3 weeks post LIS+fistulotomy - So I had my post op today with my CRS and everything is looking fairly well. He did a digital examination and said the surgery site is healing as expected and no signs of infection or abscesses. I didn’t have a chance to ask him after my surgery about my fistula but he said my fistula was in the same location as my fissure and he deroofed the fistula and made the muscle cut in the same location. So that there wouldn’t be two surgery sites.

Overall I do not have any bleeding and no spasms. There is a slight pinch of pain during my bms. But it’s hardly noticeable compared the before. I’m able to do all activities I did prior to the fissure nightmare time. Things seem to be on track. Toughest part really was the first two weeks after surgery.

I will post back with a month post surgery update. Wish everyone the best! Feel free to reach out with any questions.

3 weeks post LIS+fistulotomy - So I had my post op today with my CRS and everything is looking fairly well. He did a digital examination and said the surgery site is healing as expected and no signs of infection or abscesses. I didn’t have a chance to ask him after my surgery about my fistula but he said my fistula was in the same location as my fissure and he deroofed the fistula and made the muscle cut in the same location. So that there wouldn’t be two surgery sites.

Overall I do not have any bleeding and no spasms. There is a slight pinch of pain during my bms. But it’s hardly noticeable compared the before. I’m able to do all activities I did prior to the fissure nightmare time. Things seem to be on track. Toughest part really was the first two weeks after surgery.

I will post back with a month post surgery update. Wish everyone the best! Feel free to reach out with any questions.

4 weeks post LIS+Fistulotomy. All is going fairly well. Still some slight pain in general at the surgery site. It’s noticeable but not bothersome. And some slight pinch type pain during my bms. But is getting less over time. No spasming, no itching, no burning.

I have been able to sit on hard surfaces for extended periods with very little discomfort.

I’m definitely continuing to watch my diet and this will be a for life type thing. Drinking Citrucel now and noticeably less gassy. Bms are softish but good sizes.

So far so good overall and no long term side effects from the procedures. Wishing you all the best.

Dust 2 Dust wrote:I get botox July 29th. I'll let you know what happens.

Hey Dust 2 Dust ,
How did your Botax injection go? Hope you're improving

Hi Fred,, thank you for checking on me.

I'm currently a week out from botox and pain wise there has been no improvement yet, but I've seen other threads where people say it can take up to 3 weeks for it to kick in. I did notice last night I had no spasms so maybe the botox is slowly starting to work or maybe it's all in my head. I can't say at this point.

I'm continuing with Diltiazem 3 times per day and high fiber diet. The CRS looked at my fissure duri g the botox and saw no scar tissue so I didn't need a fissurectomy which is good.

I have a followup with CRS in 2 weeks. I will not be getting anymore botox injections after this though. I am prepared to go the LIS route if this first round of botox and diltiazem doesn't work.

Nice to hear from you Dust. Hoping that the Botox works out for you. Keeps us posted and be patient. I should take my own advice probably! I still have soreness and some pain during bms and during the day. Have another appointment for check up with CRS in September. I guess this stuff just takes lots of time to fully heal. Hope I haven’t relapsed and fistula reappears.

I've heard it can take up to 6 weeks to heal from LIS and up to a year for full healing for the fissure wound to regain its full elasticity. A stool softner might help you in the meantime if your not taking one. Miralax has helped me tremendously and was the only thing that stopped the bleeding.

The last surgery I had was on my neck to remove a large lump that had calcified and wouldn't go away. I had residual pain for 2 years after that surgery.

You’re right, the healing process will likely be lengthy regardless of my impatience. I guess I fooled myself early on thinking the pain and soreness was just gonna disappear after 3 or 4 weeks. I feel like I almost felt better 2 weeks post surgery than now. Pain after bms is a steady 2 or 3 for 6 or 7 hours. I just pray my fistula is not coming back or I got an infection. Still have some pus discharge or could be skin remnants from the surgery site. No blood, just a discharge type substance. Doctor said it was skin peeling off from surgery site.

I figure since I had two surgeries at the same time maybe my healing will take longer. It’s getting a little frustrating.

I forgot, so Dust, why did you decide on Botox and not the LIS straight away? You probably mentioned it before, sorry if I forgot.

I know that’s what gave me the biggest hellish pain before surgery was my abscess and then fistula, the fissure I almost got used to.

I do still take one pill of softener a day and some fiber. I’m fairly happy with the composition of my stool I think. Never tried the miralax, I’m soft enough already I think.

Take care!

Dust 2 Dust, Rlt78, I hope you'll start to see more healing kicking in as time goes by.
My situation is rather peculiar as I can't trace any problem down there but suffer from pain when sitting only! A bit of history:
Around 15 years ago I had fissure-like symptoms. I say fissure-like because I never had one, but was diagnosed anusitis. I was experiencing blood in stool and burning sensation. I was told I should avoid certain foods (spicy, acidic, etc.) and I did so and healed after a few months. In hindsight, diet probably wasn't that much important as I went back to my normal diet after that for 15 years and didn't have any problem! I always had minor IBS though. Anyways, it all started this January. I got classic fissure symptoms (broken glass feeling, bleeding with BM) after constipation twice, once in January and then in March. For both times, I healed it with ointments after a week or so. Now here's my main issue which is totally new to me and is driving me crazy:
Ever since March, I don't see a drop of blood, don't see any anomalies in the areas in or out, no pain during BM, but just sphincter tightness and PAIN WHEN SITTING! It's pain free at the beginning, but starts to pain when sitting prolongs beyond half an hour. I also have developed tailbone pain and cannot tell whether or not the whole pain I'm experiencing is originated at my tailbone. It certainly pains sharply when I press on my tailbone. When I'm sitting, the pain gradually increase but it's fair to say the pain is always low grade (I never can understand the scale to 10 thing!! but let say on average it's 2-3 out of ten). When I stand up from sitting I feel a sharp pain in my tailbone that radiates to my buttocks and then goes away. Oddly I'm more comfortable sitting on hard surfaces as I lean a bit forward but when I sit upright or backward it's worst (specially sitting on dental unit). The pain is muscle pain is not localized.
Sorry guys too much venting here! but this is driving me nuts as I cannot find what's causing this damn thing! One colonoscopy in February and two MRIs since cannot find any problem (the colonoscopy doctor just said it seemed you had a fissure that fully healed). I also saw hemorrhoids/lumps a couple times but I'm almost sure they where either sentinel piles or more likely just reaction to ointments as they disappeared when I stopped using ointments. I hope we all heal from this annoying affliction (in my case I'll be also happy to know what the affliction is!!).

Hi Fred55, your issue sounds quite my mysterious and certainly annoying. Do you think it could a nerve problem? It does sound a bit like a fissure in the sense of tightening of sphincter. Pre surgery my sphincter would go into lock after a bm and then spasm. I don’t have that now just soreness and some pain which seems greater than 2 weeks post surgery.

I just read so many stories here and elsewhere about: (it’s bad to heal too fast, infection, needing to stretch the wound, fistula reoccurrence). My mind kind of just going crazy.

Keep us posted too Fred. Hope you find out what’s going on. Wish you the best!