im writing this from my hospital bed off my phone so please ignore any spelling mistakes
So...i just had a theoretical botox plus fissurectomy this morning. The procedure itself was done under general anesthesia (thank god) and was a breeze: drove to hospital myself checked in; a self administered enema (nurse offered but im shy) and some calming pill later (which didnt do anything, maybe because i was already calm?) i was on my way to the operating room. There i got teansfered to another table, got some warm towels over me (by far the best thing so far) and was off to the anesthetics room. This was a somewhat lobger stay, partly because the stabbed near the vein in my left hand first and then got it right with the right hand, and partly because the surgeon was a bit late. Anyway had a nice conversation with the ladies there and got some more towels (yay!).
Finally the anestgetician (or whatever hes called) comes in, says hi, then goodnight. I feel a bit queasy (he told me to expect it) and im out.
I wake up about two hours later, pretty quickly. I dont know how i should feel but i feel pretty fresh, like after a good night's sleep. The lady there is satisfied and releases me to my room, not before asking me if i have any pain, i give her a rating of 2 or 3 on the 10 scale and she gives me some painkillers intravenously which reduce this to a 0.
In my room i need to pee, the nurse suggests a bottle but i feel fine and go to the bathroom myself. She looks surprised so i take it as a good sign.
Now its four hours later, still no pain but i do have an old snoring man in my room to compensate. Ive eaten some clear soup, been to the bathroom three more times (from iv drip maybe?) and am waiting for the doc to come by later. Supposedly i could go home in the afternoon.
Meanwhile the nurse gave me a preventive pain pill and told me from what she heard the pain !might! get excruciating later...but no promises:)
...to be continued

Great it's all over and you're not in pain - that's wonderful news!
That's good that you can go home soon.
Happy healing!

Great news! I'm so glad everything went so smoothly! That's wonderful. The nurse might be right, you may have pain later, but you'll have good painkillers and as long as you remember your trusty stool softeners, there'll be no problem taking them.
Way to go! Now to the healing :D

Aaaand...I'm home. They decided not to keep me overnight, as I had zero pain. Unfortunately the doc only had 5 minutes for me (he was between surgeries, mobile phone calls and a next ER shift), but cleared some doubts and scheduled a new meeting for Wednesday, when he has more time. Did I say already this guy is great? :)
All in all even he was pretty surprised I feel so good. He said it's most likely the botox that's relaxing the sphincter. In the end I had botox (somehow sound-guided botox, seems like he had a syringe with ultrasound tip or something, details pending) + classic fissurectomy (no laser here people, more along). The reason for using the knife was that the fissure had been big and chronic (had it all my life basically) and was from 8 to 11 o'clock. Now it's all gone, hardened tissue, associated skin tag and all, leaving behind a pretty big hole...which surprisingly doesn't hurt...yet :)
I also asked the doc about any local anesthesia he might have done, told me he did a very small one, which would last for a max 5 hours...but it was already about 12 hrs when I was talking to him and no pain...so yea, must be t3h b0t0x :)
Now at home I just took off the big packing, which was smooth, but have a problem with the one inside. It seems to be made up of some kind of gum-like substance, which falls apart if you pull at it. It also seems to have fused a bit with the wound. I've managed to rip apart maybe half of it, but the rest is still there and I've decided to postpone it until the morning BM...which I absolutely dread! Anyone had this chewing-gum packing also?
As painkillers I got in the end some Panadol and Spiralgin, first for mild pain, second for severe. For some reason no Tramadol for home, even though I did get it in the hospital. Maybe the fact that the nurse gave them to me, instead of the doc, which was at the time running for the OR, had something to do with it. Hopefully I won't be needing the Tramadol until Wednesday when I see the doc again.
Oh, and as you can probably tell, I looked at the area. The wound looks deep and ugly, but all in all I can say I expected worse. There is very little swelling and no dripping or oozing blood. Also, I think I can make out some grayish needle-tip-like spots, I'm guessing this is where the botox went in?
Thanks for the well wishes and will (hopefully) come back tomorrow.

Forgot a vital piece of info: I have to take 5x5min showers with lukewarm water ONLY each day. NO SOAP, NO BATHS! As said, didn't get a chance to ask why not baths, but there you have it...

Congratulations dexterdude! it sounds like you've had the perfect surgery experience. I'm sorry I have no advice about the packing. I've not had it. But I think most people just take out what they can while they are still numb or pain-free, and let the rest work it's way out (Maurice had that experience). My guess about the no baths is that you don't want to soak an open wound in a tub full of germ particles.
I hope you have a great, pain-free night!

Thank you hope, you always have kind words for a dude...or dexterdude :). I wish the same to you and all boardies!

Had the first post-op BM this morning: it was small and watery (probably because yesterday i only ate a slice of bread and jam + tea and clear soup), unfortunately not enough to get the packing out...to my sheer frustration. Also can't take it out myself as the freaking gelatinous think breaks apart. Maybe it's supposed to dissolve on its own?
Pain is bad. Worse than fissure pain. I was actually shaking for about 10 minutes, then decided to take a pain killer. It kind of worked, pain is less now. Anyway, definitely not looking forward to the next (more solid) BM :(
Hopefully it's for a good cause...
later edit (about 20 minutes later): the painkiller or something worked, i have zero pain now, which for me is quite amazing considering i was literally shaking 20 minutes ago.

(sorry if this seems like rambling)
After a talk with my wife, I realized that I've been an idiot when talking to the doc about the location of the fissurectomy. He kept telling me it was 1 o'clock, but I (stupid) kept saying I had actually felt the fissure at 8 o'clock (so I was pretty worried that he cut someplace else and the ol' fissure had somehow sneaked its way through). We then went on to discuss about which way the clock was facing, and sure enough he was talking about his perspective while I was thinking about mine.
Which means clock needed to be flipped horizontally. Now it was closer to the truth, but still my 8 o'clock would be his 4 o'clock. So I was quite amazed that the fissure would stretch from 1 (where he said it was) to 4 (where I thought I was feeling it). He was also pretty confused when I was telling him this and told me maybe the pain radiated, but normally I should've felt it at 1 o'clock.
So...after talking about this with my wife, she just saw the obvious: it also depends on the position of the examination. I had been examined by the gastro doc in the 4-paws-butt-in-the-air position, while the crs did the op with me laying on my back. Which means, doh!, that the clock has to be flipped vertically also, so he was dead on with 1 o'clock (phew! so he operated the right one in the end! :))
Probably a useless bit of info and a testament to my stupidity, but maybe it helps someone in the future to know the actual system of reference from which the doc makes his observations vs your own.

Hey Dexterdude! I'm so sorry you suffered with that kind of pain, but it's great that the painkillers did such a good job. The BMs will get easier, gradually, until you are amazed that they don't hurt anymore. That takes a bit of time. The packing should also become less and less uncomfortable as it works it's way out - at least that's what I've read from other posts.
That clock system is incredibly confusing! It's had some befuddling discussions with doctors about fissure location too. :D That's not stupidity - just ambiguity.
Hang in there Dexterdude! It get better as each day passes!