Awwwweee buddy , you are coping so well !!!!!! You went through a LOT today but as you said - now it is all over and soon it will be just a small "bump" on the road of recovery !!!! It is absolutely better that it happened now and not to mention that it was discovered so early !!!!!!
Do not worry about BMs- it is absolutely normal with all that swelling and you got EXTRA local anesthesia - outer sphincter is still loose like a "noodle" and it is good !!!! NO friction !!!!!! That must feel good man LOL ; ))) !!!! I LOVED my loose days after the LIS -ehhhhhhhhh....I wish I am right now !!!! Some days I want to take out my sphincter and tenderize it with a meat-tenderizer (a mallet)
Please take good rest for the next couple of days and stay off that poor "butty" - do not even sit !!!! Lay on your belly and play some games, OK : ))) ????
Keep us posted

Thanks Fissy. Sphincter is definitely loose. I can't even feel the poos come out lol.
What sucked was the Fleet enema right before surgery. That thing freakin' hurt big time since my butt was still swollen from the poking in the morning. Barely got anything out too because the Miralax cleans me out pretty good every morning already. I think the Fleet enema causes loose stools that leak out very easily in the hours right after surgery.
Anesthesia is wearing off now so gonna go pop some Vicodin and lay down. Thanks for all your support. Hope you figure out your own butt issue soon. I'm sorry to hear that the diltiazem burned -- is that the first time you've tried it? I actually thought nitro was the most effective out of the three ointments for me. Diltiazem helped a tiny bit maybe, and nifedipine did next to nothing for me. Do you think yours is a fissure again or still not sure yet?

Don't even mention it
It is nice "not to feel anything" for a change ; ))) !!!!! You must admit ; ))) !!!! Yes - take that Vicodine and I know about a Fleet : ((( - I think you had to feel exactly what I did before my first LIS since I had an acute fissure that got "burned" by that stuff : (((. I almost died pushing it in and than that "acid" or "salt" or whatever it is made of holding in : ((((( - I wanted to die right than and there - so I feel your pain *sigh :(
I do not think it is a fissure - I guess it would be that wild pain of acute brand new fissure there
. No, nothing of that sort , thanks God !!!!!!KTW :luckyeyes: I think it is some superficial irritation, but I want to escape real injury since when mucosa is inflamed it can get abrasion much easier !!!! I want creams to make circulation better there and help with calming down. Also, I instinctively "clench" although there is no pain and that is not good !!! I want to relax that sphincter even more ; )) ! Do not worry, dear NG - I will fix it ; )) KTW !!!! I always did
Yes - this was first time I tried Dil. . Nitro worked great for me also !!! My hubby made a "wrong call" today - I JUST found out (at 10 pm lmao) - so I have to wait till Monday to call front desk - ehhh men... hah LOL One thing to do today "not business related" and did it wrong LOL Oh well...
Hope you have an uneventful night

