thanks dawn and val... Dawn, i would like to know when you said healed, do you mean there's absolutely no pain at all after 6 weeks, or there's still some pinching/discomfort on and off? how long did u take to heal that incision? cos i seriously can't imagine having ANOTHER CUT to heal all my other cuts!
And are you still taking the stools softener now, if not, when did you stop taking them? Are you still taking something else to help soften instead?
Was thinking it is really unhealthy to keep taking those OTC softeners, cos the body will turn dependent on those in the long run...
And i read that re-tears can still occur after LIS, is it mainly due to returning to an unhealthy diets?

Actually I never had pain. I was sore for about two weeks , like someone kicked me in the ass, not fissure pain, but I have had irritation from where the skin tag was removed. No pain though!!
Yes it does sound horrific, healing a cut with a cut, but it works. Once they cut that muscle, it relaxes and allows the fissure to heal. I guess that's why the shards of glass feeling shouldn't happen after the surgery or the spasms. I never felt or saw the LIS incision. My husband did the butt inspections and said it all looked much better than he expected. I've heard of others saying there is a slight pinch while healing. I maybe felt that during the 1st week post op, but nothing that hurt or put me in fear like the fissure did. I know it's hard to keep your mind from going crazy with fear but try and putting it into perspective is the best thing you can do. It's a surgery and as any other surgery we have, it's going to need to heal and it will take some time. The pain is better than fissure. Yeah you will be sore for a couple of weeks but it's a good trade off. Living with a fissure the rest of our lives is ridiculous when it can be fixed in my opinion.
Yeah I still take stool softener. I take little less than half the capful. I don't know if I can stop or not, but I'm just not willing to risk it right now. When I feel it's time, I will gradually taper off. One thing I know is my rear can take harder stools with no problem even though I still have the fear that it won't.
Some folks have quit the softeners much faster. I believe Kim, Smallchange, Bambi,Alpine don't use softeners since early post-op LIS. You could always experiment with the fiber supplements which are safe for life.
I am not sure about all the folks who have re-tears and their diets during recovery, although I have heard quite a few reporting that pop-corn caused some issues and crappy eating in general. I eat much more now than just the anal fissure diet I had before surgery but I still use some common sense and avoid too much of anything that could cause me trouble.
Try to keep in mind most folks who have reported re-tears have said it healed much faster and with a lot less trouble or discomfort than before LIS. For the most part - no one is worse off or has regretted having it. This surgery has a very high success rate and yeah unfortunately there are a few who had to get a second one or more because the cut wasn't sufficient the first time, but the majority will heal first LIS and never post in a forum like this. I actually know two people personally who had the surgery. Both never posted in a forum and both are healed. You will see much more post who are slow healers, but if you take a look around they eventually healed. I'm pretty thankful that I had this forum as a guide as to what to expect and to do or not to do. I think it gave me a really good recovery having the info I got here.
One of the older boardies told me who had LIS and a hemroidectomy(sp?), that his doc told him he could spend the rest of his life living with the pain or deal with the discomfort of healing with the surgeries and get his life back. He had the worst anal surgery there is and recovered, went back to work and was happy for the first time in years.
I would do it again in a heartbeat before going through a fissure for months!

hi dawn, you are a gem... thanks for the detailed reply and encouragement. Only God knows how us the fissures-sufferers feel. Many people didn't understand the intense/constant pain/irritation that we have daily... we fear pooping, we fear eating, we fear going out... suddenly our life is put to a halt before we know it.... my husband doesn't understand my agony... and even said i've owned him cos of my condition... really very sad. However i know that it's very impt that i've to focus on getting well first and then decide how later...

Your Welcome. It's been 10 months since my LIS but I will never forget the pain and depression of having the fissure and how it took away and changed everything in my life. I agree no one understood. I remember my husband wearing thin before I got my surgery. He just didn't understand.
You will know when and/ if it's time for the surgery. No one could have talked me into it until I had enough. My quality of life was so poor, lost 50 lbs and was deteriorating. I tried to read all the positive experiences and avoided anything else. There was a nice man(smallchange) in here who had his surgery a few weeks before me and gave me a real positive report of his experience. That helped me so much and I really just told myself mine would be the same...:)

thanks dawn once again...
btw, u mentioned u nv felt the incision at all.. wow, tat's quite amazing, cos to me the incision sounds like another cut just like the fissure and not to feel anything is possible?
also, i read many has bleeding during bm post LIS, did u? and how's ur first bm experience then?

Hey Dwarf,
The LIS incision feels nothing like a new fissure and if LIS is done right, then the fissure shouldn't feel like it did before either. The whole purpose of the LIS cut (incision) is to relax the internal sphincter which is causing the tightness(spasms) that makes our fissures hurt like hell and not heal.
I will find my post-op threads and post them here. I didn't have blood with my 1st bm. Some do, some don't, but most are surprised that they aren't painful as expected. Some who get other procedures along with LIS such as fissurectomies, hems removed can have much more pain than straight LIS. I had a skin tag removed which I was told would bring more discomfort...It was sore, nothing I couldn't handle.
I'm going to find my surgery threads and some others that I think you may find helpful.

This is a boardies - Smallchange who gave me tons of support before my surgery and after...
He had stinging, and many others have but it's not permanent or feels like a fissure. All that I can tell you is even if you get a sting or a pinch temporary while healing for real, then it's a pretty darn good trade off from a fissure, shards of glass and spasms- permanently.
http://anal-fissure.org/t2418-24-hours-post-op#51216
Some folks live with fissures for years. I wasn't able to. My life was sucking with it and I thought if this is as good as life gets with a fissure than I'm going to have to give surgery a chance. I know it's a scary choice to make and very hard to understand how you could feel better and heal fast but it happens and this surgery has been done forever with a 90 something % success, because it works.
If you haven't already, go to the last pages in the surgery threads when this forum started -read giz, kim cheryl, tabby, etc. There are some really good experiences. I am not out of the norm with LIS being a great surgery and healing.
Take care. Hope this helps! I will be glad to find you some links and pm them to you, just let me know.

great dawn, those are good posts!
wanted to ask if there's scar tissues over the fissures, can the fissures still be healed be it with / without surgery? I forgot to ask my CR when i was talking to him this morning!

I'm actually not sure. I know a fissure that tears over and over can cause scar tissue to build which can cause anal stenosis. Many of us needed to have the scar tissue shaved down when we had LIS. So I suppose it does make for better healing when we don't have it. My fissure was cauterized but many get fissurectomies.
Keeping a fissure for months on end to years can cause more issues down there which could involve more work when it is time for surgery. Risk of infection(fistulas), skin tags, and scar tissue.
I feel if I would have had my surgery sooner, then I may have avoided the skin tag, scar tissue. Val and some of the others developed fistulas before getting LIS. I had my fissure 8 months before having surgery and had scar tissue....