hi all - I'm still doing ok! So far, not much pain ... but I'm still waiting for the day's BM, so we'll see how that goes. No burning or throbbing, which is great! Just a bit a stinging here and there. Things definitely feel looser down there. I can pass gas without it hurting (just a sting once) ... and nothing else has exited with the gas, so far (phew). Right now I'm mostly dealing with psychological issues - my faith in my surgeon was seriously undermined, so in my darker moments I worry that I will regret getting the surgery. Right now, I don't (I regret how it was done, but not that it was done). I'm just working on not worrying ... it's amazing how difficult that can be!
Dexterdude - you are right about the follow-up. I've been fretting about that. I plan to call my GP to ask him if he can send me to somebody else for a follow-up. If that's not an option, then I'll demand to see a different doctor at the clinic. And I will be bringing a copy of the patients' bill of rights with me, in case I have to stuff it up a doctor's a$$. You are so right about bedside manner. A little compassion really makes such a difference when you're in pain!
You all are also right that I should provide more information about my surgeon. I think I will post a new topic thread so that it will be easier for future sufferers to find on this forum when they are doing their research.
Wow, Em! you stopped breathing! yikes! I'm so glad you reported that! Elphie, I often wonder if Canada has a disproportionate amount of knuckle-head doctors. I don't want to be unfair, because I have met some very good ones; but I have met soooo many real nut-cases too. Can socialized medicine cause personality disorders in the medical community?
It is so wonderful to have a forum like this. All your kindness and encouragement made my ordeal much easier to deal with. I definitely didn't feel so alone! It's great to have this community.
I hope you are all having a very good butt day!

It is funny, if you can say that about socialised medicine as I lived for 15 years in Copenhagen, and I had the most wonderful doctor. He did everything for me, was consciouses (sp) about following things up, did my pap smears, did everything. And, if I was sick and needed a doctor to come to the house after hours, there was always one available. Spoilt!

Wow! To your house! That doctor sounds wonderful! I'm sure I've just had some bad luck with doctors and that there are many very good ones up here. I really value our medical system, but we do have real problems with wait-times and with personality problems among doctors. Some of that might be due to the fact that we have major doctor shortages and our doctors are under a lot of stress. We actually import quite a few doctors from South Africa - who, BTW, are wonderful. I know a few who were trained at Stellenbosch ... but I do feel bad about stealing doctors from other countries.

Please report that guy!
I'd like to give him a fissure, that's for sure!
Hopefully though this will eventually be a distant memory for you, life with a normal butt cannot be overvalued in my opinion.
I'll be thinking of ya!

Hopetoheal. I actually know a doctor from SA who is now in Canada! Stellenbosch is the most beautiful university town, surrounded by old wine farms. And mountains.
How it works at night in Denmark is that they have a system that roughly translates to 'doctor night watch' that if you are ill you call and get whichever doctor is on watch, and a taxi takes him/her to wherever the patient is. Quite nice, tis true, but you pay high taxes for the things that the state provides. I thought it fair, however. I think that people should have systems like that, but Denmark is a small country which is perhaps why it works.

Oh the Denmark system sounds so wonderful and enlightened! There are advantages to living in small countries. I would probably enjoy living in Denmark, except for the weather. I'm not a cold weather person. I really shouldn't have been born in Canada! I've heard that Stellenbosch is beautiful and I intend to see it myself. We drove through the wine region about 10 years ago from Upington to Cape Town - how incredibly beautiful!

HopetoHeal- How are you doing today? I hope things are going well for you. You deserve the fastest healing time ever recorded on this website!
Good thoughts have been sent your way-
Bambi

Thanks so much for asking, Bambi. And thanks for sending good thoughts my way - I think they are working :D
Today is going ok so far. I still have some pain, especially after a BM, which is followed by some mild burning and mild spasms, but not as bad as pre-LIS - the burning doesn't last all day like it used to. I'm wondering if some of the pain is owed to the cauterization that was done (for skin tags). I mustered the courage to take a look yesterday and it looks like the doc cauterized three areas. It's pretty ugly down there!
I'm not getting very much discharge, and the bleeding is quite minimal. My poor butt's just pretty tender.
I contacted my GP today and he agreed to refer me to another surgeon. Unfortunately, he can't guarantee that I'll be seen earlier than a few months, but at least I'll be able to get a different surgeon to check me out down the road a bit and reassure me that I'm ok.
I still need a follow-up sooner than that, though, to check for infection and whatnot. So I called the clinic and demanded to see a different surgeon for my follow-up appointment, which is schedule for May 26th. What a life!
I'm sure hoping for a complication-free, rapid recovery because I don't know if I could handle anything else on top of my LIS experience! I am feeling better, though. And it really helps so much to have this forum of kind, caring people to check in on me and make me feel better. :D

It sounds like you are doing really pretty well considering that you had several areas addressed on the outside. The whole skin tag thing for me has been the longest to heal, although still so much better than before. Take it easy and you should be fine. Have you tried the ice pack thing- with the peas in a dishtowel.
Bambi

Oh my God Hope...I haven't been checking the boards as frequently as I used to, and I had no idea you'd been through this!!!
I'd like to fire your doctor out of a cannon. Seriously, this is something that could cause PTSD. He wouldn't be treating patients like this in the US, for sure, because he would've already been sued by now. What a truly awful person. I hope he at least did a good job of the actual surgery because you deserve the best recovery. Awful. :(
I have seen one other similar story here on the board, her name was G (Genevieve). I believe she was also Canadian. At least she was lightly sedated but she still described the procedure as very painful. She didn't seem to have a good outcome, but it's hard to tell sometimes when people drift away from the board without updating on the final outcome. Maybe she did eventually heal.
The situation reminds me, a little, of when I was a kid. I was probably 6 years old and had awful teeth (don't anymore, thankfully)! I was at the dentist's office getting them worked on and he gave me a very painful set of shots in the roof of my mouth and I was sobbing and crying for my mom. He told me she wasn't coming and if I didn't shut up, he would spank me. To this day, my mom defends his actions, JUST BECAUSE a friend of hers really liked this dentist. In fact my mom says he inspired her friend's daughter to go into the dental field. Honestly? But that's my mom for you, she will invalidate your feelings whenever she gets the chance. She actually said to me, you know how it is with kids, sometimes as hard as you try, you just can't like them. ??? Yes, my own mother implied that I was an irritating child so the dentist was justified in threatening me. Whatever. My mom can be a bit of a nutcase, which is why I STILL haven't told her anything about my sphincter ordeal. And I never will.
Anyway, Hope sorry for the rant, this is about YOU not me. I agree with everyone else that this doctor needs to be reported somehow, even if it's just word-of-mouth type warnings to steer people away from him. Hopefully karma will get him in the end. Or an angry mob. You are very brave for telling your story. I imagine he gets away with this because some people are ashamed and won't talk about how they've been treated. Like being a rape victim!
I hope you can heal quickly from the physical pain, I know the mental trauma will probably take longer. You are very tough. I don't think I could have made myself go back to him after the way he spoke the first time, but you stood up for yourself to get the problem dealt with. I'm just so sorry it wasn't dealt with in a humane manner.