by Happyending » 22 Sep 2016, 23:16
So today is the day! I hadn't been sleeping much the past 2 days due to anxiety about my impending surgery. I had been given antibiotics, norco (pain medicine), and valium to be taken one hour before surgery. I had breakfast at home, a good BM, and then was on my way with my wife. We dropped the kids at school, and then took about an hour to get to the doc. I took all pills as instructed, and had another bowel movement upon arrival. It was diarrhea, triggered by mere fear. The Valium then took the edge off, and I really calmed down.
As I had mentioned, this was a procedure in the office, with only local numbing. The CRS told me the needles would hurt a bit more than what I had experienced during Botox. She had her assistant message my calves, to "distract the brain" from the other incoming signal, the poke from the needle. Well, the first needle hurt like a regular shot, nothing special. She said she uses an extra thin needle, a size 31, which is apparently smaller than the regular size 30. My wife, who is a physician, confirmed that. All subsequent shots should have been painless, but I felt them, which surprised her, and lead her to up her dosis. She asked if this what happens when I ge a shot at the dentist, and I told her she was spot on with that. My dentist always has to give me extra numbing.
So overall, the needles did not hurt more than the Botox shots. Surgery started at 11am.
The three ladies in the room ( doc, assistant, and my wife) kept talking throughout the procedure, which was a welcome distraction. I felt nothing down there. I decided to not have my old skin tag removed, which was optional.
I am not 100% certain of the sequence of events, but I think she felt the fissure first with her finger, then performed the LIS, then went in to cauterize the fissure. The one disturbing thing that happened was her saying she had to take into account that a little bit of Botox might still be present "from August". But my last Botox was end of June. I didn't say anything as my brain processed that info and what it could mean. Afterwards I though she might have cut more during LIS, assuming my spincter would be normally even tighter. But my Botox is completely worn off. Hoping she didn't make a mistake here and cut too much!
The other weird thing is that she said she had to put a stitch on the inside where I spontaneously started bleeding. I have no clue why that would be. Did she cut too deep and puncture the mucosa? I sure hope not. When everything was over, after about 20 min, I was in a good mood, and forgot to get a full explanation for that spontaneous bleeding.... I thanked the doc, and we left. In hindsight, the local numbing was so much preferable over full a full blown anestisia. I could just get up and leave.
On the way to the car one area began feeling a light itch, which I found weird. Turns out it was the numbing beginning to wear off. That seemed really soon. Then in the car a burning feeling crept in and got worse. The ride home was one hour, and the pain went up to a 5-6. I really wanted more pain med, but had to wait till we got home.
I was also scared since the pain level kept increasing. At home I took 600mg of ibuprofen, which didn't do anything, so I added another norco. That brought the pain level down to a 3. Bearable, but I was wondering how I would fall asleep with that. The whole time I am lying on my belly. I talked to my mom on the phone, who only found out today about this. I didn't want to have her worried leading up to this. I then dosed off and took a nap.
It's 9 pm now, my norco should have worn off, some ibuprofen might still be in the system, and my pain level, when I don't move, is about 2-3. Totally bearable. My fear is, of course, the first BM, which hopefully doesn't happen before tomorrow.
I took two colace, one with each norco. I took 8grams of fiber. The doc told me to take 25grams. But I already feels my bowls working and think I passed some gas. I do NOT want to have a BM tonigh. Hoping for tomorrow.
I was told to take frequent but short sitz baths, 2-3 minutes at a time, just to get water to the wound. And there is a gauze I should change. Wondering if I should do that already tonight, or maybe tomorrow morning. My preference would be tomorrow...
So far, folks. I hope this wasn't too long and too much boring information. I will post another update in due time.
Last edited by
Happyending on 23 Sep 2016, 23:31, edited 2 times in total.