by Karinann » 20 Jul 2013, 15:41
I'd like to post my experience with my LIS surgery. First off let me say I'm really not sure if I just had LIS by itself or a fissurectomy in addition to the LIS. I've called my CRS docs office every day for the past week to get some questions answered and every time I've called the person on the other end of the telephone keeps telling me the doc will call me back, but it hasn't happened. Anyway, on to the surgery. Back in April of 2013 I had an extremely hard bowel movement that caused the fissure pain to start up again. I say again because about 25 years ago I had my first occurrence of the dreaded fissure. So this time I knew exactly what was going to happen. My experience 25 years ago sent me to the hospital for 5 days and nothing was really done while in the hospital except they put me on a soft food diet, and told me to continue the diet and take Metamucil three times a day. After that the fissure basically healed itself. So here I was 25 years later and another fissure. I went to my primary care doctor and she gave me a script for Anucort suppositories. They seem to help a bit with the pain but after a month of using them I did not notice any movement in the direction of seeing a healing process taking place. So my primary care doc referred me to a CRS. She gave me a list of things to do and a script for Diltiazem (5%) and Lidocaine (2%). Take probiotics, Metamucil. My follow up appointment with the CRS was in 3 weeks. During this time I started to document when my bowel movements would occur (ie: how often). Looking back at that record I see now that my BMs were about every 3 to 4 days. I only eat two meals a day as I don't often feel hungry enough to eat three meals a day. During that period I probably was not drinking enough water also. When I would have a BM my stools were probably a Bristol state 2. I didn't know about the Bristol scale then. So now I'm dealing with the pain of a new fissure, not drinking enough water and having painful BM with dry stools. Great. I will admit this was all my fault. A lot of it through shear ignorance of what a good BM feels and looks like. This time around I'm getting a real education. So here I am at the 3 week follow up visit with the CRS after she gave me the script for the cream. I had not had surgery just yet. During the 3 week follow up visit, after I told the CRS that the treatment she suggested did not seem to produce any results, her immediate response was "Let's schedule surgery". Now the nasty bits. A few years ago I had some surgery for some other issues and the docs then follow a process called "Informed Consent". They gave me a lot of detailed information on the surgery process. What was going to be done, what to expect post-op, the recovery process. This CRS did none of that at all.
My best advice for anyone planning on having LIS is to first before you have the surgery may sure your BMs are producing very soft stools, at least Bristol state 3 but state 4 being more desirable. My CRS did NOT query me at all about the type of BMs and the type of stools. I did not know to ask any better. The CRS did not also explain what was going to be done. Nor did the CRS explain the recovery process in detail to me. I think if I had known more about the process I would have elected to be more proactive with the preliminary treatment she suggested and stuck with that for a longer period. So from the 3 week follow up visit to the surgery date was less than one week. So the day of the surgery I'm still constipated from hard stools and now I'm expected to deal with it while also dealing with the painful BMs. My first BM after surgery wasn't until six days after surgery. I now know that I probably caused a lot of this myself. I'm posting this to hopefully pass along some information for others so that they take to heart the instructions of their doctors and pay attention to good BM habits. You can't go into surgery expecting painless results without the good BM habits. Loose BMs are very important prior to having surgery. I'm now three and half weeks post op and am now on a stool softener(100mg) four time a day, Metamucil twice a day, eating good fiber, good veggies, and my stools are now Bristol 3 to 4. BMs are still painful after the stools pass, as I think that one of the fissures the CRS doc found ( I had two), has reopened. During that first BM I had six days after the surgery a massive amount of poo came out with probably about 3 to four ounces of blood. If I did have a fissurectomy or if the fissure site was cauterized, that BM may have scraped of and healing scabbing. I still don't know what was really done during the surgery.
So again for all contemplating surgery. Ask a ton of questions, do your research, follow the good BM habits, drink plenty of water.
I do honestly hope this missive might be able to help some one else contemplating LIS surgery.
I'm on the mend and realize that this is going to be a bit of long journey. Keep up the happy thought.
Karin