Post LIS Update - 5 years later

I’m baaaaaaaaaack! With good news. Which I’m prompted to post about by bad news.

Once upon a time, in late 2013, I developed a fissure that ended up needing surgery to correct. (You can find my posts from that time under the accounts WhoKnew and HooNoo) I had LIS in February 2014 - a long time ago! Five and a half years! So long ago that I literally forgot what butthole problems even WERE. I was eating normally and had stopped taking Miralax and stopped even THINKING about my butt. (Yes it’s possible!)

Then, I recently had a few weeks of very stressful life, combined with sitting for long periods of time with my wife in the hospital (she’s ok now), not eating all day followed by eating a days worth of food at once, not drinking enough water, and eating cheese and salami and fruit for lunch for a week (even just typing it I feel the ridiculousness of that statement but hindsight is 20/20 amiright???)... Oh yeah and I drank a bunch of beer and ate a bunch of pizza... ate bagels for breakfast... Just basically did the exact opposite of what I did when I was actively trying to heal my fissure.

And taaadaaaaaaaaaaa on Tuesday this week I woke up feeling not so good. Like my whole insides were full of cheese and salami. Like my body was turning into a bagelbody with guts made of processed meat. It was uncomfortable and after breakfast (bagel AND scone, thank you very much, washed down with an iced coffee, oh god what was I thinking) I had an absolutely agonizing trip to the toilet. Like, you all know the feeling, you’re being turned inside out starting with your butthole. It was so bad my entire body felt sick and I had to cancel my plans for the whole rest of the day.

I figured out pretty quickly that I had given myself another fissure with those hard constipated stools... and immediately jumped into action: water! Fibrous foods! Chamomile tea by the gallon! Miralax! This time around I have a bathtub and I learned that if I turn on the water before I sit down on the pot, the water is the right temperature by the time I need to use it. And yeah, I really needed to use it. It took until Thursday morning to completely pass the constipated stool (hand to God it actually resembled in size and shape the salami I had been eating last week) and it was really just... so bad. So bad. Passing the BM was enough to make me cry, and the spasms lasted for hours afterward. I am so grateful that I work from home because my life was completely disrupted by this.

BUT once I had gotten the constipation out of my system, and stopped torturing myself with terrible food choices, the fissure was able to start actually healing! I had gradually lessening pain during BM and spasms after on Thursday and Friday... It’s Saturday and today I had NO SPASMS after pooping. There is still a bit of discomfort and a “scratching” feeling when I go, but as long as I don’t push (why would I do that) I don’t seem to be suffering as much. This leads me to one conclusion: the LIS worked! My body is able to heal itself after a fissure!

I just wanted to come back and share this (somewhat gross and graphic, but hey, we fissure people are poop-obsessed) story because I recall the decision to have LIS as one fraught with anxiety, fear about it not working, squick about having to be cut in that area, worry about incontinence, reoccurrence of fissures... and it may help to know that YES it is WORTH IT!

(Plus my entire fissure journey is documented here on this forum and so if I’m going to update anywhere, it’s going to be here!)

I’m going to keep with the healthy living so I can heal all the way... so glad I kept those detailed diaries here so I know exactly what works and what doesn’t.

Grateful for this forum for existing! Wishing all you AF sufferers some soft poo and speedy healing...

Thanks for coming back with the update, and really good to hear that your LIS was so successful!

So glad you're ok after your fissure trying to get back. Glad you're beating it again.

Thank you so much man, i'm in week 10 after my LIS (was done August 1st 2019) & i still feel the Fissure & the tag removed place a lil bit sore during BM, like 0.5 out of 10 on that pain scale.

So, i really wanna ask you this, how long (if you can remember) does it take for that fissure & tag removed place to heal (3 months, 4, 6...). Your estimation is so important since you're older LIS patient before.

My diet is full of fiber, can't complain during BM tbh & i can keep this way for the next 4 months too (even my entire life to avoid that pain again), no problem for me at all.

PS: sorry me if my English is not that perfect.

ansi2019 wrote:So glad you're ok after your fissure trying to get back. Glad you're beating it again.

Thank you so much man, i'm in week 10 after my LIS (was done August 1st 2019) & i still feel the Fissure & the tag removed place a lil bit sore during BM, like 0.5 out of 10 on that pain scale.

So, i really wanna ask you this, how long (if you can remember) does it take for that fissure & tag removed place to heal (3 months, 4, 6...). Your estimation is so important since you're older LIS patient before.

My diet is full of fiber, can't complain during BM tbh & i can keep this way for the next 4 months too (even my entire life to avoid that pain again), no problem for me at all.

PS: sorry me if my English is not that perfect.

Hello how are you now?

ken2021 wrote:

ansi2019 wrote:So glad you're ok after your fissure trying to get back. Glad you're beating it again.

Thank you so much man, i'm in week 10 after my LIS (was done August 1st 2019) & i still feel the Fissure & the tag removed place a lil bit sore during BM, like 0.5 out of 10 on that pain scale.

So, i really wanna ask you this, how long (if you can remember) does it take for that fissure & tag removed place to heal (3 months, 4, 6...). Your estimation is so important since you're older LIS patient before.

My diet is full of fiber, can't complain during BM tbh & i can keep this way for the next 4 months too (even my entire life to avoid that pain again), no problem for me at all.

PS: sorry me if my English is not that perfect.

Hello how are you now?

Hey Ken2021
Sorry for the late reply, but 3 years post LIs now & i won't say i'm perfectly well or i'm back like a " normal person ", but such better than before for sure. The thing is sometimes i have this bad sensation there with itching (bad one), i don't really know if the fissure is back again or just a skin tag may be giving me this itchiness. No pain tbh, but that feeling when you feel sore after bowel movement isn't something to be proud of although i'm extremely cautious with my diet, so i literally don't know what's going on right now & what's causing me this uncomfortable sensation there.