Hi everyone,
I used to be Snafu on here, but left the board suddenly last year (and deleted my posts). I did that because I was concerned that being a member of this group was making me obsess over my AF more, and was actually causing me to focus too much on the pain instead of think positively. I was totally overwhelmed. So, an apology to the people here who I left abruptly, I should have at least said goodbye...
I came back to update you and also have questions. I ended up have an LIS #2, which went amazingly well about one month ago. My LIS #1 (2008) had healed back together completely, and my surgeon operated on the opposite side to avoid hitting any scar tissue. He said that my previous LIS had been a partial cut (about 2 mm long in the sphincter). My most recent LIS #2 was approx 12-14 mm of cutting in the internal sphincter, which is how these were done before muscle sparing techniques came into fashion. I opted for the bigger cut this time around because clearly the partial was ineffective for my particular case.
My fissure started healing the day after surgery. I had post-op bleeding on Day 1, and that was the last blood I've seen in 4.5 weeks. I haven't had much pain either. However, in the last five days I have had intermittent burning pain and soreness which I trace back to the incision site. Today was terrible, it has persisted all day--it is not fissure pain btw.
When I touch the peri-anal area where the incision was made, it almost feels sharp like a needle, the scar tissue is so sensitive. However, there isn't any inflammation, infection, etc. My stitches appear to have dissolved as well.
Has anyone else experienced a resurgence of post-op pain about a month out? Does this sound normal? I plan to ask my surgeon but you know how it is, sometimes patients have more answers about this sort of stuff. My hope is that the nerve regrowth/healing that is occurring right now is triggering neuropathic pain. Oh and I forgot to mention, during bowel movements when I feel the skin stretching, I feel the sharp needlelike pain in the area of the scar tissue. Then the burning lasts most to all of the day and is gone the next morning.
So, any comments or advice? I actually am quite pleased with the good results I've had in the last month, just a little ticked off today that I've had so much pain for no apparent reason...
Thanks, Amy (aka snafu and now aka phoenix)

Hi Amy - glad you had great recovery so far and I hope this is just some transient thing going on ! Could it be that the some small part of stitching is left under the skin and has trouble dissolving :roll: I never had any stitching, so this is just a guess. I do not think any scar tissue would be that "sharp" when palpated :roll: . Definitely ask your doctor about all of your concerns and make him look up that site !
I never experienced that kind of pain - but I definitely had episodes of some mild stubbing pain on occasions out of the blue inside the butt. It would not last, though , more than couple of seconds.
If you want to prevent some nerve damage, maybe you can try taking alpha-lipoic acid supplements and some Pycnogenol and also extra vit. B12.
I hope that today was just a fluke and that you will feel much better very soon.
PS: Do not worry about feeling a need to distance yourself from this forum - some other members tried it to see if it helps

Thanks Fissy,
It did turn out to be an isolated incident....
However, this morning, after 6 weeks of no bleeding and perfect exams at the dr, I had two tiny smudges of blood on the TP! ARRRGGGGH! It was not typical fissure bleeding, like a streak or bright red. It was just little bits of bloodiness. I had my fiance look (although I feel like he gave it a very cursory glance because he was in a hurry and is tired in general of looking at my butt, so he could have missed something). He said he didn't see a fissure and still saw the healing scar.
I don't know....I feel so frustrated, partly because it's always mysterious, you never know what's going on down there! I wish there were an alert system, like flashing lights and buzzers that told a person definitively that there's a fissure instead of all the speculating.
Maybe it's a hemorrhoid or something, I did have a hard BM this morning for the first time in weeks. Planning a wedding (June) and healing from anal surgery are a bad bad combo.
Amy