Yup I definitely know what you mean about the Fleet enema. Using that thing SUCKED when the anal area was already in pain. The first few moments after it started working where I pooped out the fluid were just terrible. I told the nurse when I was admitted that my pain level was around a 5, but after I used the enema, I asked her to change it to a 9 lol.
Lemme guess: your husband called in for the wrong Rx? Hey watch the men comment now, some of us actually pay a lot of attention to detail and even correct doctors on compound drug concentrations haha :) Maybe a short course of hydrocortisone would help your irritation? I know it's not supposed to be used long term because it thins the anoderm but it's alright for short term (like a few days use) to put down inflammation/irritation right? I know nitroglycerin is used for various butt problems, including hemorrhoids, so maybe it'll work just as well I guess? Whatever it is, I hope it gets sorted out soon. After my own adventures, I'm all about being proactive when it comes to butt problems now lol.
BTW since you are the butt expert I wanted to run something by you (long message warning!). For my procedure today the paperwork says "incision and drainage with fistulotomy of perianal abscess." I remember reading before I went in that about 50% of all perianal abscesses result in a fistula, so I made sure to ask the doc before surgery what the fistulotomy part meant and whether she was doing it for sure. My memory of her response is fuzzy because the anesthesia kicked in a few minutes later, but I think she said that she put it there just in case she found a fistula after cutting the abscess open. So I said okay, that sounds fine. Honestly at that point I just wanted the whole thing over with and didn't care what it took, if it can help me in the long term, I'm doing it!
But being the obsessive person that I am, I searched for more info after I got home, but there wasn't a whole lot of very directly pertinent information. I did find this in the Wikipedia article on LIS however:
---------------
Perianal abscess occurs in about 1% of closed sphincterotomies, generally in association with anal fistula caused by a breach of the anal mucosa by the scalpel. Incision and drainage of the abscess and fistulotomy are required.
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I also searched for fistulotomy on this board and saw a few previous threads on it related to abscesses.
The best I can figure is that in some cases, the abscess "bump" conceals a tunnel that goes through to the other side of the anal wall, and the only way to tell if that's the case is to cut the bump open and look (or probe with a special tool) once the pus is out of the way. If there's a fistula, then you do the fistulotomy. If there isn't then you simply leave the bump open. Does that sound right?
This is mostly for my curiosity. I forgot to ask the doc if she actually did the fistulotomy, but I don't think she did. I was really hazy from the anesthesia after the surgery, but I think I recall her saying that when she opened the abscess, some of the pus had already drained out from earlier, and all she did was cut it open wide to make sure everything was out.
Then again, in the worst case I guess it's possible that she did do the fistulotomy, and that's why I pooped myself a couple of times after surgery :( I still think that one is due to the anal trauma and loose stools caused by the enema though...
I'll have to double check when I have my follow up appointment in a few weeks. But if you have ideas on what "incision and drainage with fistulotomy of perianal abscess" means in the context of an abscess after LIS means, I'd be most interested. For now I just hope this takes care of whatever the hell the problem was.

Ok I searched around some more and suppose maybe there's another possibility: could it be that "fistulotomy of an abscess" is different than just a "fistulotomy"? I read other people's accounts of their fistulotomy surgery and nearly all of them mentioned having a lot of packing in the incision. But I definitely don't have that.
I double checked with my wife on what the doc told her after surgery, and she said the same thing I remembered: that a good amount of the pus was already drained out from the cut done in her office this morning, and during the operation she just made the cut longer so that all of the pus filled areas were open.
I guess after all of this I can consider myself a much better authority on butt surgeries. Two weeks ago I didn't know squat and now I know more than I ever wanted to know :)

OK I did some reading today and think I've answered my own question. It seems that there are several ways to fix a fistula (since there are different kinds/locations of fistulas), hence the word "fistulotomy" can mean different things.
When it's done while lancing and draining an abscess, it looks like one possible meaning of "fistulotomy" is to scrape out the area where the abscess is in order to decrease the odds of a fistula forming (i.e., disrupt any fistula track that's forming). Apparently about 50% of all perianal asbcesses eventually turn into fistulas whether they are properly treated or not :( I think this is likely the kind of fistulotomy I had since the doc said she made several small incisions so that all of the pus filled areas could drain.
Some other forms of fistulotomy involve connecting the two ends of the fistula by cutting sphincter muscle. I don't think I had that kind since it is a large incision and there would be packing in the wound area.
Apparently there's also some debate as to whether treatment for perianal abscesses should consist of:
(a) Antibiotics alone
(b) Incision + drainage alone
(c) Incision + drainage + antibiotics
Most traditional medical literature says that incision + drainage alone is enough, and nearly all of the literature suggests that the abscess be surgically drained regardless of whether antibiotics are used. Apparently this is usually done with local anesthesia in the doctor's office, which is what the doc tried at first, but I was too much of a wimp to take the pain. I saw some literature that says doctors sometimes try antibiotics as first line treatment for abscesses, but supposedly oral antibiotics don't penetrate the abscess very well and aren't very effective.
So there it is, more than I ever wanted to know about abscesses. I don't know how much of it I've gotten right, but that's the best I can figure. Now I can sit back and hope I don't get a surprise fistula down the line!

