Hey Mike,
Just wanted to say it can be a long road and I may be speaking too soon, but I have had a really good week without any leakage. It's been over a year , so it could be a long road for you but should definitely improve from where you are right now. I noticed that I would have days with no leakage more often and then this past week has been the best. That area will get stronger and will become less irritated but it takes it's sweet time!!
Bambi also had a pretty good report on improvements the last time she posted.
I will up-date if there's any changes, but things have been pretty good lately

Mike -
I have been dealing with drainage for a long time with my fistula. I am not sure if I still get leakage from the LIS I had almost 2 years ago now...
I used to let it drain onto a pad. As you mentioned, the area can get really irritated plus I was paranoid about staining my dress clothing and smell. So now I take 1/2 of a cotton ball, stretch it into a cylinder, and tuck it. I change this several times a day. This was something my CRS recommended to me. I think if I didn't have the fistula I could just do the cotton initially to catch post BM leakage and then just get rid of it after 2-3 hours.
The consistency of my BM really impacts the drainage for me. I try to get a well formed but soft BM. If it is loose I get a lot more drainage.

i wish i didnt read this. my surgeon was adament to me that theres no risk of any leakage. :(

Andy,
it may or may not happen, but it's one of those side effects they don't mention. It sucks, but living with a fissure sucks worse. I guess it's a risk we all take when we decide on the surgery. I'm sure not one person in here who has LIS was really excited and wanted to be forced into making a decision to live in pain or do what we had to do to get better. I had to read many peoples post that had very bumpy recoveries, second LIS's , etc. It wasn't an easy choice but living in pain every day really wasn't my idea of a great life. So here I am pain free, eating a lot more food and big deal when I dab my butt with a q-tip , there's a little color on it. It's aggravating but I think there's plenty of people in this world going through much worse and would trade it for this....

ps... Paul has a fistula and a seton that drains all the time( God Bless him, he has it much worse than I) . I'm sure he would trade situations with me to just see some color on a q-tip and have to rinse/ wipe a few times for a couple of hours after a bm and then all is well.
Honestly it's a small price to pay to feel good and it's really just a minor nuisance compared to a fissure!

Have you told your surgeon that u have leakage? Was she surprised? My crs said to be there is ZERO chance of any incontinence. I said have u ever had a patient with any level of incontenince , even leakage, and he said no. He was very adament, and he also knows my mum. Really don't know whether to trust him.

Yeah I did at my post-op appointment but at the time I thought it was just something that would clear up and it did considerably since . I imagine there's quite a few people who have this problem and never mention it to a CRS because they basically release you unless you have a problem after the follow up appointment. From reading on this forum and in this particular thread, it seems pretty common. I haven't called my CRS to mention it though.What is she really going to be able to do about it?? It's not really affecting my life and to be honest I would still have the surgery all over again, but I imagine if there were some kind of survey that the leakage is very common... My surgeon also has never had a patient with any incontinence. Maybe they don't consider a skid mark incontinence ? I posted a link awhile back. I will find it for you.

http://anal-fissure.org/t3063-good-info-on-fissuressurgeryleakageincontinence#58895
failure to heal following surgery often is attributed to reluctance on the part of the surgeon to adequately divide the internal anal sphincter; however, other reasons for failure to heal, such as Crohn's disease should be considered as well. The risk of incontinence (leakage) of stool following surgery is low. It is important to distinguish between short-term and long-term incontinence. In the short-term (under six weeks), the sphincter is weakened by the surgery, so leakage of stool is not unexpected. Long-term incontinence should not occur after partial lateral internal sphincterotomy because the internal sphincter is less important than the external sphincter (which is not cut) in controlling the passage of stool. It is important to distinguish between incontinence to gas, a minimal amount of stool that, at most, stains the underwear (soiling), and loss of stool that requires an immediate change in underwear. In a large series of patients followed for a mean of five years after surgery, 6% were incontinent of gas, 8% had minor soiling, and 1% experienced loss of stool.
http://www.unboundmedicine.com/5minute/ub/citation/10528769/Long_term_results_of_lateral_internal_sphincterotomy_for_chronic_anal_fissure_with_particular_reference_to_incidence_of_fecal_incontinence_
http://www.unboundmedicine.com/5minute/ub/citation/16598404/Results_of_Lateral_Internal_Sphincterotomy_for_Chronic_Anal_Fissure_With_Particular_Reference_to_Quality_of_Life_

so do you reckon you are in that 8% ? or does it seem a much higher percentage in reality?

I don't know?! As I've mentioned before it has gradually improved over the year, and hasn't even happened some days. Since the study above said they were followed for a mean of five years after surgery, I'm not sure what the future will be in at this point.