Just curious but is the incontinence that everyone fears following LIS a permanent- like poop yourself every day for the rest of your life and have to wear adult diapers-deal or is it temporary for some months?
Permanent sounds pretty awful if you lose complete control of when you make a BM and that is scary.

From what I've read, people who do have it tend to have gas incontinence or mild leakage. I haven't heard of anyone with full on totally uncontrollable passage of stool. I think permanent incontinence is rare but temporary incontinence isn't unusual.
I was super worried about incontinence before LIS and it unfortunately ended up being the least of my worries afterward. The complications I had from LIS were definitely not the ones that I expected and feared.

Ditto what NG said! Exactly! :)
No one has ever come here and reported permanent incontinence as a result of LIS, but a few, (myself included) have had pretty miserable "consequences" in the days immediately after the surgery, and yes, I had some minor gas incontinence for a couple months after I healed from surgery, but I thought each little "squeak" I accidentally gave birth to during that time was a true blessing! I was no longer in pain!!!!
Then even the gas got better -- and, voila, a new iron butt... :)

i'm 5 1/2 weeks post op and for the first couple of weeks i had discharge (mostly just surgical)...i was a little incontinent, but i didn't use depends, just pantyliners...
i do pass gas on occasion (i never did before surgery) and in the beginning i would pass some sort of discharge when i did pass it...
it wasn't pleasant, but my butt feels so much better now that i really don't care about it!

I had my LIS 3 years ago, and I was worried about that too. I never had complete incontinence or gas incontinence after my surgery but what I have ended up with is a little leakage, which usually occurs if I wane from my diet. Its not a big deal for me. It basically just means that I need to be more careful about keeping myself clean. Its certainly not a lot, i don't even wear a liner or anything. I just have to go to the bathroom and wipe if its itchy.

Small Flower, if you don't mind my asking, do you still have the mild leakage now 3 years after surgery?

Yes I do, but this only occurs when I have strayed from my diet and irritated the area. A little embaressing but given the choice between this and dealing with that pain, i'll deal with this.

Hey thanks, I appreciate it. I had LIS nearly two months ago and still have some leakage at times, which is why I asked. The leakage seems to always be present to some extent but is most noticeable after BMs and when I pass wind. It's not enough to cause a big accident or anything but it does lightly soil the underwear at times and irritates the anal area.
I'm in the middle of trying to determine if this is just a side effect of LIS or something more sinister like an abscess or fistula.
I'm definitely not glad to hear that you still have some occasional leakage, but will admit that it's somewhat comforting that it's not totally unheard of. I hope that didn't sound messed up, that's not my intent at all. Thanks so much for sharing your experience :)

I had 2 LIS surgeries. Never had even transient poop incontinence. Gas was able to escape for the first week or 2 after both surgeries but I did not even try to stop it LMAO since it was silent , non smelling and felt kind of nice to have a "loose butt" for a change.
After 4 weeks had no gas escaping ever , actually I have to "push" it if I want any to escape :roll: (sorry for detailed description :oops: )
I read that if there is even the smallest leak happening it can irritate anal area BIG time. The best way to deal with it is to have frequent baths and putting some protective barrier cream on the anus, like Vaseline, or zinc oxide etc.

Hi Smaller_Flower,

you have come back after 10 years of LIS surgery, and you have mentioned you have leakage?

anyone there after 10 years of LIS surgery suffered leakage?