Hello all,
I'm a longtime reader of these forums, though I've never signed up. However, since reading these forums has given my hope, some advice along my journey and surgery is often the last resort (and scariest bit) of the fissure experience I wanted to give something back to this community.
Bit of background first: UK based 22 year old male, was very fit and active before getting my AF 10 months ago. Tried everything under the sun to get rid of it, including but not limited to ultra high fibre diet, GTN, Movicol sachets, lactulose... Nothing worked. Mind you, the sachets of laxative helped so much, I didn't even know I had a problem down there but it ultimately didn't help the fissure heal. I finally saw a CRS in January who told me to have either botox or LIS and I opted for the surgery as the most likely solution to work. I was rather lucky to land a CRS who has pretty much devoted his life to fissures, fistulas and rectal cancer and knows that part of the body like the back of his hand.
My operation was Tuesday 9th April at 9.00AM sharp. By 10.00AM I was waking up in recovery and in some discomfort. I was given 3 or 4 shots of tramadol to help manage the pain over the next 2 days, and I was discharged on Wednesday 10th in the evening.
I was sent home with a large supply of pads, codine, movicol, lactulose and instillagel to use as and when which I have been doing. Had my first BM this morning 3 days post-op. I had some pain but it wasn't from the BM itself more the soreness of the muscles getting used for the first time post-op. I've had some pretty nasty spasms today, though I was told I might get these for upto a week. Its not excrutiating pain but you can't exactly ignore it either. As for my mobility I can get up and out of bed with little effort, but walking is a bit of a challenge, and I can't get up and down stairs without help right now. I'm aiming for a longer recovery (2-3 months) so I can give myself the best chance to heal as I don't want to end up back in hospital for another op!
My biggest concerns so far are the lack of a 'proper' stool forming, since I'm on so many meds right now and I still feel some pain in the same area as the fissure just like I did before the op. I'm hoping this is just soreness as its not during BM I feel it more when I move around which I am trying to minimise. I don't seem to have any bleeding or leakage, if anything its a bit difficult to pass wind right now which is another small worry. Overall, my pain level is higher than it was with just the fissure pre-op but my pain during a BM is lower so I'm hoping I am on the path to recovery.
Another thing is I'm getting some lower pack pain/pressure - not sure if this is something to worry about since I haven't seen it mentioned too much in other posts so any experiences people can share about this in particular will be helpful.
Please, ask me questions! I never asked once of this community since I just sat back and read but since you all gave me so much without knowing, ask me specific things you want to know and I will do my best to answer them.
CHP