Hello All,
I am typing this email while standing up, as I am sure most of you can understand. I have had a fissure for a few years now, but(no pun intended) they always healed till last year and than OMG!!! I was coming home on a 12 hour flight, had to go to the bathroom and I wanted to jump off the plane. I was stuck in a metal tub for 10 house in the greatest pain of my life. While I went to marine boot camp over 25 years ago and have a pretty good tolerance for pain…WOW. After a year of being in pain more or less the full time, trying all the meds and gimmicks, I am going the surgery route the week after thanksgiving…
I know many of you have been though this and I am looking for any suggestion on steps I can do to get ready for so that it will be a good as possible and suggestion on steps I can take in healing.
I am trying to cope with the day to day pain which goes from a 3-23. I really am counting the days Any suggestion on what works for others to lessen the pain besides a bottle of Jack. My wife and kids have been great and I feel really bad because sometime the pain is so bad, I snap at them. After this is done with I am taking them for a dad has been an not nice and I am sorry vacation…
Thank you all and god bless

Hey wecc! Congratulations on your up-coming surgery! You will be so happy you did it! I had an LIS in May and my fissure is healed
To be honest, my recovery was a bit bumpy. I developed a small fistula at the incision site and had to have another minor surgery (fistulotomy) to correct it, which sucked. But I'm still really happy I got the surgery because I got my life back. So, what I'm saying is, even with a complication it was still the best decision for me.
If you are not already taking stool softeners, I recommend that you get started on some before the surgery (unless you have loose stools already - then you probably won't need them just now). Miralax is the favourite among the boardies here and I really recommend it. You will likely be given pain killers after the surgery and they can constipate, so a good stool softener is a must. Some folks keep a back-up supply of Milk of Magnesia (MOM) in case things are slow to get going post-op. It can also take Miralax a few days to take effect so having MOM around can help with that.
I also suggest making arrangements for at least two weeks of serious rest. In my experience, the post-op pain was nothing like the fissure pain, but you'll be tender nonetheless. The first week is often the roughest, but you'll still want to take it easy for another week to ensure good healing conditions.
You might also want to put together a menu of nice, soft, easily digested meals for the first week or two post op. There are really good meal ideas in the 'diet tips' forum.
I managed the pain before my surgery with a muscle relaxant (Robaxacet) and ibuprofen. The muscle relaxant helped diminish the spasms somewhat. Nice hot/warm baths, as you already know, are wonderful for pain relief, and they also help with the healing too, since they promote blood flow to the butt.
I hope some of this is helpful to you. There are lots of folks here who can offer great advice; but meanwhile, I think you'll find searching through the older threads really helpful too. There are lots and lots of success stories here. Don't let the scarier stories throw you - there are complications to this surgery, but they are actually pretty rare. You'll find that even most of us who had a rougher go of things have absolutely no regrets about getting the surgery.

Welcome to the forum! Hope gave excellent advice. I can't think of anything to add! I had the surgery last year, never regretted it and had a pretty normal recovery. :o
I typed a post earlier but in the chaos (my house) this morning deleted when I meant to edit :oops:

Wecc, Sorry to hear about your pain and what you've been through but i think you've made a good decision toward surgery. The advice of Dawn and Hope above is all good. I had LIS 3 weeks ago and do not regret it. I am just working thru some minor things but i know that i am on the road to recovery. The only thing i wish i had done was to take my vitamins which I had stopped doing about 6 months ago. Because I had stopped eating a lot of foods I don't think i was getting the vitamins i needed to keep my system in an optimal state for healing. Just my two cents.

