Hi all,

It's been a few weeks since I posted on here. I was starting to think that my surgery date had been filed away in the file marked 'bin' lol, but late afternoon on Friday I received a phone call from the hospital bookings department asking if I was still okay for the surgery on Wednesday 22nd? I told him that I hadn't been sent any information at all regarding this or my pre-op preparation or even when or where. So I'm now having to chase around trying to find out all the details at the last minute. Not great, but at least it doesn't give me too long to dwell on the impending surgery!

I can't say I'm exactly looking forward to it, as my fissure isn't bothering me very much right now, but still feel that I'm an accident waiting to happen and it only takes a harder or bulkier motion to flare up again. So I've decided to go through with it and face the pain and anxiety of the op and hope that in the long run this'll improve my chances of fewer or no recurrances after 20-odd years of rectal issues.

Has anyone any advice for me post-op? Basically, dos and don'ts from personal experience and should I get anything to help with the recovery.

A few questions as well:

Q1. Should I still use the GTN (Rectogesic) ointment I'm using at the moment post-op?

Q2. Should I get a heating pad and if so, any recommendations? I'm currently using the Anuice cold treatment which has always been helpful, but I've also read cold treatments inhibit healing.

Q3. If my surgery is at 11am on Wednesday morning, when I should I stop eating, is it just the night before?

Q4. My daughter's 7th birthday is on 10th May. Will I be mobile enough by then to attend and even enjoy it?

Q5. How should I eat post-op - should I be very careful and eat very little or stick to a normal-ish diet (not that my diet is that normal anyway lol!).

Any advice on these questions or other related recovery issues very much appreciated!

UPDATE:
Finally got through to the hospital and find it is only the pre-op assessment, but the bookings lady said it shouldn't be too long after that and they'd also put me on the list for short notice cancellations. All the questions and advice pretty much still apply though.

I only had my LIS yesterday. But I can help with a few of your questions ...

Q1 - Don't know! But I hope someone else does. I just put a little Diltiazem on mine! Not much. And not too deep. But I figured it can't do any harm! It's meant to relax and help bloodflow to aid healing. Dunno if the same applies for GTN.

Q2 - Don't know. I've been OK without one though.

Q3 - Depends on the anasthetic they're using. The hospital will have to tell you that. I had to arrive at the hospital for 7.45am (day patient - no overnight stay - I was out by 3pm). No food after midnight the day before. Only a couple of glasses of water up to 6am on the day. But mine was done under gerenal anasthetic. You'll be given an enema beforehand I suspect (I was) which will clear everything out for them. It certainly did for me!

Q4 - Yeah. You should be fine! I'm up and about at sitting at my PC around 30 hours post-surgery! It's not perfect of course. But feels generally OK. (I have pooped tyhis morning. Was a little uncomfortable, but not terrible. And I've been farting a lot! But no leakage.)

Q5 - I'm eating mush! Porridge/oat cerial. Bran/high fibre bread. Fruit. Soup. Smoothies. Plan to do that for 2 to 3 days before introducing more solid food again. Although they gave me a cheese + pickle sandwitch in the hispital after I came round from the anasthetic!!! (I took one with brown bread - they did offer some on white!!!)

Mine had hardly bothered me for a few weeks before the op. And I was also starting to think "Do I really need it?!?!?". But then it flared up on the Saturday before the op which confirmed. Yes I do! (Plus - when I think back. There were numerous other times I thought I was fixed and it just came back....)

The fear is worse than the experience so far for me.

Stick with it. You'll be OK. :)

Thanks Sair,

Congrats on going through with it - we all deserve medals for this lol! Sounds like you've had a really good experience so far which is great. I'm seeing the pre-op people tomorrow and hopefully the actual op will be not too long afterwards.

At the moment it's a mixture of relief and disappointment that the op isn't tomorrow. Relief that I'm not walking around the house with that haunted look of impending doom and disappointment that it won't be over with quite yet. I'm amazed you're sitting at your PC so quickly afterwards. Even if I can't sit, I'm going to have to stand for a brief while during my recovery as my business is 100% online (Amazon, eBay etc.).

The enema wouldn't surprise me - seems logical. Still that can't be as bad as my two previous experiences with colonoscopies. Both times I had to take a really strong laxative that sent me to loo at least 15-20 times the day before the procedure - nightmare!

Thanks again for your reply - very helpful :-)

Thought I'd give you a quick update.

Surgery - last Monday (20th). Timeline from then ...

Tuesday 21st - Was OK. Obviously sore and unfomfortable from the surgery, but not terrible.
Wednesday 22nd - Wasn't so good. Visit(s) to the toilet that day were a little rougher. Still nowhere near as bad as the fissure at it's worst though.
Thursday 23rd - Very noticeable improvement. Feeling much better than Wednesday.
Friday 24th & Saturday 25th - Continued improvement. Things starting to feel looser. Very little pain.
Sunday 26th - Slight setback. Been taking Lactulose (as per hospital instructions - 10ml, 2 x daily) and I think it was starting to get too much. So ended up with (mild-ish) diarrhea, which didn't go down too well. Made things a little more uncomfortable for a while. Halved the dose of Lactulose at this point.
Monday 27th - Things still more "runny" than they should be making things a little uncomfortable.
Tuesday 28th (today) - Lower Lactulose dose seems right. Things are "soft", but not "runny". Which is what you want at this stage. Back to steady improvement.

Overall, I'm happy. No bleeding since last Wednesday. Nothing feels like it's re-torn or opened up. But things getting too runny at the weekend didn't help. Key is definitely careful diet management. I'm still using small amounts of diltiazem, which does seem to help. Not taking painkillers so often. Feeling is, it will all settle down in time. Signed off work at the moment. I work in IT in an open plan office. I can sit in front of a PC, but not for 7 or 8 hour stretches. And a side effect of the surgery and lactulose is LOTS of loud farting! Which I can't (and won't) stop. Don't think that would go down too well in the open-plan world!

And thanks for the heads up on the colonscopy. I have that to look forward to in a few months once the LIS surgery has healed up!