I haven't had any pain with a bowel movement for awhile now, so I think I might be able to start referring it to "healed" soon, although I haven't been back to the doctor. I haven't had hard stool in months, but I do still have a tendency to tighten my muscles when stressed. It's difficult to know if they're fully relaxed or not if I'm sitting or walking, so I've been known to randomly stand still for a second for what others probably think is no reason, haha.
This might sound weird, but I have my very own hair dryer that I use after a shower for drying "back there" instead of a towel, because I find it keeps the skin from getting dry/irritated (I use the cool setting, not the hot!)

Today, though, something strange happened. I had no pain during my BM (as usual), but about half an hour afterwards I began to feel pain. It started as a prickle but eventually, as I became more and more worried about it, it started to feel like a slight muscle spasm. Now, I had been in a rush in the morning, and dried with a towel instead of the hair dryer, so that might have had something to do with it... but honestly, it felt a bit like FISSURE PAIN. I spent the entire day at work pretty much depressed, thinking "why me... why did it have to happen again.."
But when I got home and had my second BM of the day, there was no pain. And I'm thinking, okay, if a fissure is bad enough to hurt throughout the day when I got even slightly tense, it would certainly hurt during a bowel movement. It just seems weird that I would feel random pains in between my two BMs of the day, but nothing whatsoever during the BMs themselves.

This happens to me occasionally. Granted I am working healing (again -- sigh) from a fissure. No pain usually with BMs but the other day I was up a bit earlier than normal and began feeling the strangest tingling and spasm feeling down there. I had the hardest time all day focusing because I convinced myself it was bad news. Then I woke the next day, no issues. However, I was quite stressed over job stuff on those days that apparently was affecting me more than I realized. The next day I focused more on the fact I had some stress I wasn't attending to and tried to ignore what could be down there.

I think what you said above is more key than we realize and that is about the tightness of muscles down there when stressed or even when we don't realize it. One doctor actually mentioned that to me in passing about discomfort and spasms down there.

You're in good company with random pains. I am glad you posted because mine freaked me out as well. Focus on all the good things, caring for your skin, no pain with BMs and managing stress. Sounds like you are doing really well overall!