I am just 4-days post fistulotomy (no seton) and hemerrhoidectomy. I put the surgery off once and spent weeks dreading it because of all the scary stories of unbearable pain. I sure would have liked some reassurance!! Here's my, admittedly unusual experience.
Surgery Wednesday. Surgeon told me there was no way around it, because of all the nerve endings and the nature of the surgery, I was going to have some considerable pain to deal with. But he promised, "I don't think you're going to want to kill yourself." Wow. Talk about scary!
Came out of surgery numb, came home, waited a few hours and popped a Percoset and an anti-inflammatory. Prepared to wake in agony. Did not. In fact, I'll cut to the chase. Even the dreaded first BM wasn't bad. Was diligent about my Fiber (Konsyl) and my stool softeners, as well as the anti-inflammatories. Took me two days to do it but...relatively painless. I think the pain from the hemerrhoid and fistula had been wore than I realized but it was like a frog in boiling water. It built up over time and I didn't notice it. Compared to that, the surgical pain has been all but unnoticeable.
I am fatigued, but that's the worst of it. Well, and the bleeding/draining. No fun. But definitely not horrible. If you need this surgery, don't be too scared. It might turn out better than you thought!!
I'm guessing most people who have an easy go of it don't end up on message boards, which makes them overwhelmingly negative/scary. I hope this encourages others with good experiences to post and offers some reassurance to those about to undergo the surgery that it isn't an automatically horrible experience!

Hi CRS,
Welcome and thanks for sharing the story! Glad to hear you are doing OK. I'm sure doctors scare us about the pain, so whatever pain comes afterwards, we come to think of it as: oh, it's not as bad as he said it would be ;) Nothing that painkillers can't fix.
You are right, people in the message boards are the ones with pains and issues, so it gives a negative image of the pain or problems with or after surgery, that doesn't necessarily corresponds to reality.

Yes-- I don't want to dismiss or dininish people's bad experiences or pain. But I do want to let people considering the surgery know that there is a whole spectrum of this experience. No one can predict what your recovery will be like.. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best.

I had a fistulotomy on January 7th, 2015 and pain was never a problem, even immediately after. To be honest, I've had hemorrhoids that have hurt far more than the fistulotomy wound. I'm not sure why either, as my wound was pretty damn big. What's funny is it didn't hurt while it was gaping, but once it was at the point of nearly full healing the tightness caused some pain, more than it ever did as an open wound. The most annoying part of my fistulotomy experience was the constant showering after bowel movements to keep it clean. I became overly obsessive with cleanliness.