by Water Bear » 11 Dec 2017, 16:22
Hi everyone, sorry I haven't written for a few days - I was away interstate, managed the trip very well even though I was scared to death about having a different diet and getting dehydrated on the plane and everything associated with travelling! In the end it was all fine, even walking around for hours on end I just got a little bit sore, no dramas.
On the question of having this operation as a woman - I was terrified. I'd read that in the UK the surgery guidelines say that this operation should not be done in women hoping to have babies because of the risk of obstetric injury to an already compromised sphincter - resulting in fecal incontinence. This is why I had the Botox at the start of the year - I wanted to exhaust all my options before having the LIS surgery.
I discussed my fears with my surgeon and my GP before having the operation.
My GP said the risk of obstetric injury to the anal sphincter is a real concern but then again you are suffering now, and something has to be done about that. What if you put up with the pain of fissures for years only to find you couldn't have babies after all? Or, you end up having to have a c-section anyway?
My surgeon was almost dismissive of my concerns about future obstetric injury and incontinence - she said she was making a tiny, controlled cut to the muscle. She also said that if I did end up with problems after having a baby, she could fix them.
I would always go with my surgeon's advice - if you trust them and are comfortable with them and their experience. They don't have a crystal ball but they are the experts.
I'm three and a half weeks out from surgery and feeling great. The bottom looks totally normal. I now know that the NTG ointment and the Botox were only resulting in superficial healing - the way things have healed now, the skin looks so much more robust, less red, really just perfectly normal!
And this is probably too much information (sorry!) - but before the operation, the bottom was so overly tight that I couldn't pass anything larger than the width of a pencil without tearing. Now BMs are back to normal.
I hope everyone else is doing as well as I am!