I am scheduled for a LIS surgery and to remove skin tags on Friday. But I have been doing mirlax and feel like I'm almost healed. I only have itching after a BM for a few minutes no blood. I'm nervous that they are going to put me under and see that I have healed. Do you think I should still go for the surgery? I'm pretty sure if I have a hard BM I can retear. Does anyone know if LIS prevents tears?

LIS won't prevent re-tears necessarily, but it can help them to heal faster. It does make things a little looser down there as well so that a slighly larger BM might not tear you.

If your symptoms seem to be getting better, you could call your doctor and get his opinion. Maybe he might have you come in for a quick eval to determine if you still need surgery or not. However, keep in mind that even though you feel like you healed or are healing, you may still have the tear. The last month before surgery for me, I felt better than I ever had and thought I was healing, but upon another examination, it actually went deeper and started to tear under my muscle. I had no blood and not even to much pain..I thought I was on the road to recovery.

Hi Sandra, I hope you went and had your surgery. I had a similar thought process as you and it affected me for years. I'd have a bad BM, and bleed heavily. Then the next few weeks I'd have semi-painful BM's. Then, I'd have itching and tell myself that's because it's healing. A few months would go by, no problems and I convinced myself I was healed. But then I'd have a bad BM and felt like I ripped open again. Truth is though, it was the same fissure. Not a new one. It just never healed. After 5 years of hoping to heal on my own, I had LIS. You know your body more than anyone and your doctor will work with you to determine best course of action, but if he/she suggests LIS for you and you've had your fissure for some time, I recommend you highly consider having the LIS. LIS is definitely meant to help future fissures heal quickly as well. The purpose of the LIS is to loosen the internal pressure in your internal sphincter, allowing blood flow through to heal any injury to your external sphincter (likely where your unhealed fissure is located). Best of luck!