I will say that this damn abscess surgery is causing me to "leak" a good deal more than LIS did though. My daily diet of Miralax plus veggie soup causes me to pass a lot of gas, and every time I do, I get a bit more than just gas :roll: I must have taken about 10 baths today and every time I get in there, I see some brown flakes rinse off (TMI, I know).
Hopefully this is also just temporary due to trauma to the area. Every time I see fecal matter come out when it's not supposed to, I just can't help think of that wonderful word that starts with "i" and ends with "ncontinence"...

Ugh. Looks like I've still got some yellow discharge of some sort too. It's just 1.5 days after the abscess surgery so I guess it could be normal but I thought it would all be gone since the pus got drained during the operation.
Had a look in the mirror and I can still see a pink bump there, but it's definitely much smaller than what was there before. Maybe just some normal post-op swelling, I hope... If it gets any bigger I'm gonna freak out!
The pain so far has been less than after LIS. But more discharge. Maybe I have a fistula after all?
All I have to say at this point is I dunno if I should have gone through with LIS :( I could've lived with the damn fissure. At least the fissure never caused me to be out of work for weeks and weeks or to leak poop and discharge. Well enough rambling for the day. Time to pop some valium and hope something magically improves. I dunno how all you guys cope with all the havoc in life.

NG, would it help if you didn't look in the mirror so much? Maybe just leave it to your doc to look and examine? That way possibly you would worry less.
I did tell Dwight about your current circumstances on his way back from Tennessee. (I'd already told him about it when you wrote to not bother him!!). BTW his 93 year old mom is currently facing end of life issues. She is in a nursing home in Tennessee.

NG - buddy - so sorry you are all worked-up now !!!!! Do not worry about incontinence - now really - look - you JUST had a surgery and this time OUTER sphincter was tinkered with : ((( - it just was NO way she could cut into it somewhat and that you have perfect control.
First of all - just swelling alone can cause temporary incontinence. We had people here with real fistulotmy done and no incontinence after it healed . Also - your poop is so soft - it would have leaked maybe with intact sphincter and many people who never ever had LIS or any surgery down there have occasional leek - especially during very soft poop phase !!!! Just nobody "shares" lmao - ask nurses if you do not believe me LOL.
Also - you will question your LIS decision for a while : (( - but you know - LIS or no LIS - when fissure is present or any other trauma to anal area (or long inflammation) - fistulas and absces can form !!!! Even incontinence can happen with long term fissure !!!! So - even if you did not have the LIS all of the above still could have happened :( - so do not fret now of what you decided - what is done is done and you will just make yourself crazy with "regrets" which are not rightfully in place *sigh.
Yes, some patients are treated only with antibiotics and VERY successfully. "Pinky" and "Buttgirl" for example. Buttgirl used Flagyl and when her abscess was gone she had a LIS and than healed with no problem. I know that you hate antibiotics , so I will not even suggest ; ), but just for you to know
It is great that you are not is much pain - hey - concentrate on that !!!!! To be honest - pain was my biggest concern and I would not care less if I farted or pooped in my pants in the middle of SF Opera House as long as if I did not feel any pain and could do and eat whatever I want LMAO -BUT- still, I am sure your small accidents are just temporary !!!! Poor Derry had such HUGE fistula cleaning and big packing and had no incontinence !!!! Please try to not worry about that : ((( The infection is the ONLY part you should keep your eye on and you are doing it ! I would insist on next week check-up - she missed it once - why wait 2 weeks again ??? Let her see if it looks OK ! As you read yourself - that 1% happens when scalpel catches mucosa - so she messed it up !!!! Why are you so lenient toward her LOL??? She is very cute lady *wink wink, but hey - that aside- you need some special treatment here and NOW !!!! (and !!!!! Do not forget about having a "second opinion" possibility available as an option !!!)
I hope tomorrow the discharge will be less
, although it is good that all that junk drains out !!!!
All will be fine ...you will see ! I know that when things start going "downward" one by one it seems that here is no end *sigh : ((( Person just looses hope that something finally can happen the right way - but it can and will !!!!!! The "wheal of fortune" is always turning ...always and for all of us ; ))) !!!!! Your will have that "swing up" very soon KTW !!!!