tight80 wrote:WEEK 7 AFTER SURGERY:
I had my first follow up appointment with my surgeon today and he is pleased with my healing progress so far. What a relief! I am so happy to hear this because my recovery has had so many ups and downs... but he assured me that the ups and downs are considered "normal recovery" for the amount of surgery that I had. The basic update is that my left side hasn't healed yet. My left side is the LIS side and he said that it may take up to 3 more months before it's fully healed. Also - while my surgical incision has closed, the tissue underneath is still healing, too. I was actually relieved to hear all of this because while I feel about 90% now... the left side is still quite sore and I needed the reminder that this recovery is a PROCESS... and that everything will continue to slowly improve with time.

I had a digital exam and I am stoked to report that I had no pain on my right side! That was where my fissure was located (and apparently the side that I had the MOST surgery on) so I was very happy that I felt no pain there. The left hurt, but it was to be expected. He said that there is no infection and that everything is looking pretty good!

Next we discussed the skin tags and small groove I have developed as a result of healing from the surgical procedure. These types of healing developments/deformities happen (more frequently than I thought) and he is hopeful that the groove will fill in a bit more as I continue to heal... but there is a chance that it won't. This was disappointing to hear, but the good news is that the stool leakage from the groove should go away if I can manage to firm up my loose stools. A small dose of immodium each day is what he recommends and he said that it fixes the majority of his patients who have this problem. So my homework is to increase my fiber to try to bulk up my stools and then try immodium if fiber alone isn't enough. So all in all it was a pretty good follow up and he wants to see me again in 3 months when I am fully healed.

On a side note: I'm also happy to report that at 7.5 weeks I can sit for what feels like an unlimited amount of time without pain now! So for those of you who might be feeling discouraged about how long it's taking to feel like yourself again... it will happen! It just takes some of us a little longer than others to get there.