by Worrier12345 » 19 Feb 2015, 08:36
Hi everyone. I thought I'd give an update of my situation as I really don't know what's going on any more and I've had some trouble dealing with things on the whole.
Had LIS for my anterior fissure in Oct 14. I never had too much pain with the fissure - mostly discomfort, difficult BMs and blood every few days - but I'd had it for nearly 18 months, tried the creams, botox and in the end had LIS (didn't have any pressure tests as the surgeon said the muscle was clearly in spasm when he examined me).
The surgery itself seemed to go fine, and recovery wasn't too bad, barely any pain and minimal bleeding. The main problem, however, was with stool leakage after a BM. I'd never had this before LIS, and I could quite clearly see the LIS incision had created a new groove in my anus which seems to be where the stool leaks through. My anus is now more like a zigzag than a straight line. After a BM, if it is soft, stool will ooze out of the groove - making cleaning up almost impossible without a mirror and wet wipes. Even if I get myself spotlessly clean I will get leakage of liquid/solid stool throughout the day.
The only thing that I have found that helps is cleaning out my rectum after a BM by using a small enema bulb syringe to squirt some tap water up there and expelling it. I doesn't take a lot - only about 50-75ml - but this clears out any stool left in the rectum (the amount of which varies considerably depending in the BM consistency). If I do this, I can generally be safe from leakage for the rest of the day.
I struggled with this a great deal at first - I never thought I'd be doing this at the age of 32. I even made myself an emergency "pooing away from home kit" containing a mirror, wet wipes and a small enema bottle - not an ideal thing for a man to carry around, but at least it gives me peace of mind.
I think perhaps I could deal with this if it was the only problem I faced post-LIS. But unfortunately I still experience soreness on a daily basis. This is more apparent after sitting for long periods (I have a desk job) or walking (I don't own a car). Whether this is due to my enema routine or not, I have no idea. I also experience many uncomfortable sensations from my anal region. I often have an uncomfortable feeling of fullness, sometimes the muscles feel sore, and quite often the skin feels sore/burning too.
I really thought that LIS would have helped me to stop thinking about my arse and shitting. But it seems to have had the opposite effect in my case - it is quite literally the only thing I think about some days. It has fuelled my anxiety issues (see my recent post in the fistula forum for evidence of that) and I long to be free from it all.
Go get medical help, I hear you say... well on that front: I saw my surgeon 3 weeks ago for my follow up. He inspected the are from the outside and did a digital exam (he did not use a scope). He said that he thought the fissure had healed - considering that he could easily do the digital exam, which had always been a problem when my fissure was playing up. He said he couldn't feel any deformity in the muscle and nothing looked particularly wrong, but he thought that my squeeze pressure was a little weak. He said that the leakage was clearly a problem though and he would book me in for some tests - if the muscle was weak he said that physiotherapy may be the next step.
So that's where I am. Waiting to have tests (do you think that will be manometry and ultrasound? anybody had those) and then maybe physio (does anybody know if this will help?), every day I don't leave the house until I have had my 2 BMs and done a rectal irrigation, the rest of the day I go about my business feeling uncomfortable and generally miserable.
If anyone has any thoughts on my situation I would be grateful - especially in regards to the cleaning routine, the tests that I will be having and there potential outcome, and the ongoing feelings of discomfort post-LIS. If anyone has any advice or can relate it would be very helpful to me.
I don't really know what the hell is going on any more. I don't know if I was an idiot to push for the surgery. I don't know if there is any hope that things will get better. I don't know if my need to keep clean is exacerbating any problems. In general, it seems there are just a lot of things I don't know.
Thanks for reading and good luck to you all,
Worrier