Good luck Rusty - you should be feeling lots better on Christmas than you do now. Better to be on the mend than not!

yes! good luck! let us know how you make out.

Update - After one of the worst nights sleep of my life (I was experiencing horrible spasms all night), I went in to the hospital quite nervous but very excited to hopefully get rid of this monster.
All in all the process took 5 hours with the surgery itself only taking about 20 minutes. I was out of the hospital at about 2pm and feeling high as a kite :) I have yet to experience any pain and spasms and except for a bundle of gauze being up there that causes some uncomfort I feel fantastic.
Fingers crossed for tomorrow when I have my first BM.
thanks for everyone's help in this decision!

Keep em soft Rusty!

Rusty - Great that it is done. You may not have a BM tomorrow, so don't worry if you don't. Use the Miralax and all will be ok - there will be some blood for a couple of weeks but the worst should be over.

Yes, let me echo what Bob said. It may take a day or two to have a BM. Eat light, drink lots of water and make sure to have lots of fiber and a stool softener. I know it is easier said than done, but don't fret too much over the first BM after surgery. Keep us updated on how things go. I wish you luck and a speedy recovery!

Merry Christmas Everyone!
48 Hours in - Had my first movement today. It was not as smooth as one would have liked. I have to admit that I kind of forced it since I was getting stomach pains from constipation. Anyway, it went well but then I started to get some pain about 20 minutes later. It wasn't the spasm pain but felt more like pain from the incision site. A couple of advil and percocets along with a soak helped the pain a lot.
Other than that, I have just been staying in bed and having a healthy diet of water, miralax, high fiber foods, stool softners and pain killers. I am feeling quite good about this, though I have to admit I did get a little worried when I had the pain this morning.

Had my second movement today. Overall it went well until about twenty minutes afterwards when I started to get that all too familiar feeling of a spasm. On a scale of 1-10 it was about a 4 (I was at 8 or 9 prior to the surgery). Is this normal? I am a little scared that the surgery might not have worked :( Luckily I have the percocets which took care of the pain pretty quickly. I am just hoping it is a result of the incision and not the fissure.

Hopefully it is just post op pain. Keep doing the hot baths once or twice a day. You should be feeling lots better in a week.

So I heard from my CRS yesterday (who was nice enough to email me while he was on vacation) He said that it is probably a combination of post-operation pain as well as pain from the fissure. He said that I had a huge fissure that is going to take some time to heal. He instructed me to continue to rest and just hang in there and I should feel better in a week or so.