Hi all-
Today is one big scaredycat day for me. Since my CRS recommended the LIS over the phone following a checkin with me , I haven't really had the chance to ask him all my questions yet. In fact, I haven't really put my questions down on paper yet, which for me is where I actually form coherent thought!
But no matter what he says, I'd like to know your take on certain things. I guess the ones that come to mind are:
1. It sounds like a lot of you didn't sit much for a while. Did you just lie down a lot or how did that work? I'm lucky in that I'm retired, so I don't have any work pressures and no children at home. But I tend to push myself to do all sorts of things around the house. How long before you felt like you could just do the normal around the house things- dinner, laundry, etc...
2. Will things like exercise or lifting things be off limits for a while? How long? Is it ok to at least walk a mile or two after a week or two, assuming things are going ok? My current exercise routine involves going to Curves ( a circuit workout) or jumping on a minitrampoline at home.
3. I'm wondering how much more Miralax I should take to offset the pain meds I'm assuming I'll be on. I know that is pretty much an individual thing, but how did that go for you all?(I find myself wanting to say "all ya'll" and that would definitely give away my origins, wouldn't it?)
4. The thing several have written about with the not feeling clean is kindof bugging me. I have to say I am probably a complete "neat freak" anyway and have always carried around baby wipes. I just don't like the idea of "leaking" on myself...
5. And on a more fun note, how did you occupy yourselves post surgery?
I know several of you have been online within a day or so,- are you not sitting then? As you can see, my mind is going a mile a minute. Earlier today, I felt new resolve to not second guess my surgery, but now later I find myself just scared to death.
Anyway- thanks for being patient with me. I promise to pay it forward!

1) I basically laid on the couch watching TV for 2+ weeks.
2) I felt so fragile that I didn't try to exercise. My CRS advised against jumping around. I probably wouldn't lift anything heavy either.
3) N/A (I don't use Miralax).
4) I always had gauze down there and was changing it out very frequently.
5) Netflix streaming on my Wii.
Good luck, Bambi!

Bambi,
I laid down during my recovery for at least two weeks. I had my laptop and watched T.V. I stayed on this forum most of the day.
I wouldn't do any lifting or exercise for awhile but that's just me. I've had a good recovery so I guess I've done something right,LOL
I took the normal amount of my stool softener that I always took and everything went ok, but I could tell the bm's were getting harder and switched to the miralax- regular dose (a capful). I only took the pain meds two full days and then I think I took one more vicodin at a random time before I got the valium for the spasms.
You will probably have to shower or clean that area quite a bit in the beginning. There's kind of a discharge from the surgery for a short while. The leakage that has stuck with me is like I haven't wiped right the first time, nothing staining or anyone would know about, but still annoying and I'm like you w/ the baby wipes. I've always used them even before the fissure.
I say y'all and I have to make an effort not to type it on here....Lol

pss... I know it's hard not to do everything around the house, but just look at it this way- if you can give yourself those first two weeks of being pampered and being lazy then you will have a head start and less set backs and trouble that can come along with doing too much. We give our fissure months and years without LIS and it just seems fair that we could give the surgery a couple of weeks. Before week three I was shopping all day.

Thank you Dawn. I have been trying to think of the things I can do while recovering (watching certain shows I have on DVDs, finishing a marathon book I'm in the middle of, etc...) I'd really like some of that Valium now! With the lack of cleanliness feeling, does that happen even if you have showered off after the BM? Just wondering what to expect. Sorry to ask such a person question

Yes it does happen even after showering off down there a couple of times. It seems like it last for a couple of hours after a bm then it goes away. It's very annoying especially if I'm out of the house walking a lot and I wasn't able to be at home for a couple of hours after a bm to shower it off. It gets irritated and that's how I know I need to clean again.
It has gradually gotten better since the surgery but it's been slow for me. NG and others have said they did the same and it eventually got better. Steve and I have been talking about if it may be the softer bm's because of the stool softeners and the muscle also being looser.
I still feel it was worth the trade and is a small price to pay at this point...
You can ask any questions you like. I don't mind at all :)
And yeah, just lay around and watch some movies, read and take it easy even if you don't feel like you need to. I really think it helps to keep the pressure off of our butts. Some may disagree but it served me well. I shopped all day a couple of days before I was three weeks post-op and had no problems since then... I didn't drive until I was three weeks either. I probably could have but I really wanted to just get the recovery over with and keep the swelling down.
It really wasn't too bad at all, just kind of sore and achey. If you can get the valium, it really does help you relax and the possible spasms after LIS.
It really was my life-saver. I had one bottle and I still have a few left. I just took 1/2 of a pill even when the spasms stopped just to keep me relaxed during the bm's. I had a lot of anxiety in the beginning of the recovery with that.

pss... Bambi, I actually can't feel any poop or anything down there. I'll just get an irritaing feeling and I know it needs to be cleaned.... It's not like a pooping in my pants feeling, Lol I'm not sure how else to describe it.

dawn wrote:I actually can't feel any poop or anything down there. I'll just get an irritaing feeling and I know it needs to be cleaned.... It's not like a pooping in my pants feeling, Lol I'm not sure how else to describe it.

I know what you mean dawn, you couldn't even say it's a skid mark lmao

What makes me feel the most clean down there is a 5-minute sitz bath with one of those in-toilet sitz thingies. Soaking in the water gets rid of all the "dirt".

StevePain wrote:I know what you mean dawn, you couldn't even say it's a skid mark lmao

I refuse to call it a skid mark Steve until it makes it to the underwear
I will never let it go that far and earn that title...