Hi guys!
I just wanted to leave a quick post giving you an update about my condition- in case anyone lurking the boards needs a ray of sunshine (I know there were many days before I officially joined where these sort of messages were the only thing keeping me hanging on). I feel great today... I'm sure that there will be bumps and setbacks on my road to total recovery, but today I feel great. Just 72 hours after LIS surgery, and I have no pain. None. Nada. I took 400 mg of Motrin with lunch just to be on the safe side, but I'm totally off the Percoset and have been for over 48 hours. Post-op recovery has been a breeze compared to the daily, constant pain of the AF. Rectal bleeding is gone. No leakage or incontinence (occasional angel gas, though!). No pain now during my BM (no shards of glass, tears, or cries for mercy to a higher power). True, I get the occasional, comparatively minor spasm. And the rectal itching is no joke!!! But for the first time in months I feel like a human being, not a shell of a person. I'm hoping this progress continues. Please, please let the LIS stick!
I want to thank everyone for being such a great support system. Whether you know it or not, you've been such a comfort to me throughout this AF ordeal. I'll keep you posted on my recovery and am praying for all of you to heal quickly!

Great, happy for you. I wrote pretty much the same post 3 1/2 years ago! It was like being let out of prison or something, not to have that constant mental (and terrible physical) torment and anguish that comes with an af.
I am still quite careful and take Miralax each night and occassionally have strange intermittant pains down there, but it's like 1 % of the past problems, so none of it bothers me at all. At all.
Again, great to hear and I so agree about this board. I don't know what I would have done without it and it's members!

That's fantastic .... YAY!!
Thank you for posting such uplifting news!

OMB x

So glad to hear it, Ceeteefeebs! You'd asked me along another conversation to keep you updated on my progress, so here it is. While I'm not pain free, or off my Rx strength Ibuprofin, and am still struggling to balance the colace and diet to have just one BM a day, I finally feel like me again. I was driving for the first time since surgery yesterday - no squirming - and started thinking of how bad things had gotten and how lucky I was to have this site, my mom, and my boyfriend to help me through it all. I hit that "I've got my life back" moment and it was such an overwhelming feeling I sobbed uncontrollably (not the best emotion to experience while traveling at 65 mph)! I'm still a bit weepy today. That shell of a person I'd become, that so many of us seem to have become at some point through this journey... is gone! I agonized over the decision to have LIS, and beat myself up every time I had a set back - 7 glasses of water vs. 8, oh I ate that chocolate covered pretzel yesterday.... After reading so many uplifiting experiences with LIS on this site, the agony of a decision was simply gone. Funny to think I lurked on this site for so long as an AF sufferer and didn't join until after my surgery. It's that ray of hope I was given - and want to be able to give back to others.
Okay, enough sap! So glad you are doing better!

Hi folks! It's so great hearing from you guys!! :D Anne, I know exactly what you mean about the massive surge of emotions... just everything coming to the fore at once. This AF business takes its emotional toll in ways we don't even realize! It can be hard to process... even in the happiest of moments!
Can I ask you guys about Miralax? It's the one thing I haven't tried yet, and I'm wondering if I should get on board. I take stool softeners every night (docusate sodium), and I take Metamucil daily. Have you had better success with the Miralax?
Today is, unfortunately, a setback day for me. I keep hoping and praying that the LIS has worked... days like yesterday sustain me! Today my BM hurt (stool was a little harder than the coveted toothpaste consistency), and I've had intermittent fissure pain and spasms. Every twinge makes me want to cry out of panic. I am also doing the mental berating... why did I eat that chicken that was a little on the spicy side? (Darn you, black pepper!) Aaaaaand popcorn. Ugh. I had about a cup of it last night thinking it would be a healthy fiber-ful snack. Then I remembered that corn is hard to digest. Could that be the source of today's pain?
I so SO want to get to the part where I can say I'm happily "x" years post-LIS! Sidra, have you ever had any post-LIS scares or re-tears?
I'd love nothing more than to report positive progress each day! I want to be one of those lucky people!! Today isn't my day, though. :/
I'm thinking of you guys and am hoping you're feeling well today!

Hi..well about 2 years afterwards I forgot to take the Miralax and then felt like a bruised sensation down there during the day. I kind of panicked mentally but made myself calm down and tried to think logically..that it probably always will be "different" down there and so I just took some ibuprofen and busied myself so as not to dwell on it.
Seemed to work and I do get some strange zingers now and then. And again, I try to forget about it and it works. I have never had a re-tear. I once became constipated and was wigging out till that episode was over. That made me sore and feel a bit "bruised" again, but was NOTHING like the AF shards of glass pain that I had.
I am vigilant about taking Miralax every night inless I am having an IBS episode that day.
my only lasting thing is when I walk a lot I get chafed there, but nothing a bit of vaseline can't handle.
The LIS for me was a Godsend..I even sent my CRS a thank you letter and picture of myself on top of the Great Wall of China 6 months later and said that if it was'nt for him, I wouldn't have been there or able to do it.
Looking back though, the recovery really is two steps forward and one step back..just focus on weekly improvement, not day to day, seriously.

Thanks so much! I'm going to try to do exactly that! And I'm definitely heading to the store tonight for some Miralax (hoping it lives up to the "Miracle" part of its name). I've got a trip to get better for, too! (Japan at the end of July). Gosh, the thought of being able to travel again is exciting. :D