Hi, I wanted to talk about nerve pain after surgery. I see a lot of questions about it. I've had LIS and almost 3 years ago I had double advancement flaps done for severe stenosis and a deep fissure. I suffered 8 years. When you have a fissure that's trauma to your anal region, if you're lucky it heals and you're fine but many of use struggle with fissures for a long time and finally have surgery. LIS is a relatively simple procedure with a high success rate but it doesn't help everyone. Flaps are usually the next step. Whenever you have surgery there's a chance of nerve damage and of course scar tissue. It happens when you have shoulder surgery, knee surgery etc. as well as in the anal area. In the anal area there are an extraordinary amount of nerves and muscles. Your rectal muscles are included in your pelvic floor muscles. Unfortunately when one muscle goes into spasms it can send the rest of the muscle into spasm also. The burning, tight feeling and bladder urges can be relentless. It's very frustrating when you've had surgery and you're healed and are wondering if you did something wrong. You didn't it's a by product of all the trauma that area has gone through. I do pretty well most of the time but I have times of burning and feeling uncomfortable myself. I still panic when I'm having an uncomfortable day and probably always will. I had a long discussion with my CRS and he told me this is normal. Surgery can help with your fissure or fistula but it doesn't help any other underlying issues like IBS. I still have to watch what I eat and keep my bms soft but I'm much better off than I was. You kind of have to find what works for you. Sometimes a warm heating pad or sitz bath can help. I asked for flexeril because it's a muscle relaxer. I thought why not give it a try. My doctor let me try it and for me it's great. It's not a pain reliever but it stops me from tightening up. I don't need it very often but it's nice to know it's there. Trying not to stress out is very important, but hard to do and number one in my book is keeping your bms soft and easy to pass. I use miralax, it's a great product but you have to tweak your dosage from time to time. One more things, some of you have talk about leaking a little stool after a bm. If you've had surgery or even with a fissure this can happen. I have that once in a while but I try not to sweat it anymore. I clean well after a bm and use a pantyliner when that happens. It doesn't mean you're actually leaking it just means that when you had a bm there was a little that didn't quite come out and that's kind of what's happening. I can go months without it happening but if I eat something that leaves me bloated and gassy this will sometimes happen. I've just learned to take it a day at a time. I'm very grateful for this community of people to talk to and to my CRS for helping me as much as he did. Like I said before I'm in a better place than I was before so I really can't complain. Remember surgery can help you tremendously but no doctor can promise you your anal area will be the same as it was before you had a fissure. They just do the best they can do to make your life more comfortable. Take care Suzy.

Suzy that post was very informative. It's so frustrating when surgery assists one problem but causes another. I'm glad the flexeril is helping you and thanks for sharing your experience with us

Thank you so much suzy your post was so informative. I'm so lucky I found this forum

Great post Suzy thank you. Let me ask - are you in pain now? If yes how often?
On a different post Fifijess says:
"it takes 60 months for the nerve to 'die' and so therefore the pain will only be alleviated when the nerve dies."
I can hardly imagine going through this nightmare for 5 more years.

I don't believe the nerves die, I think it settles down. I was told 2 years for full healing and that was just an estimate. The residual nerve pain comes in spurts. I can go many months and I'm fine and then out of nowhere it will bother me for a while especially if I had a lot of diarrhea or a larger bm. My doctor said that isn't unusual. Dilation can help a lot. It's just part of my daily routine now. One thing that doesn't go away is the fear. When I start to ache even if it's a little I get a little panicky, I don't think that will ever go away. Once you've had a fissure and experienced the relentless pain you really appreciate being able to sit and walk with little or no pain and you never take it for granted. Suzy

The quote about 60 months for the nerve to 'die' was from a post I found as I was trawling the Internet (from a sufferer and not a medical source). My GP told me nerves heal but didn't give a time frame. The 2 years Suzy was told is certainly better than the 5 years quoted by another post.

Thanks so much for your post. It helps me a lot to hear someone else say that while they are healed, things are not the same in that area. I call it, my new normal. Your post helped me a lot.

I like the phase " new normal" . It's a positive way of looking at things you can't change.

Awesome post....thanks a ton -- great insight and perspective.

Suzy Im in constant pain and itching 6 months after LIS. You have been through this hell - pls tell me bruised nerves from the LIS will settle down 2 years post op so that I can finally move and sit normally again one day.