by GilmoreGirl » 24 Feb 2017, 17:55
Thanks both of you for the encouragement.
Withdrawal is very VERY slowly easing off. My doctors agree that my system is incredibly sensitive. Still having some bathroom issues and mostly nausea and stomach pain. Bm's are irritating the fissure - very loose and small but burn and are difficult for me to pass. Spoke to my surgeon today and two things were decided:
1. I will try amitryptiline + miralax to try and get the great bms I was having on morphine back (without the added stomach pain) and to hopefully help with sleep, pain, and general ibs. I'm hoping it doesn't make me pack on the pounds lol...most antidepressants seem to have that effect on me!
2. I will be having LIS before the end of march. It has not been booked yet but will probably be in the later half of the month. My goal is to try and get the stomach pain gone and bms regular and under control before then.
My surgeon basically said that I did a great job of sticking it out to try everything I could, but if I don't have relief yet, it's unlikely it will just come with time. She did not say whether it was an "open or closed" LIS (still a bit confused on that) but she said she would be cutting on the side of the anus from the outside, the incision would be small, and I forgot to ask if there would be stitches! Oops. She said that she really thinks it will give me relief, but if it ends up not working she will test the resting pressure of the sphincter again and if it is still high, do a LIS on the other side a couple months later. Worst case scenario. She says most patients have less pain than pre-surgery at her follow up vists a few weeks after surgery.
I only have to fast before - thank goodness no prep is required!
The interesting thing we did talk about is that she says she thinks that I have skin tags/internal hems that are contributing to the pain - but that I likely had them before this all started and the only reason that they may be painful is that a) the sphincter is so tight it's squeezing them tightly all the time and b) the sphincter is so tight that I have to push a lot during bms. So doing the LIS should help.
Ouf so anyways, feeling nervous, but if I can get the bms to become predictable I will feel much more confident.
-GG