So, I had LIS on April 20th. To be honest, the past week has been much more difficult than I expected it to be. The pain has been tolerable most days, although there were some days where I needed the pain killers but opted not to take them. My BM's have also been uncomfortable, but not overly painful. The main issues I have been dealing with are due to consistent pain/discomfort either at or near the incision site and over the past few days, I have a soreness/pressure more in the area where I have my fissure. Part of my pain feels like the type of pain I get when I have a very badly inflamed hemorrhoid and I know that some of the discomfort is due to inflamed tissue from the constant drainage. My biggest concern going into this procedure was an infection. My BM's have the consistency of oatmeal most days and it has been this way for many years as I eat plenty of fiber and take Miralax twice daily. It was too difficult for me to try and work toward changing the consistency prior to surgery even though my CRS told me that it is best to have soft formed BM's. I definitely have drainage from the incision which has been either clear, brown or sometimes a yellowish color. I did have some discharge that was very thick and appeared greenish to me and I spoke to my CRS about this but she did not feel that it was an infection but gave me a prescription for Amoxiciline to take until I see her on Tuesday. One of the concerns that I have is that my incision is not visible externally. This makes it impossible to keep clean since it is on the inside, even though I use a shower head after each BM and take a sit bath after each BM as well. When I use a wet wipe to try and go inside the rectum a bit, there is almost always brown on the wipe, which I believe maybe stool. This leads me to believe that I am not able to keep the area clean, probably because my BM's are not solid and it leaves debris behind. At this point I am terrified that I have developed an infection that will become an abscess.

Does anyone have any tips for how to keep the wound clean when it is inside the rectum and not reachable using a shower or even a bath? It may be too late for this, but I guess I should try everything I can. Did anyone else have stool that was not formed after they had LIS? Did anyone else have issues keeping the are clean from stool?

I just wrote a reply to you but got logged out in the meantime and it disappeared!

Anyway, I just wanted to reassure you that there is really no need to do any excessive cleaning down there. From all that I have read (and my own experience after LIS), sitz baths with a disinfectant such as Betadine after BMs and 2-3 times a day is plenty to keep the site free from infection. Expect to feel sore for several weeks after surgery. I'm at 7.5 weeks and still sore, for the record. It just takes a long time to heal because it is a very delicate, sensitive area.

As for well-formed stools, the LIS surgery has no effect on that. You have to work at getting a good stool consistency through eating a high-fibre diet and drinking lots of water. However, it isn't simple, and despite our best efforts, consistency changes from one day to the next.

My CRS did not instruct me to use any disinfectant or Epsom salts in my sitz baths, but this sounds like something that I should have been doing all along. Do you mix the Bedadin with the sitz bath water for soaking or so you spray on the incision directly?

Yes I squeeze 2-3 squirts of Betadine into wam water. It froths temporarily and the brown colour completely disappears. Then I sit in it for 10-15 mins. I don’t put anything directly on the fissure or the incision. Interestingly enough though, there is a debate over the use of Betadine in delaying wound healing, so it is not necessarily a better solution than warm water alone. I guess you just have to do what feels right for your body. I’m in two minds as to whether to stop using it or not.

If your bms are to soft slowly reduce the amount of miralax your taking you don't want residue all over the place I would try to get to a point of just eatting right drinking lots of water an maybe adding a bit of fiber to my day that would make for a more simple life too good luck I'm considering lis after having Botox 14 wks ago which is now wearing off