Just a rundown of all that took place during my LIS surgery and the days following.
Monday
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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
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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
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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
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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.

Thanks for sharing. Interesting in that you had a different kind of anesthesia than I had.I also LOVED the gown with the hair dryer attached. When things got really bad, I visualized myself on a rock in the woods during the summer, when the sun would beat down on me. Really, I was feeling the hot air from the air-gown contraption.
My recovery has also been a lot harder than yours, but I mirror the weirdness with the gauze in the butt. That was a huge source of pain for me in the beginning. I was told to leave it in until the first poop, but eventually, I sat in the bath to loosen the blood and gently removed it. Everything was so much better after I did. I think my body was feeling that something was down there and registering pain. I think I waited 24 hours before doing so. That seemed sufficient. I've had a lot of leakage after removing it, but as I said before, my recovery has been harder than yours.
I had light anestesia. Its a compromise between twilight and full general anestesia. That seemed perfect to me. I woke up completely lucid and I had less drugs for my body to detox afterwards.
So... you butt is your money maker, heh? Do tell more.

I sit on my butt all day at work. I had to leave my exotic dancing days behind. The hours were just too much.
Sorry that you're own booty is not cooperating like it should. Hopefully it'll get with the program soon.

Makes for a good read, Klainn. Glad you're doing well once you got the roll of gauze out! Not all doctors put the gauze in, but seems to be the majority. Wonder why, when they don't use it for hemorrhoid operations.
Good luck with your healing!

Sunday - Wednesday Afternoon
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I still had discomfort, bleeding and leakage and the scent coming off my behind is not something I ever considered. My butt smells like the hospital still. I don't know if my booty smells sterile or that hospital really smelled of ass. Everything was progressing and the pain was getting less and less, until today (wednesday). I don't know what is different but my first bm of the day was unpleasant and the second one had me shaking and remembering the good ol days of a freshly opened fissure. Hopping in the tub helped each time but it takes longer and longer to feel comfort. I still have bleeding and I am hopeful that since it's still just less than a week since the surgery this is all normal. But I would be lying if I said it wasn't concerning me.

Klainn, thanks for sharing your story and recovery days, I am glad that you are doing fine, usually you get most of the discomfort when the area starts to heal for good.
So don't worry and remember that the discomfort will be gone once your healing is over.
Keep us informed of your progress and thanks again.

So .. checking back in, more questions.
It's been 4 months since I had my surgery. My fissure appears to be gone. I've had no more of the problems I've had before and I feel good about it.
However, I have a couple other issues that I'm not sure are related or not. After a movement, if I have to stand for a while or walk a bit, it'll itch. It ranges from mild to what the heck is going on back there. Usually a soak in the tub calms it but that's not always an immediate option. A handful of times when I would hit the tub the area would burn, like water on an open sore.
Is this something you all have experienced or some strange new issue? Is it a simple rash and I just need to medicate the area for a few weeks. Any input is good input!

Hello: Your LIS story seems very similar to my surgery and recovery. Although I'm only 5 weeks out from having the surgery. My BMs now are very managable, and interestly enough I have the same feeling after every BM. It feels like a combination of very, very slight pain and itchy. Then after about 5 minutes or so after the BM it is mostly itchy feeling for sometime a couple of hours then it calms down to nothing at all. I'm still using the Diltiazem/Lidocaine cream prescribed for me after every BM. Hard to tell if the feelings are from the BM or the cream, although I think more from the BM. Good Luck to you, Karin

I had LIS about 4 weeks ago. I have the same slight itchy/burning feeling after a bm and when I walk around too much. I talked with my CRS yesterday and I was told that it is common when the fissure is healing. She looked at the fissure sites and said they look a little raw but overall they are healed. She said not to worry about it unless there is drainage or if I develop a fever.
I hope you are feeling better today Klainn! :)