Had my first post-stretch BM: it was amazing. No pain! Zero! For me, having had only painful BMs for the last year or so, this is a miracle.
Granted, the BM wasn't that formed (had a lot of liquids yesterday), but it wasn't liquid either. Still, before I had pain regardless.
I just hope that this lack of pain means I'm now large enough to have pain-free BMs, but small enough to not be incontinent. I'll see the next days.
But wow, what a great feeling. I couldn't even remember what it was like...

That's great Dexter! Hopefully things will continue to go well for you!

Yay Dexter!!!
A pain-free BM is truly a wonderful thing! Congratulations!
I hope it continues like that from now on and you heal up very quickly! :D

Second BM, a bit firmer than yesterday, still no pain. In fact, I'd say the whole "experience" changed: before I actually felt the BM passing; now I feel it's there and then it's just out, gone! I'm thinking the sensation before was because of the tightness/stenosis I had.
As for incontinence, there is some. By this I mean that after a BM (which is not yet a solid one, as I'm still taking movicol) there is some leakage coming out the next half hour or so, meaning I need to take another shower. As far as I remember, I had this also after the fissurectomy op and it lasted about a week before it gradually started to get better. I hope it's not permanent!

YaY Dexter!!! a painless BM! That's wonderful!
I think the minor incontinence is very likely only temporary. The nerves down there need to settle down yet.
I'm so happy that the procedure was so effective! :D

Back a month after the stretch with some impressions.
The good things:
1. I still have zero pain during BMs and after.
2. The feeling of tightness and spasms are gone. Passing a BM is easy, just comes and goes.
3. Have had no trouble holding gas/bm when i want to.
4. Have started since a week to use an anal dilator. Using a 20mm one so far and not too bad. Will try to go up to 24mm next week maybe.
5. Have been eating whatever I like for the past month.
The bad things:
1. I think I am experiencing some incontinence. It's not that I can't hold it in when I want to, just that during the day there is a small amount of leakage and I have to clean every 2-3 hrs.
2. Because of 1, still wearing pads.
3. Still taking movicol every night.
4. Since starting to use the dilator there is a small trace amount of blood after BM. It's very very little (i was even thinking it could be from the lots of tomatoes i usually eat), but no, it's blood. Probably the dilator stretched things a bit too much, I don't know. But no pain.
5. A few days ago I ate a lot of crap (potato chips, chocolate, few liquids) and while the BM was ok and not painful, I felt it was bigger than usual and that left me with a sore feeling throughout the day. Not quite fissure-like, but close. Luckily by the second day that was gone, so I'm thinking even if there was a tear, it's healing up.
In about 2 weeks I have the follow-up, curious what the doc sees inside. Overall I'm quite happy with the outcome, as I'm closer to a normal life than I've been in years. If the small incontinence thing and the little amount of blood would go away, I would consider myself 100% back to normal again.
Hope you all are having a pain-free day!

Hey Dexterdude! it's good to hear from you! Thanks for such a detailed update. Your threads will definitely be very helpful to lots of people. It sounds like you are doing really well, aside from the bit of blood and incontinence. I'm sure both will go away after a while. I'm still bleeding a bit with BMs 11 weeks post-fistulotomy. I've read about others here who had some leakage, but it got better after a few months. I hope yours goes away altogether. It's still pretty early in your recovery, though, and it sounds like you are doing really well already - so here's to a complete recovery very soon for you! :D

Well, here I am, 10 months post dilation, a year post fissurectomy. It's been great!
Sorry to have waited so long to come back and share, but I didn't want to jinx it lol. But now, I can say with a pretty good degree of comfort that I am healed. In fact, I suspect I was healed even some weeks after the dilation, but I waited to be sure.
I still check the area from time to time (I now find it easy to "open-up" on-demand :D) and the scar from the fissurectomy receded from a bright red line, to a thin red line to almost nothing now. But best of all, NO PAIN!
For the past 10 months or so I have truly felt I got my life back. I can now:
- eat whatever I want, whenever I want (and trust me, I did eat a lot of crap these past 10 months)
- don't even care about how many fluids I drink...there were even days where I was VERY dehydrated and ate e.g. biscuits (which didn't help) and still, BM was easy and painless
- can (and do) whatever sports I want, from cycling to tennis, no pain whatsoever
The slight incontinence I had at first has receded to the point where, an hour or so after the morning BM, I still have to wipe once just to be sure. To my relief, I can say I never once in all this time stained the underwear...so the incontinence is really not to be worried about.
All in all, I can recommend this approach which in my case worked very well: fissurectomy + stretch (to relax the muscle and allow the fissurectomy cut to heal). Sure, the fissurectomy is nasty and the pain is bad, but I'd do it all in a heartbeat knowing I can have a full and pain-free life after that.
So, hang in there, see the doctor, learn stuff from this forum (it's just unbelievable the amout of information here and how much it can help) and stay positive. THIS PROBLEM CAN FOR SURE BE OVERCOME!