Sue27, I saw two crs's - one said my AF was fine, the other said I should tough it out - before finally seeing a third crs, who said that I could either live with my AF or have surgery to fix the problem. He did my LIS and fissurectomy about 3 weeks ago, and I'm now on the mend.
I don't know what your healthcare system is like in the UK, but I had to find a crs who understood AFs, before I could get any help. Some crs's just don't understand AFs.

Sweet,
Is that true that some CRS's dont actually understand AF's?? If that is the case i would avoid them like the plague!
How are you getting along now? Are you pain free yet?
I have a holiday booked 3.5 weeks following me scheduled LIS date - Do you think i should be in a position to travel by then?
Davo

Hi, Davo -
Yes, in my experience, some crs's do NOT understand AFs. My first crs saw mine and said it was fine. The second crs saw it, too, and said I should give it time and fiber. (He's a military doc, and I got the feeling he thought I should just tough it out.) Finally, the third crs looked at my AF and said I had two choices - to live with it or have it fixed (LIS and fissurectomy, in my case). He firmly said it would not heal on its own - and I believe that. --- So, ITA with you - it's very important to find a competent crs, one who understands the nature of AFs.
I'm better now - with still a bit of post-op discomfort - small amounts of soreness and occasional bits of burning. But my crs said that it IS a wound, after all (a post-op wound), and it takes a few weeks to properly heal. He thinks I'm doing fine - and I'm sure he's seen thousands of these things - or at least, hundreds.
I'm eating more foods I like - but I'm still trying to be careful. I haven't had any complications, to speak of.
I should think that yes, after 3.5 weeks post-op, you should feel strong enough to travel. I'm a month post-op now, and I'm thinking that if I had had to travel 3 days ago, I could have. I'm still a bit sore, but things are much better.
Keep us posted on your progress!

Hey Sweet,
Does your doc have you put anything on the wound?
Or is it just sitz baths?
So glad you are doing so well!
So you go for walks at all?
-Tanya

thanks for the great post!
this one is going into my permanent files.
pat

Hi, woi/Tanya -
My doc said that sitz baths don't really help with the healing, but that I could take them for comfort, if I wanted. (I guess different crs's have different opinions about these things.)
Yes, for itching, burning, his nurse said to use "Prax" - and though it's an OTC cream, I still had to order it from the drugstore. --- Last week, during my post-op visit, my crs said that if the itching/burning really bothered me, I could call his office and get an prescription for a different cream.
No walking, just yet. It's still a bit cool here, and I don't feel quite healed enough to walk too, too much, at this point. I'm still having some discomfort - not horrible - but I know I need to give myself time. There's no quick, easy fix for an AF -- even with surgery, there's the post-op to deal with, although I do expect things to be fine eventually.
How are you doing?

Thought i would add a bit more about LIS in relation to my CRS saying that the incontinance risk is 10% with sphincterotomy and less than 1% with LIS.
Sphinterotomy used to be carried out by making a cut one third into the sphincter muscle at the dentate line whereas tailored LIS makes a cut at the same level as the fissure itself (less deep and less risk of incontinance).
So if you are going for LIS make sure it is taliored to length of the fissure.
To see the difference between the two click on the following website, look at the second diagram and click on next to view the different scenarios
http://www.surgery-home.com/Anal%20fissure.html
Davo

Hi Guys,
So i have been in two minds about supplying an update to this thread for a few days now - the reason being is that i didn't want people to lose hope with Botox but in the end i decided to do the update.
As you may know i had LIS on Wednesday and before my surgery i had a good long chat with my CRS (i like to get as much information from him as possible to post on here!) Anyway he said that since my last visit he actually had his admin team work out a few statistics which we had discussed previously, so here they are:
Botox:
He was previously quoting a success rate of 50% however about half of these people return for follow up injections or go on to have LIS.
So he looked at Botox patients in the long term (1+ years) - the overall long term success rate for his Botox patients is actually 30% (The majority of which had to have a repeat injection)
LIS
He previously quoted 95-100% success rates but his actual long term success rate is 98% however he said the very few patients who do not heal normally have other complicating factors such as Chrones disease or other bowel conditions and this has an effect on the fissure. He has had no reported incidents of permanent incontinence.
I hope i have not upset anyone with the Botox info :(
Davo
I hope