Hi Angle, jr, and fellow AF-Forum-Friends,
Today, another day - starting to extend out my dosage times for Vicodin from 6 hrs to 8 hours.
Had my 1st BM yesterday around noon and was happy to be in full-on mid-vicodin dose bcz it was pretty uncomfortable. The BM passed pretty swiftly, but noticed clean up is a bit messier and pain kept me in the tub for close to an hour before i transferred to a heating pad for the next several hours. Happily received visits from my shipmates last night which was a great mood-lifter-butt-distracter.
been wanting to back off of my vicodin, but my mom and boyfriend think i'm silly for doing that and i agree, i got myself in big trouble last time. it's just slowing my system down so much - haven't had a BM yet today and i'm sure it's bcz of the vicodin. but the important thing is i'm comfortable, enough to do some laundry and straightening up around the apartment. will take my next vicodin dose in probably the next half hour or so . . . it's so hard to tell/know when to back off of it.
Angel, as for the botox: I've had it done 2 ways: the 1st was under general and with a significant fissurectomy so, i attribute a lot of my post-op pain and discomfort to the fissurectomy (and they sewed the fissure closed, but it retore anyway within the 1st couple weeks). To be honest, I have no idea when botox begins to take affect or how to tell. This time, i received it under local anesthesia - he injected it directily into the muscle tissue underlying the fissure (on either side) and did some debridement. It was definitely feeling spasmy sore the 1st day until i got on top of my pain meds, hard to tell if that's due to the debridement of the scar tissue (which i'm guessing) or due to the botox. I did notice the BM was not clean yesterday, even after cleaning up, i discovered there was still stuff left behind when i was taking a shower - that's a first. and last night was my 1st experience having flatulence incontinence. so, your guess is as good as mine. All I know is that on a whole, i'm doing and feeling WAY better than after my 1st procedure at only 2 days out - grant it, the procedure was much less invasive this time around. i don't think i really answered your questions, please let me know if there is anything else I can clarify for you.