Hi all. I had my daughter back in August... 3 weeks later I must have had a tough BM and felt terrible pain down there and thought it was just a hemorrhoid flaring up a bit. After the pain kept coming back after each BM my mom convinced me to go to a proctologist where low and behold I found out that I had 2 fissures. He put me on nefedipine and told me to come back in 6 weeks. Things did seem to get better and then I had a few setbacks that weren't so bad until the end of January when it came back as painful as the first round. The first round was the hardest because I was nursing my newborn every couple of hours and could barely sit. I also have a 2 year old that wants me to jump on me every second. I finally couldn't take anymore setbacks and scheduled the surgery which I just had this past Thursday. I'm going to report on how it all went down in order to possibly help someone understand what to expect. I am in the thick of recovery now so I will report back as the days go on and hopefully each report will be more positive. And of course everyone has a different pain threshold and reaction to this procedure.

Day 1: Up at 6:30am for my first of 2 enemas. The next one to take a 1/2 hour after the first. Not so terrible- almost thought I should do that every day to get things moving instead of doing the surgery, lol. Arrived at the hospital at 8:30, procedure scheduled for 10:30. Like many people, I am nervous about needles, but there was just one on my lower arm where the hydration and anesthesia is administered. Not bad. Since I am breastfeeding, I called the anesthesiologist office prior to the procedure and they told me afterwards I would just have to pump once then I could feed my daughter. However, right before the surgery the anesthesiologist told me to wait about 24 hours. Had I known I would have pumped a saved more milk for my daughter! Once I got into the OR I just passed out and had the best nap I've had in a while (as you could imagine with a 2 year old and a 6 month old). In recovery, they preemptively gave me a percoset and then I took one later since I wasn't feeding my daughter that day (although I was told you can take them and breastfeed, I was being cautious). THAT NIGHT: I really felt pretty bad. maybe it was the 2 percosett or the anesthesia wearing off. I was very uncomfortable and didn't want to eat anything- although I forced myself to. Felt weak. Had my first BM. My dr. had put me on 3 glasses of warm prune juice and 3 glasses of Citrucel so it was bound to happen. I felt pretty bad before the BM so I can't say if it made me any worse or not. At night I took Konedral (mineral oil).

Day 2: Feel better than yesterday. Following the dr.'s protocol I took 3 dulcolax in the morning and waited 5 hours. Since I did not have a BM at that point the instructions said to take Magnesium Citrate (10oz). I had all of this on top of my Citrucel and prune juice. Well let me tell you... my system started working toooo well. I pooped in my pants a few times. It was awful. I had my husband go to the store and now I am wearing adult diapers until I can be certain this won't happen again.

Day 3: Cut out the prune juice and had oatmeal for breakfast. Had one BM that had a little more bulk to it. That's it so far today. Taking Tylenol every 4-6 hours so I don't "notice" my bottom as much.

That's it so far. Each day does seem to be a little bit better. Just hoping this continues...

hope you feel better as days goes by. warm hug