Hello,
I had a chronic fissure for 4 years that I was able to keep at bay through careful diet (lots of water and mineral oil). I finally had an anoplasty a little over a month ago and wanted to share my experience with others.
All things considered it was a pretty easy procedure. I had outpatient surgery that took about an hour or so. Prior to starting the surgery, the doctor gave me an epidural which wasn't as bad as I had expected. I was knocked out for the procedure, but was actually up and walking around less than an hour later.
Before they sent me home, they gave me an IV pain med. We stopped at the pharmacy to pick up Percocet, Tramadol, and Metronidazole. Based on the wise advice of the nurse, I began taking percocet the minute I got home because she said when the pain came back that it would be strong. I took percocet for the first day after sugery only because it has a tendency to make me constipated. I switched over to tramadol on day two. Day two was also the first post surgery BM. OUCH!!!!!!!! As instructed by the doctor, I took a sitz bath immediately after the BM and it helped to relax all the muscles.
I spent most of the first week post recovery laying around and sleeping. I didn't really sit for long periods of time because I was afraid I would put too much strain on my back side. I also took frequent sitz baths. Three days after surgery, I was able to quit taking the pain meds. It still hurt when I went to the bathroom, but it gradually became less painful. I attribute this to the fact that I followed the doctors orders - he bluntly told me to eat a lot so that I would poop a lot. He said "if you don't poop, you won't heal."
I was back to work a week after surgery. I was still moving a bit slower, but feeling better. TMI warning but I think this may be helpful for others - there was quite a lot of swelling along with what they called "serosanguinous fluid" coming from my rear end. I had to use gauze to absorb this fluid. I carried lots of extra gauze with me when I went back to work and changed the gauze frequently. I also brought baby wipes with me to make sure that I was as clean as possible.
By 2 weeks post surgery, I felt pretty normal. There was still swelling, but I felt good. The pain when going to the bathroom was gone.
I am a month post surgery now. There is still a bit of swelling, but I'm mostly back to my normal routine. The doctor told me that I was not allowed to lift weights until 6 weeks post surgery.
I am following all of his instructions to the letter and I think that has helped me tremendously.