1 week post LIS comments & concerns

sentinel tag /inflammation / sitting

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1 week post LIS comments & concerns

Postby Turk the cat » 08 Dec 2014, 23:26

Hi everyone. Today marked 1 week post LIS & hemmorhoidectomy. Here are my thoughts on what's been going on. I am quite nervous about the swelling & sentinel tags (not sure if they are related) and if anyone could tell me if any what I write below is "normal" I would be very grateful. I'm seeing my CRS on the 19th and again on Jan 9th.

I am having no complaints with the Internal Hemorrhoids that were removed as far as pain and the entire area looks fantastic, compared to the lumpy, painful mess it was before. It does appear the CRS didn't do all the hem's, but I'm not sure about that.

The CRS also didn't remove my sentinel tag. The weird thing about that is that some of my hem's were basically hanging over the sentinel tag, so while I could sort of tell I had something, most likely a sentinel tag, I never really saw it. Well, now that my bottom has a lot of real estate again thanks to missing hem's, I can see it is big. I'm disappointed CRS didn't take it out, I can only assume he didn't want to do more work on top of all he was already doing.

For most of the 1st week I had surprisingly little pain. Managed to go for a few walks, 15 minutes max, walking very slowly.

I've had 4 BM's of which I'm very happy. This had been a big concern. The first was quite painful & bloody, yet soft, and over within about 15 minutes. My second BM was the worst, it started around 5 pm Friday, after great pain, a few tries, a dinner uneaten, and a gallant prune juice run to the store from my husband, I called it a night very early. Luckily the prune juice and upped MOM dose, saw a mid morning poop the next day, alas while large it came in four stages, two of which were quite hard. I'm worried some damage could have occurred. I've gone daily since Saturday, with less pain/blood afterwards, although I certainly need recovery time and this is usually the time of day I'd take a pain pill. I am getting more of the expected bloody mucus discharge over the past few days as well which is disconcerting but not uncommon.

I've decided to cease psyllium which I've used on and off for ages as my stool seems solid enough. I'm taking daily 2 stool softeners; small dose of Milk of Magnesia (every 2nd day a large dose); prune juice; castor oil rubbed on tummy/back at night.

I've noticed during the day the LIS area has become quite inflamed over last day. The sentinel tag swells up like a large hem. What looks like another hem is on the other side. Also sort of a V shape. During the day the entire area gets quite taut, then calms down a bit. Ibuprofen is my friend.

This swelling/tautness is normal right? I'm wondering why it would start now, while the area was quite calm during 1st week. So far I've been able to take a max of 2 pain pills (Tramacet, which is Tylenol & Tramadol) daily, augmented on occasion by otc Tylenol and ibuprofen. I'm trying to avoid purely from an eye to avoid constipation, but all around pain, until last 24 hours, hasn't been nearly as bad as I thought it would be.

I find that while I can sit for meals at the kitchen table, and comfortably enough reclined just-so in my lazy-boy style chair, I am most comfy in bed. I have a computer monitor that can easily be raised up 5 inches. This is a godsend, as for much of the time these past few years, I was too sore to sit. I am standing as I type this, my keyboard resting on a box. Fantstic setup, I'd suggest to anyone who doesn't have this to look into. I try to alternate positions, living room/bed/computer throughout the day.

What's the deal with fecal matter and the LIS site? Am I right to understand after a BM a bit of residual poop may come of out the LIS site itself? I had a BM, was then in bath, upon feeling something I gently wiped my finger down there, and presto a small bit of pooh appeared. I'm quite sure it didn't come from the rectum itself. [And let me say, so far it is an absolute pleasure to not be experiencing the "residual poop" situation that often happened with my hem's.]

I'd really like to hear tips, and leads to articles on dealing with LIS recovery. I'm probably making myself more nervous then I have to be about some of this stuff.

Thanks for reading. I'm likely forgetting something crucial, but that's it for now.

Cheers, Turk's Mom.
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Re: 1 week post LIS comments & concerns

Postby msimon » 08 Dec 2014, 23:46

Hi Turk's Mom. I am just over 3 weeks out of LIS. Let me tell you I was not prepared for the level of swelling down there after this surgery. I didn't have much for hemmies before the surgery but upon leaving the hospital I felt like I had a donut between my butt cheeks! I was sooooo swollen! It took a good 2 weeks for it to significantly subside and then I found out I had an infected area and once I 'milked' the puss out daily (as per CRS's instructions) it really went down. Long story short, there will be a lot of swelling and fluid down there and it takes a long time to work itself out. I wouldn't have believed it. As for the things that look like hemmies they are probably swollen skin tags. I also had surprise fecal matter all day long that pretty well went away now with most of the swelling. I don't have any information for you other than to say hang in there and that things will look a lot different in another week or two. Hope you feel better soon.
Dec '13 Fissure from anoscope
3 X internal sphincter botox
'08-'15 Botox for pelvic floor dysfunction
Nov '14 LIS/sentinel tag removal
Feb '15 Deroofing of recurrent infection from LIS
summer '15-healed but still ongoing muscle dysfunction/pain
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