Five Days After Fistulectomy/Fissurectomy/Partial LIS

Are you having, or have you had a Lateral Internal Sphincterotomy (LIS)? Please share your experiences here, or ask any questions.

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Five Days After Fistulectomy/Fissurectomy/Partial LIS

Postby InPain » 21 Mar 2012, 12:01

First off, thanks so much for this site! I can't tell you how helpful it was before surgery!
A couple people said I should post my experience, and I have a couple questions, so here goes. I had the surgery last Friday (Mar. 16) -- a Fistulectomy/Fissurectomy/Partial LIS (I know, a lot!) -- and am doing pretty well. The first 2 days the pain was pretty bad, but it was controllable by Toradol and Percocet. The problem is that the Percocet made me really, really constipated, and I made the mistake of not starting to take the Colace (stool softener) until Saturday night, even though my doctor had told me to take 100mg Colace 3x a day along with my normal fiber supplements (I was scared of getting diarrhea). Therefore, I didn't have my first BM until midday on Monday, after taking 2 Tbsps of milk of magnesium the night before and that morning. In the interim, I was so gassy and anxious about it -- I can't tell you how many times I sat on the toilet, only to get into the bath frustrated and in pain.
That's lesson #1 - don't ever strain, even a little. Your first BM will come when it comes, and when you take a laxative, it will come no matter what, so don't ever strain. I mean, I wasn't even really straining, but even pushing a tiny bit can be painful after surgery! if I had to go back it would be to start taking the Colace right away and try to take less Percocet (hard as that is).
The first BM was scary, but it really wasn't all that painful since it was so soft. Since then, my BMs have been super soft; they burn a little, but it's nothing worse than I had before the surgery, and after I hop in the tub it goes away after 20 min. or so.
Now it has been 5 days and I am doing pretty well, with the exception of the BM pain. Only issue is that my boss is on my back to go back to work and I really like having the baths here at home and would much prefer to work from home. I already am confident that surgery was 100% the right choice -- others have mentioned this before, but even the pain seems like a healthier pain in a weird way.
So I have two main questions:
#1) After each BM, I have been doing very little wiping and instead just using the shower to clean it out, which seems to be working well. However, I am worried that I am not doing enough to clean since some posters talk about the high risk of infection and how they use q-tips to clean every nook and cranny. Is that really necessary? After I shower, I dab with a baby wipe and it seems clean, but I am not really pushing in there to make sure every crevice is clean.
#2) For how long did you keep taking stool softener after the surgery? I stopped the percocet 2 days ago but have still been taking Colace 100mg 3x a day along with my heavy fiber intake, and yesterday, I had too many BMs, so I am planning to reduce to Colace 2x a day today and maybe even 1x a day if I still go too much.
Thanks very much!
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Re: Five Days After Fistulectomy/Fissurectomy/Partial LIS

Postby Sweet Bugaboo » 21 Mar 2012, 15:03

InPain wrote:First off, thanks so much for this site! I can't tell you how helpful it was before surgery!
A couple people said I should post my experience, and I have a couple questions, so here goes. I had the surgery last Friday (Mar. 16) -- a Fistulectomy/Fissurectomy/Partial LIS (I know, a lot!) -- and am doing pretty well. The first 2 days the pain was pretty bad, but it was controllable by Toradol and Percocet. The problem is that the Percocet made me really, really constipated, and I made the mistake of not starting to take the Colace (stool softener) until Saturday night, even though my doctor had told me to take 100mg Colace 3x a day along with my normal fiber supplements (I was scared of getting diarrhea). Therefore, I didn't have my first BM until midday on Monday, after taking 2 Tbsps of milk of magnesium the night before and that morning. In the interim, I was so gassy and anxious about it -- I can't tell you how many times I sat on the toilet, only to get into the bath frustrated and in pain.
That's lesson #1 - don't ever strain, even a little. Your first BM will come when it comes, and when you take a laxative, it will come no matter what, so don't ever strain. I mean, I wasn't even really straining, but even pushing a tiny bit can be painful after surgery! if I had to go back it would be to start taking the Colace right away and try to take less Percocet (hard as that is).
The first BM was scary, but it really wasn't all that painful since it was so soft. Since then, my BMs have been super soft; they burn a little, but it's nothing worse than I had before the surgery, and after I hop in the tub it goes away after 20 min. or so.
Now it has been 5 days and I am doing pretty well, with the exception of the BM pain. Only issue is that my boss is on my back to go back to work and I really like having the baths here at home and would much prefer to work from home. I already am confident that surgery was 100% the right choice -- others have mentioned this before, but even the pain seems like a healthier pain in a weird way.
So I have two main questions:
#1) After each BM, I have been doing very little wiping and instead just using the shower to clean it out, which seems to be working well. However, I am worried that I am not doing enough to clean since some posters talk about the high risk of infection and how they use q-tips to clean every nook and cranny. Is that really necessary? After I shower, I dab with a baby wipe and it seems clean, but I am not really pushing in there to make sure every crevice is clean.
#2) For how long did you keep taking stool softener after the surgery? I stopped the percocet 2 days ago but have still been taking Colace 100mg 3x a day along with my heavy fiber intake, and yesterday, I had too many BMs, so I am planning to reduce to Colace 2x a day today and maybe even 1x a day if I still go too much.
Thanks very much!

Hi -- I found out that hard way that getting off the softeners too soon is a mistake. Per my crs's suggestion, I weaned myself off everything - only to have a setback (very hard bm, with post-bm bleeding for three days) 9 days ago. At that point, I was already 6 weeks past my surgery. (FTR - I had an LIS and a fissurectomy.)
It's best to keep things soft and easy for awhile. I'm back on Colace and Miralax - and it's gonna stay that way for me, until/unless I really know I'm completely healed.
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Re: Five Days After Fistulectomy/Fissurectomy/Partial LIS

Postby 44alegna44 » 22 Mar 2012, 19:22

i'm 6 weeks post lis/tag&hemmie removal. At my 2 week post-op visit my crs recommended that I continue with the fiber and water, 2 stool softeners in the evening along with 1 dose of Miralax until our next appt...that will be next week. This will hopefully be my last post-op visit and I'll address the issue of how/when to wean off these aids at that time. Best wishes, Angel
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