Hi
I just registered today. I had an operation (lateral sphincterotomy) 2 days ago to fix an anal fissure. I'm from Brisbane, Australia and I'm a 37 year-old male. I came across this site as I was looking for peoples experiences involving recovery from such an operation. I had my first bowel movement today and it was quite painful, but nothing I haven't already experienced prior to the operation. Having a hot salty bath helped a bit. Would love any advice and am more than happy to share my experience with others.
Brett

Welcome dear Brett : )) ! As you will discover soon our members come from all over the world which is really cool !!!! Congratulation surviving LIS ; ) and taking first step toward healing your fissure.
First couple of days are definitely the most challenging one but every day it is going to be more and more easy and pain is going to subside by week 2 considerably.
Have those baths at least 2x a day, the more , the better. Stick with your "fissure diet" until your fissure heals - meaning make sure you have regular bowel movements and that they are nice medium soft consistency. Stay hydrated , and stay away from alcohol and too much coffee. Rest and take it easy first 2 weeks
: ) !
You will discover that everybody had different healing time frame,
so yours is going to be unique too : ). But in general, most people heal pretty fast and have no further problems. Some of us have minor pesky issues , some more annoying one, but don't be discouraged by that - those are more exceptions than the rule.
So, best of luck for your fast and complete recovery !!!! Once more, welcome "aboard" and please feel free to ask anything ! We all are here to help each other and give support : ))) !
:arwen:

Hi there!
glad to hear you've survived thr dreaded LIS. I had mine, plus other things done a week ago, and its been the best thing I've ever done. You'll feel better every day, my first two days were awful, but it does get better, promise!
Good luck for a speedy recovery.

Everyone recovers a bit differently, it was a week before I felt terribly motivated, but I was back at work in a week and a half. Still, it was a month before I felt like myself again.
I can only second what Fissulyna (and Val) said... stay on track with all the things you were doing before as you fissure still needs several weeks to heal...

When you guys say it took you a month feel like your normal self again, is that your fissured self or your normal rumped self?

i don't even remember what it feels like to be "normal" down there. after both my surgeries it took a few weeks for me to return to my "normal fissured" self. but my experience seems pretty atypical compared to most that we've heard from on this board.
brett- my best advice would be as many baths a day as possible. I took 3-5 a day for quite a long time after my surgeries. that's the most soothing, and is supposed to promote healing. i've also used a warm towel compress when i couldn't get in the bath.
also, stick with your diet for as long as possible. you don't want a large, hard BM to impede any progress you'll make after surgery.
good luck with your recovery!!

Hi Brett!
I just joined little bit ago, and this board actually helped me decide to have LIS.
It will be three weeks ago tomorrow that I had LIS and a fissurectomy. Week 1, I wondered why the heck I did. Week 2, I started to feel better slowly. Now at Week 3, I do feel better, but my CRS said it will be at least a month before I start to not feel at least a little pain and swelling, but each person is dfferent and you might be up and around in a couple of days.
As the others said, stay the course and take those sitz baths! I took 5 a day. Now I am at 2 a day, sometimes 3 because my skin tags are bugging the heck out of me. I can say at this point that I am glad I did it, because I no longer feel like I am passing shards of glass that were on fire.

Just wanted to say welcome to the group. Sorry you had to find us this way. I had never posted to a board before until I got AF but found way more info on here than anywhere else!

Hope you feel better soon.

Welcome to the board :)
Good luck with your healing, keep us updated :)

hi brett!
definitely keep us updated with your recovery!
i am 37 too and had dealt with a nasty anal fissure for close to four years and finally when i got the nerve to book the darn LIS/fistulotomy/colonoscopy trio procedure, i got on the path to macrobiotics and squatting for every BM for a whole month, and then my CRS canceled the LIS and fistulotomy. the colonoscopy revealed everything normal and a healing fissure. actually, my colonoscopy helped me feel more relief from tightness down there afterwards and i think for me a combination of that and macro helped me heal well.
so i am coming around almost a year after that (2/26) and i am doing really well. i never thought i would get here.
i wish you well!
i wonder if kylie minogue has ever had an anal fissure!? la la la, la la lala la......