I second NG on the miralax. I used the docusate sodium up until the week after my surgery and then started using the miralax full time. It's the best in my opinion.
As for age, my kids step brother was 22 when he had LIS and he's doing great now.
Good Luck with whatever you decide:)

Hey NG!
Haha, no, I don't think that is ancient My husband is 30.. And although I do tease him sometimes about it, I know I'm not far off! The only reason I mentioned my age was because I was surprised that she had said anything about it at all. I figure, the younger you are, the better you ideally would heal!
I will definitely try the Miralax, carefully, to see if it helps! :) Thanks for the suggestion! Docusate sodium is the only thing I have tried so far to be honest, in the way of stool softeners. Mostly because I have never in my life had an issue with constipation, it was just supposed to help ease the pain thru the worst of things, but now I'm terrified to stop taking them!
@ New Mum,
I agree 100%! I want my life back, and will not let this awful thing waste any more of my time! I have spent far too much of my mat leave taking sitz baths, and using creams, etc. I am soooo ready to just enjoy the last couple of months with my lil man, and move on once and for all!! How have you been feeling now? Did you have to stop nursing at all to have the surgery?
@ Dawn,
Thanks for the info! :) And the support! I am hoping to get this sorted out once and for all so I can move on with my life already!! Have you had any trouble or pain at all since the surgery?

lol alright thanks for not calling anyone old BTW I don't know where you're located, but in case it's outside the USA, Miralax may be called Movicol. The active ingredient is polyethylene glycol 3350.
I never had a problem with constipation (in fact my problem for my entire life was frequent loose watery stools) either until I got my fissure. Weird how that works. But yeah, Miralax was definitely a lifesaver for me. It all depends how well you feel docusate is working. If it's just the tip of the stool that feels hard, and the pain is bearable, then that's actually somewhat normal. IMO it's because the first part has to kind of push its way out past the spasming sphincter. Once that happens, the muscle relaxes for the rest of the stool. Miralax may or may not help things if this is what you're feeling. But if it's causing you extreme intolerable pain, then odds are good you'll at least get some kind of relief from Miralax.

Oh gosh no! I was just surprised that my surgeon seemed hesitant to do surgery on me because of my age! I thought since I am young and healthy, it would make her more confident! Ah well. I'm glad she didn't just jump right to surgery right away, that's for sure! I'll see what she says in 2 weeks!
I'm certainly going to give it a try! :) See if it helps! Thanks for the heads up on the name! I'm located in Canada, so I probably would have had a hard time finding it lol.
Hmmmm... Good point about the bm's! I know for sure sometimes they are like rocks in the beginning and the rest are soft, but you might be right with the rest of the times. I am excited to try something new! :)

I expressed enough feeds for the when I was in surgery and the first feed after when was what I was told to do. Since the lis I feed her lying down in bed. I am glad that my hubby took a week off to look after her coz now day 5 I am just starting to lift her again.
Each day I feel a little better but have twinges every now and then, I just want to be healed and get on with things.

I agree with you about your age, I would think you would heal faster too. I know when I was in my twenty's and I'd get a bruise or scratch and it would heal faster than it does now with me being 40...Just seems it would with surgery too.
But anyway, to answer your question- I really couldn't describe what I felt after LIS as pain. It was more like a soreness. You know how after you have a baby(natural childbirth) and it's like sore down there? For me the worst with even the soreness was the first night and vicodin took care of that then as the week went by it became less.
I had a skin tag removed too and my fissure was cauterized so I'm not sure if that could have added to my discomfort, but the crs did tell me with the tag being removed it would cause more discomfort than just LIS.
I honestly can't say that it was painful for me. I'd feel like I was exaggerating....
I actually had spasms for the first week after mine but read that when you have more than one thing done down there that can happen, and when I called my crs they said it happens all the time. They called me in a prescription for valium and I took one 5mg pill every morning for about a week and ever since then I've been fine.
I really think I've had a good experience, and I was horrified about the surgery, before I had it. I sometimes wonder if I imagined it to be so awful that I was pleasantly surprised by something that others may have seen as a lot worse?!

Wow, I'm so glad to hear that both you Dawn, and New mum have had such good experiences! Its such a relief to hear, because a lot of the info I have come across is negative, and full of scary stories! I meet with the surgeon next week, so I will have to see what she thinks would be best at this point, but thanks to you guys, I'm a lot more open to trying the surgery! Thanks so much for the helpful info! :)

There's more good experiences than our FF. People just don't post these things:)
Let us know how your appointment goes. We will be here for you. I couldn't have done this myself without the support of so many good folks on here who had gone before me and left their stories and supported me!

:) Thanks soooo much Dawn! It means a lot!! :D I will certainly let you guys know how it goes!!