Just an up-date to let others know, In 3 days I will be at my 6 week mark since LIS. I've been eating my usual high fiber diet along with some junk food that I would have never touched before. I ate a few new things at Thanksgiving, and have had some ice cream a few times since my surgery with no problems. I still haven't touched any meat yet. I'm really not a big meat eater anyway. I'm still taking miralax. I do plan to cut down and eventually stop but I'm going to wait awhile and do that gradually to see how it goes.
The soreness from my skin tag has completely gone and things feel basically normal at this point. Going to the bathroom is very quick and things seem to empty complete and fast since the surgery. I'm also very regular and go about 10 min. after waking up, then about 30 minutes after that again and go about my day.
I still take 2 baths a day at this point. I was taking 3-4 during the early stages of my recovery.
I just want to say I'm very pleased with my results and my recovery and want to let anyone who is considering having this surgery to just do it! I was scared to death, read all the horrific stories and didn't think there was a way out of this. I was to the point of wanting to die. There was a point where I had thought about ways to make that happen. I thank God for sticking by me and keeping me from the point. This was such an easy thing to fix. It wasn't horrible, I wasn't laying around in excruciating pain with no end in sight. I know there are people who have rougher recoveries than others and need support and will post more in these forums then the majority who have this surgery and go about their lives. Other boardies(phil) had told me this before I had my surgery and was scared to death. It's true!
I just want to say- don't be afraid of making your life better by having this surgery. Living with a fissure sucks and if you can do that for months on end , You can handle the surgery!!
Good Luck to all the future Lis-ers and don't forget to leave your experiences for the future fissure sufferers. It made it so much easier for me- to have something to go by and to know what to expect.
Thank you, Steve, NG, Cherylk, Smallchange, Philber, Paul, Fissy for you support and great advice!! I'm so appreciative to the past posters who don't come on anymore- Tabbys, Gizmo, Kim, the creator of this forum- Cheryl from Australia, Sidra,MB and many others....Your stories really helped me.

Hi, I'm new to the site and just wish I'd read all your comments before having surgery as I was led to believe the cut would be healed much sooner than it has done. Has any one else had a discharge? My doctor thought it was an infection and gave me massive doses of antibiotics but when I saw my surgeon he said I shouldn't have had them as a discharge was normal and everthing was fine. It's now nearly 2 months since my operation and the discharge is lessening but the wound is still quite sore.

Hey Mma ,
You are a little ahead of me on the surgery, but I do get some kind of discharge. I think it's more of a leakage, because it happens after a bm. I shower the area a couple of times then pat dry or blow dry and apply vaseline as a barrier. My CRS told me a couple of weeks ago at 4 weeks post-op I could use the vaseline on the outside only- to help w/ the irritation. You may be a little raw down there and that may be causing the discomfort.
If you're not already doing this- try to dab the area w/ wet cotton balls or if you have a removable shower wand you can rinse with it , then air dry, blow dry or gently dab and apply the vaseline after every BM and if you can- a few more times in the day just to make sure it's clean because the leaking can cause a lot of irritation. Mine has almost gone completely away now, but I even try to sleep without pantys or just wear my robe and let it air... BTW,I didn't have an infection either.

I want to add Mma,
the baths are very helpful with the cleaning too. Also I don't have any soreness from my Lis or fissure but I stay at home and have basically babied by butt to the maxxx during recovery.
I know under the best circumstances, a fissure can take 6 weeks to heal. Some take longer. Is your lis wound or your fissure still not healed or is it just sore and irritated?

Hey Mma, I'm almost 4 months post-op and still have the occasional soreness from the surgical sites, at 2 months post-op I was pretty much the same as you are with discharge, it can take up to a year before everything is fully healed, as I say, I still get discomfort, particularly after some dodgy BM's.
Only the lucky ones will heal quickly IMO

Thanks Dawn and Steve you've made me feel more normal! The surgeon said the fissure had healed and the LIS wound was fine but I presume that it's not completely healed if it's still producing a yellow discharge which comes after the leakage after a bm. It is getting less and I guess I just have to be patient. It's just that I was coping reasonably well with the fissure by taking a stool softener - I could avoid the pain but it made me go so often and I thought it wasn't healthy. When I asked my surgeon how it would be after the op he said the pain would be no worse than that of the fissure and I'd recover in a week or two! I was given no advice about how to look after the wound - only told to avoid constipation so I continued with the stool softener (Movicol) but when I saw the surgeon after a few weeks he said that it was acid and probably irritating the wound and I should take Fybogel. It means I only go once a day but it's still more uncomfortable when I go than when taking the Movicol. If I'd known what it was going to be like I don't think I would have agreed to have the op!

I wasn't given any real information on caring for the wound etc after surgery either, I was basically sent packing with some Ibuprofen and Metronidazole and NO painkillers!!
I was also taking Movicol after the surgery but was soon to give it up because of the stools being far too soft and irritating the surgical sites, infact it was burning like hell, that's why I switched to Fybogel to bulk up the stool, it takes some getting used to and definitely makes the stools more bulky/hard but only causes minimal discomfort, although saying that, my first few BM's were quite painful and remained that way until I got my sphincter used to passing large stools, I really think it's the way forward to get the anus used to passing bulkier stools, runny and softer BM's only cause irritation IMO.

Hey Dawn,
Glad to hear you are doing well. I'm approaching 10 weeks post-op and am pretty much back to normal. I can still feel the point of incision at times but it isn't painful at all, just a little pinch or something. My CRS told me that would heal fully in time. I no longer take any colace and my diet is back to normal. I pretty much eat anything, in moderation, but am still keeping it on the high fiber side which includes Metamucil daily. If this experience has taught me anything, it's that you can pay dearly for what you put in your mouth and that's not just in weight gain! My family went to a fondue restaurant last week to which I politely declined...couldn't see eating an entire meal of cheese.
Take care.

Hey SC ,
Wow 10 weeks! We've came along ways!! Good to hear from you & glad you are doing well:)
I'm still using the miralax and I'm eating a pretty high fiber diet with some new junk added back. I'm also careful about what I put in my mouth. I never want to go through this again if I can help it!
I can't really say I feel much down there from the incision, just seems a little tender but nothing painful. I still think that's where the skin tag was removed?! But anyway if it didn't get any better than this, I could live with it,LOL
It's a far cry from where I came:) You take care too!

I guess I should chime in too since I was an infamous whiner following LIS I was probably one of the slowest healers around (including a nice 2nd surgery for an abscess complication), but even I feel pretty good now at 6 months after the fact. I still take Miralax daily but pain from the fissure and LIS incision site are both nearly non-existent these days. Occasionally I will get some discomfort but it's almost always after a hard poop. I can even wipe my butt using cheap toilet paper like a regular human ... now THAT is an achievement as we all know :D
Also, I had mild annoying discharge ("skid marks" for lack of a better term) for a loooong time after LIS. Probably 3 months or so. It eventually subsided but does take time.
The rules for LIS are pretty much the same as any other surgery IMO: #1 you usually end up better off in the long run. #2 there will be all kinds of weird things along the way that the surgeon neglected to mention. And finally #3 whatever the surgeon told you the recovery time would be, multiply it by about 10, cut it into several non-linear chunks, and there ya go :)