Just a rundown of all that took place during my LIS surgery and the days following.
Monday
-=-=-=-
Visited my surgeon in his office for a final checkup. I'd been feeling better, but I figured it was like a car that doesn't show symptoms when the mechanic is looking at it so I wasn't buying that I was better. He poked around back there for a moment and said, "I still think you have the fissure." I told him, "Aight, schedule me." and I was scheduled for March 7th. His only instructions for my procedure on thursday was to "Show Up". I expected to have to do an enema or some sort of cleansing but nope, nothing.
Thursday
-=-=-=-=-
I get to the hospital around 12:30 for my procedure at 2:30. I do a little paperwork and get taken back to the pre-op area. I strip butt naked and put on some purple barney robe. The nurse hooks me up to some leg massage devices (required at this hospital for anyone going under general anesthesia) and some nifty device that pumps warm or cold air into the gown depending on which way I turn a knob. Very cool and a good way to stay comfy. The nurse inserts the IV needle and starts pumping me with saline. I'm no fan of needles so this was a little uncomfortable for me but nothing terrible. I lay there watching tv for about an hour. The Doc comes in, tells me what's going down and then goes about his business. The Anesthesia dude comes in, goes over some basic stuff, who am I, why am I here, oh hey we're gonna tube you. If you've never been under anesthesia (as I had not) don't be scared. The tube is inserted and removed while you're out so you never know. Guy said that within 30-45 seconds of me hitting the OR I'd be out. Man he was not kidding. I get rolled into the OR, moved to the operating table, which was very thin, and I hear, "I'm gonna start the meds". I feel a burning in my arm, whatever he hit me with burned up my elbow but only for about 5 seconds, then I was out.
From what I've been told the surgery itself was about 15 minutes, I was asleep about 90 minutes. I guess he loaded me up, I'm fine with that. When I woke up I was quite dizzy and I could tell something had been done in my butt region, but it wasn't terribly painful. It was a dull ache, but very minor. After about 30 minutes I was rolled to recovery and given something in the IV for nausea and maybe something for pain, I don't recall. I got all unhooked and dressed in my street cloths and was rolled out to the car. On the way home I got very nauseous. I had been given water at the hospital but that was it. When I got home I headed straight for the bathroom, figuring I was gonna be ill, but was ok and went and laid down. All thursday the most pain I had was just a dull ache, nothing major but it was uncomfortable. I didn't hit the meds too hard. I took one every four hours just to take the edge off. I took a colace with every pain pill.
Friday
-=-=-
Friday wasn't as fun. I didn't sleep much because I was just uncomfortable. I had lost the lite packing they had placed in my money-maker to sop of some of the blood and other leakage (there is leakage and blood, but it wasn't bad). Friday I was kind of unhappy. I was in a bit of pain and doubled my dosage of pain killers. That really didn't do anything but my pain level was maybe a 5 anyway. I went on for a few hours, eating regular food and finally heard something from my parents (who were in charge of my healing for the first 24 hours) say, "Oh there's some gauze in your butt that should come out." This alarmed me. I went and had a bath, and sure enough there was what looked like a rip cord hanging out of my behind.I tugged on it a bit and it didn't want to come out, so I figured i'd leave it alone for now.
Few hours later I'm back at my house and alone, recovering on my own. I hop in a shower and get cleaned up, that helped me feel a little better. Then I decided, as I was watching Band of Brothers ironically, I was gonna get rid of this gauze in my turd cutter. This is something nobody prepared me for. I started pulling on the little basta...piece of gauze and it started slipping out. "Not bad, I can do this" I say to myself. Little by little more comes out till I start wondering if he left the roll in my butt. By the end I was straining to not cry out. Now, it didn't hurt, but it is a very uncomfortable feeling and not one that I can easily describe. Near the end it was almost unbearable. Still not painful, just really uncomfortable. I finally managed to pull what felt like 3 foot of gauze from my booty. When that finished I felt a slightly bruised feeling, I poured some more hot water into the tub and tried to relax. I was shaking, this was easily the worst part of my story. Within a few moments of getting that gauze out I felt 75% better. It was the strangest thing. All the discomfort I had felt moving around over the past 36 hours felt like it was cause of that gauze. As the night went on, I started feeling better and better, even managed to sit at my computer desk a while.
Saturday
-=-=-=-=-
I slept all evening, felt great. I had a little discomfort in the morning, nothing a painkiller and a nice warm bath didn't fix. Then, I felt it. What I had been dreading since Thursday. I had to have a bowel movement. I got my iPad to watch some pawn stars and my phone in case I needed to call for help (I'm not even kidding). I sat down and already I felt different. It wasn't uncomfortable to sit. Then it happened. The dragon reared it's ugly head. And it was fine. The best BM I'd had in almost 2 years. No pain, no discomfort. There were some unusual sounds, but I attribute that to the swelling and the passage of, well, stuff. I used some moist TP to clean myself off then hit the bathroom and used the hand held shower head to finish the job. I felt fine. Normal even. It was no big deal. I took another bath, just because I was really into the pawn stars episode I was watching.
Now it's Saturday night, I'm again sitting at my computer desk, with a pillow in my chair, and I feel fine. There's still swelling and a bit of a raw feeling but I'm not uncomfortable. I still have blood and other leaks and have to do a lot of laundry but other than that I feel find 48 hours later.
I do feel silly that I didn't do this sooner, but not so much that I was nervous. Everyone is different when it comes to these procedures and I, luckily, have had a good experience. The only thing I would warn others about would be to use the General if you can get it, if you don't have to experience this and be awake, don't, and the 3' of gauze. That was the single worst moment of all of this and if you can go to your happy place while getting rid of that you're in the clear (most likely). I hope this gives hope to other folks who might be considering this and if you need a surgeon in the Indianapolis area, let me now, I highly recommend mine.
Thanks for reading, if you made it this far.