Hi Wecc,
Welcome! I am sorry you are going through so much pain. I can relate to the airplane situation you described because I was traveling on vacation when mine flared up. I ended up with a rectal abcess, large and deep anal fissure and a thrombosed hemorrohoid all while traveling. Sitting on the plane as well as a six hour lay over sure didn't help. I just wanted to die! I feel for you. I thought it was a flare up of my hemorrhoid but soon found out I was wrong and was heading to surgery asap. Hopetoheal, Dawn and Rosa gave excellent advice. I can tell you that for me healing is slow but every day is getting a little better. I would do this again. You being here is one of the best things you can do to prepare yourself. Welcome! If I could add a thing or two I would suggest learning more about insoluble and soluble fibers. I found that getting a balance of both really helped with the BMs. I cut out meat and dairy because they can tend to constipate. You may want to do this a week or so before surgery (or even now if you are constipated). You can eventually incorporate these in to your diet again. I recently added a very soft meat (meatloaf) and man was it delicious. I still limited the portion size and made sure to eat it with a lot of good fiber and water. Water....water....water. Make it your best friend and cut out the sodas, coffee and tea as they tend to dehydrate one. Metamucil three times a day has been a God send. It keeps my BMs soft and manageable, even now. I have a feeling I will be taking it for a very long time. Stay positive and come back here for support should the pain get a little rough or for any questions you may have. The folks here are great!

Hi Wecc:
Just a quick follow up....
My sample menu first two weeks after surgery:
Breakfast: Always oatmeal (still do to this day, four weeks later)
Lunch: a 1/3 Thomas English Muffin (8 grams of fiber and 5 grams of protein) along with some peanut butter for fat and additional protein and jam. Some strawberries, pears or blueberries or maybe a “cooked” vegetable. Sometimes both. I avoided salads and heavy fats because they tended to cause diarrhea which was no fun.
Or, angel hair pasta with olive oil, cauliflower and bell peppers or veggies of choice. I would sprinkle a smidgen of lemon and parmesan cheese for flavor. Otherwise, no meats or dairy. This was a personal choice I have not regretted. I just felt better knowing I wasn’t eating food that I knew was hard to digest.
Dinner: Lentil soup that I put in to my blender (no corn or heavy spices). The blender was probably not necessary but I wanted things moving along so thought “what the heck”. Ha! Warm and soothing, lots of fiber and protein and easy to digest. I added some cooked veggies and fruit and another English muffin if still hungry.
I thought I would share this with you. You may find better suggestions on the site, but this worked for me. Good luck and can’t wait to hear how good things are going for you after your surgery! Rosebud

Oops... noticed a typo (1/3 Fiber Thomas English Muffin) I ate the whole thing :D
Oh yeah... mashed potatoes and some Heinz mushroom gravy (yummy!) (not from a box though, they are constipating). Just a baked potato (with skin) mashed with a fork and that yummy gravy.... :)

Just wanted to say thank you for all the suggestions. While as I am sure you can all understand and many have been there, I kept thinking if I am doing the right thing. All your encouragement and kind words do help very much. Also, after having a day like I did today, where I am pacing my house because I cannot sit down and am in so much pain, I know this is not the way I want to live the rest of my life. So with that said, I really do not have any choice……it is what it is….. other suggestion anyone else might have, I sure appreciate it.
BTW...rosebud...I like your mashed Potatoes. While I know I am going to have to watch what I eat, I do not want to lose too much weight.

Everything above is exactly what I would say. My biggest suggestion would be. MOVE THAT SURGERY DATE TO NEXT WEEK! Lol
I thought the pain was going to be my life and for over a month was a shut in. I hated it. I am giving my surgeon a hug at my follow up this Friday.

If you start softners, go with Miralax, colace is useless.
My flare up that finally made me decide on surgery happened on the night before we left Cincinnati to go home to Atlanta from a mini vacation. Needless to say it turned an 8-9 hour drive into a 12+ hour drive making my wife pull over every few miles so I could walk off the pain.
I have had a really smooth recovery but I promise, even if you have a few bumps, even if it sucks, you will see improvement. Personally, I am freaked out by how little problems I have, I keep waiting for the bad things to happen.

Hi Tony….thank you for the reply. Is there something you did pre or post surgery that you believe made a big difference in your mild recovery?
The fact is, this is the next appointment that is available. This CRS is the president of new your state association of CRS and has preformed over 1500 of these surgeries. Given what everyone said on this site, go for the very best DR that has much experience. The first CS I saw was very rushed and was pushing me out the door with all the questions I had, this DR spent all the time I need going over everything.
I am very happy to hear how things are going for you!