeable improvement already by adding benefiber to water and drinking that twice a day, with my niphedephene cream, along with my amitiza and normal fiber rich foods. I also have a sentinel pile...no idea what that is, but in the video on this site, I believe that's what they also removed at the end. The surgery I saw on here wasn't that bad, I have a medical background, until I saw the cutting/scissoring of the tag at the end. Oh lord, I'm scared, but like you said, I don't think it can be any worse than the hemorrhoidectomy and I will be sure to go back to the surgery threads. Thank you Dawn.

Hey, you've been through the worst in my opinion!! Lol
And your welcome! Ask anything you like:)
Happyass another boardie just had the skin tag removed and so did I. It's wasn't too bad- at all :)
I never watched the video! I know I would have been scared out of my mind.

Hi makem3!
We have some things in common--our age (i'll be 34 in June), the length of time we've been dealing with this, and the three kids...I'm amazed you were able to have the third one with the fissure!!! For me, it didn't happen until after I had the third one, and I don't remember the BM that caused it being especially huge or difficult...I really don't know why it happened but my babies were big, and I was nursing and might have been dehydrated. I'm also active and a healthy eater/water drinker, so tell me why we deserve this???

All I can say is, I feel your pain.
You know when it's just time to throw in the towel and do the surgery. I'm at that point too, but you're ahead of me with your scheduled surgery date. I'm having my first CRS visit on Feb. 22nd (we don't have a CRS here in town or I would've seen one sooner). Hopefully he will understand how chronic the situation is and just agree to do surgery quickly. I'm done with ointments and re-tears and pain and I'd like to have this wrapped up in the next two months so I can heal and have a good summer.
You're on the right track! I bet by summer you'll be so glad you're done.

i am very excited for you makem3!
welcome to the board and i am glad you are here with us for support.
i know it seems like what you are about to go into will be super scary, especially after seeing the excision of that skin tag at the end of the video - i have not seen that video either.
dawn's positive experience with her skin tag removal gave me hope.
i can now personally say that i have never had any pain with the removal of my skin tag - and i really would hope you won't either.
i am so sorry you endured a lot of pain recovering from your hemmi removal - and i think having that negative experience would also bring up fear for the upcoming LIS.
this was my first surgery and really if every surgery could be as smooth as this, i wouldn't fear doing it again.
although i am back to work a week after, i wouldn't expect to feel healed down there for another 6-8 weeks and normal in about 6 months or sooner.....
good luck!
happyass

thank you everybody. happyass, I read your story and that gave me a great deal of hope. Sometimes I get so petrified, and other times, I just don't care- because it's been so many years with so much pain that I just don't know a life w/out a fissure.
My fissure controlled my life- I was scared to go down a slide with my kids, I'm careful how I get in and out of my car, in and out of my bed. I'm so careful with everything, because I don't want to make things worse. I just want to sit on the damn toliet...poop and go about my day. 5 years is ridiculous.
alpinestrawberry, I will be 35 in June. :) I am a Gemini, are you a Gemini or Cancer?
Anyway, reading all your stories, I still can't believe that this is the first time I've been on here or asked questions. I'm so thankful for this site and hope I have as good a recovery as happyass, just in time for my bikini, swimmping pool and slides! :)
One last thing, I have miralax, but it's a few months old, is this going to be okay?
Happyass, I know you did a bowel prep? Is this a good idea? My doc says I don't have to do it, but I told her that I think I made a mistake not preparing a few days before with soup or going with pureed foods because my bm was so compacted from loading up on foods to prepare for not eating for an entire day....I think soups, jello, clear liquids a few days before and then the bowel prep the day before is a good idea, but maybe it doesn't matter? Thoughts?

Hey again! I'm a Gemini. My b-day is June 2nd, and my oldest daughter is June 3rd. What day is your b-day?
I lurked on here and read for a long time too. Of all the forums on the internet that I've run across, this just seemed like the one to join. I'm so glad I found it! It's helping me maintain what little is left of my sanity.
As far as the bowel prep goes, I'd like to do something along those lines before my surgery. What I'm hoping is that, since I've never had a colonoscopy, they'll let me do both that and surgery on the same day and then I won't have to worry about BM's post surgery for a few days. TBH, the thought of a colonoscopy totally freaks me out (what happened to waiting until I'm 50?!), but you've already been through that.
Maybe you could just take big doses of Miralax after surgery instead of doing a prep though?

Hello again!
I'm also a gemini! :) My birthday is June 11th. I have some miralax, but it's a few months old, does anybody know if it's okay to use? I think I'm going to do the bowel prep before with miralax and gatorade (like I did for my colonoscopy) and then continue with tons of miralax and water after surgery. I'm just too damn scared to have 2 days full of food trying to work it's way through my system and with my past history, just trying to minimize the pain.
A colonoscopy is like the easiest thing in the world, even with a fissure....under anesthesia, you won't feel a thing - just some gas pain from the air they put up your colon...and I think they make you pass gas before you leave, I was in and out in about 1.5 hours. The longest amount of time was the time from the "prep" to the actual procedure, otherwise it would have been like 30 minutes. Ridiculous how long I waited in the stupid room waiting to go back for the colonoscopy.
Hope everybody has a good weekend.

hi makem3,
i hope you are having a relaxing weekend and getting prepared for feb. 8.
i am not sure if you are writing from the USA or outside, so this product relates to the USA: Fleet Naturals, which is an enema that is aloe-based and doesn't have laxative effect on the rectum/colon when doing it.
altho on the side of the box it says not to be used for medical procedures preparation, i did take it to my CRS and asked her if this was good as i wanted something more wholesome. she was fine.
i started to prep four days ahead. i did 1 on sunday, 1 on monday, 1 tuesday p.m. and 1 wednesday a.m., the day of my procedure.
along with eating, i started to really transition into light eating around sunday with tuesday, as an example, 1 fresh juice for breakfast, 6 prunes in a small amount of hot water for lunch, and then 1 miso soup for dinner, i know it sounds very little but i was okay with it.
**
geminis are great!
still to this day, my biggest fear was the skin tag and getting rid of it and what pain would await me, but i never had any source of pain from there. i am completely STUMPED! i am so overjoyed that its gone and i am still healing in that area but well.
so as long as you expect to give yourself at least 6-8 weeks post-procedure for healing to take place, you will do well. there are a lot of sensations to deal with and maintenance, and some days will get you down when you have a new sensation, but just hang in there.