Well I thought I would start another thread chronicling my post LIS surgery. I have read many from others on here and although as it has been pointed out here by others, everyone recovers a little different, it helps when you find someone who has gone through such a terrible time and survived. First I would like to say that finding this site was the single best thing for me getting better. It kept me going forward even when the medical profession didn’t seem to know or care how this was effecting my quality of life. Sharing my experience I hope helps others who need answers to what is happening to them. Even after you finally get the procedure to alleviate the pain, the Docs seem to give you the most basic generic information about recovery – you will be sore a few days, maybe weeks, you may have a little bleeding, you may not, you may have a little leakage, you may not. – It would be an understatement to say I have learned more on this forum from people going through what I have been and coming out on the other side then from any of the 5 Doctors I have seen about this problem.
For those interested on how I got to this point you may want to refer to my other thread “Pain seems unbearable” you may find it useful and you may even identify with some of the difficulties I had dealing with Doctors who don’t seem to understand what you are going through and how debilitating it can be. For those that have been following my particular case you will know I was at a desperate time where I had an aborted LIS surgical attempt at the Rudd Clinic, which specializes in rectal problems but is best described as more of a fast food restaurant approach to medical care for those requiring colorectal treatments. Great place to get to see someone quick as they have 3 locations and up to 23 CRS Doctors at each. They take a no frills approach and while their experience is quite extensive don’t expect too much pampering. Your first visit will not only be a consult and examination but if they feel a surgical procedure is warranted they will recommend not only you have it done but they will do it right then and there in the exam room. Don’t expect anaesthesia though, you won’t get more than a local freezing. I am sure that is because having an anaesthesiologist on staff and the time and effort to put someone under would greatly reduce the amount of people and procedures they could do in a day. I think If they weren’t on the 8th floor they would have a drive-thru window for those not wanting to get out of the car!….just kidding!.....back to my story. So my first visit I unfortunately was seen by very uncaring Doc who I think was long past his expiration date and seemed to be numb to what patients are going through with this affliction. He tried to do LIS for me but because I was in such pain he could not even prepare me for the freezing needles since I continually flinched and jumped because of my sensitivity. He gave up and told me I would have to go have it done somewhere else under General Anaesthesia and sent me on my way. After that I went to my GP and was told I was being put back in the cue to have a consult with yet another CRS( which was going to take months). Hearing that I was ready to jump in front of a train!...... once I calmed down I came up with a plan to try and get to see another Doctor at the Rudd clinic as they were my best bet since the wait time to see someone there was weeks instead of months. Since I was there once already from my GP referral I called to say I was making a follow up appointment. They tried to set me up with the same grumpy Doc that sent me away previous. I told them I preferred to see someone else since I wanted a second opinion. This resulted in them giving me an end of day appointment with a Doc that another member here (Hopetoheal) had and who she had a good experience with.
Knowing that if I didn’t have a BM the day of my appointment my chances were much better that I would be able to endure the exam and prep for the freezing needles I attempted to adjust me diet so my last BM would be the night before my appointment. I also wanted to prepare myself for that first BM after the procedure so 3 days before my appointment I ate the following
Breakfast = bowl of Bran cereal, coffee with Miralax
Mid morning snack = banana
Lunch = pea soup (kinda too much sodium but easily expelled)
Afternoon snack = banana
Dinner = bowl of bran cereal
Evening Snack = yogurt or pudding
I also drank at least 4-5 glasses of water
The evening before my appointment I took a dose of Sodium Phosphate so that I had a BM before I went to bed. This would be so I don’t have a BM in the morning and risk being in pain when going to the appointment.
As I said, the last trip to try and have this done got aborted because I couldn’t take the prodding and poking from the exam and prep so this time I took 2 Percocet right before going in the office. I hoped it would kick in around the time I was being examined. When I did get in to be seen I told the Doc of my previous visit and my troubles. He examined me and said I definitely had a fissure and it was next to some scare tissue. Probably from the banding I had last fall. Anyway, I told him about taking the pain killers and he recommended we do the LIS right then. He explained the risks and made me sign a release and then I laid on the table face down and up my rear went. I will be honest when he started sticking in the needles to freeze the area I was loosing it. It was so painful and by the time he was sticking the 4th one in I thought I was going to pass out. I got through it though. Now that I was frozen he could take a better look and he said I seem to have a piece of tissue that looked like it was probable rubbing against the fissure. He said he would take care of that as well. He left the room for a minute or 2 and came back with another Doc who he wanted a second opinion from. This was Doctor Rudd who the clinic is named for and is obviously the big cheese. He had a look and said I had a somewhat unusual case with the tissue rubbing against the open fissure. He said he was going to remove the problem by banding the tissue and then using a cryogen spray to freeze the tissue and cause it to fall off. Then the other Doc cut the sphincter muscle and performed the LIS. I could feel the tugging and pulling on my rectum but the pain was tolerable. I was relieved to know I had 2 Docs with such experience working on me. They continually reassured the worst was over and I would feel much better soon. After it was all done the Doc went over how to care for the wound and told me to make sure I kept it dry as moisture would be my worst enemy and combined with not keeping things clean, would be the most likely source of infection. He told me I probably not drive home and recommend I take a cab. I agreed even though I knew I was not going to take a cab as my car was there and I lived a good hour north of the city. I felt ok since I had freezing in my rear that was expected to last another hour or 2 and I still had the Percocet in my system.
The ride home was slow because of traffic but I made it in about an hour and a half. I hadn’t had anything to eat so I heated up some homemade chicken noodle soup I pre-pared earlier that had over cooked small shredded chicken pieces and overcooked noodles. I then went to lay on the couch and rest. The freezing began to wear off and I could feel the pain begin to creep in. I took 2 more Percocet and the first thing I noticed was the pain was very different from before. It felt more like an open wound raw kind of feeling then the burning glass chard feeling I had before. I would say the pain was a 5-6 unlike the 8-9 I would get for 6-7 hours after a BM. Around 9 pm I took out the packing and attempted to clean things as the Doc told me to do. After using a couple wet wipes and getting things as clean as possible. The Doc told me to keep a piece of gauze with corn flour on it against the wound to keep it dry and absorb any discharge. I got a small bowl and put some corn starch in it. I then used one of the several squares of gauze the Doc gave me and like he told me I patted it in the corn starch and then put it between my cheeks and against my rectum. Before bed I took another dose of Miralax and had a banana.