I had surgery twice. After the first surgery I had intense pain for a week, then things got better for the second week, but by the third week the pain was back for good. I ended up having a repeat surgery 2.5 months later....the docs said it was an incomplete cut of the sphincter the first time around....
Anyway I am better now but still sore everyday...I am grateful I don't have intense burning pain everyday but I deal with discomfort everyday. It takes months for some people to heal in this area...but you should be getting better slowly. If not, if your condition stays the same after 4 weeks with no improvement I would speak to the surgeon you may be like me and require another surgery.....
Hi, I am scheduled to have Lateral sphincterotomy next week and I am kind of frighten by the whole thing. I am a young woman and I think I can tolerate pain quite well but, when I have a hard bowel movement it really, really hurts and then the spams start. If someone can help me who has had this surgery before give me some pointers about healing. and the long term effects that it will have on my body. My doctor told me that I could return back to work that following monday which would have been a couple of days after my surgery. I decided to take just about a week in a half off. (I know my body so I know that was the smart thing to do) someone mentioned to me about Gotu Kola was good to promote healing as well. Has anyone used this vitamin before? I really appreciate the help thx! :confused
Munchie85.
Why don't you try to heal your fissure yourself before you resort to surgery? I am on a waiting list for LIS surgery myself (due in Feb) but have managed to heal my fissure by making sure all my stools remain soft. If you don't tear your sphincter muscle it will eventually relax and allow blood to get to the fissure to heal itself. If you read my post entitled 'do any of these oils really work' I give a report on how I have approached the problem. I'm still free from pain and irritation but it's crucial to get your diet right. You will read from other people that water intake and roughage are essential to bulk up your stools and keep them soft but you should also try to create an emulsion in your gut that keeps the stools soft and lubricated so that they slide easily. You do this by increasing oil intake. Avoid eating nuts until you are well healed (and you will know when) as they tend to be abrasive if you don't chew them to a pulp first which is not always possible. Cheers, kennyboy.
Thanks for replying to my message. I have tried all of the med's my doctors has given me. I have tried changing my diet, soaking in sitz baths, etc. But nothing has seem to work for me. I have had this problem for right about a year now. Y so long? I was going through trial and error with the med's the Dr. told me to try. So now that nothing is working it has resulted to surgery. my last check up my doc said it has gotten a little worse.Which of course is not good news that anyone in my postion would want to hear. I wondered if you have tried Gotu kola I mentioned it in my previous posting. Or, might know someone who might have tried it?
I had my fissure for over a year and thought it was hemorrhoids. In fact my doctor diagnosed my problem as hemorrhoids until I saw a specialist at the hospital who said the pain I was suffering was due to a fissure, not hemorrhoids.
I had been treating what I thought were internal hemorrhoids instead of a fissure so it's no wonder the problem became chronic. I was in agony and would have gladly had surgery there and then to cure it but the waiting list for the operation was a couple of months so it gave me time to research as much as I could about anal fissures.
One of my main concerns was the same as yours i.e. how do you avoid unnecessary pain after the operation because you then not only have a fissure to contend with but an incision as well. I was desperate to try and find a sure way to keep my stools soft and avoid the post operative pain I had been reading about. Then it dawned on me that if I could keep my stools soft after the operation to promote healing what was stopping me from keeping my stools soft pre operation so that the sphincter muscle could relax out of spasm and heal naturally. I had no idea what would happen but by experimenting with consuming plenty of oil as well as water (and the usual healthy diet to include roughage) I kept my fingers crossed (as they say) and things started to get better by themselves. It took a couple of weeks without any bloody stools before the pain and irritation started to subside until the pain is now non-existent and the irritation has gone too. When they 'phone up to give me the day for the operation (and if things continue as they are) I shall be able to tell them I don't need surgery. The skin tag that developed in line with the fissure has gone too so I feel confident that I am healed.
The trouble is nobody in the diagnostic chain told me it was possible to heal myself, even when the fissure was in a chronic state, so that I could avoid surgery. Surgery should be the absolute last option if you cannot secure a self-cure because it's not a lifelong guarantee that it won't occur again and then if you ever need another LIS you have an increased risk of incontinence. Every time you have to resort to surgery the risk of incontinence increases.
On a positive note I'm almost glad I had the fissure because it has forced me out of a cloud of ignorance about diet, oils and fatty acids etc. I always though I lived a healthy life style eating plenty of natural cereals, roughage and whole foods until I started researching how to avoid this debilitating ailment and the importance of certain fatty acids which are in the 'good' oils which should be a part of a healthy diet. The benefits of this knowledge is that not only will I be able to (hopefully) avoid another fissure but I should be able to avoid all the other ailments that are associated with incorrect diet i.e. cholesterol and heart issues, as well as diabetes and a lot of other nasties as well.
So my advice to you is to turn your experience with this painful ailment into a positive experience and make changes that will turn out to be long term gains. Every cloud has a silver lining as they say. Cheers, kennyboy.
Before having surgery, ask you colorectal doctor if he/she could try silver nitrate on your fissure. It is simple to apply and it causes cauterization of the skin. I had a chronic fissure and after two applications of silver nitrate, I was healed.
Well it has been awhile since i have posted. I went ahead with my surgery and I can tell you that everything was ok. The first couple of days were kind of rough since he had to do and open LIS which he had to cut me a little bit more than normal. having a bowel movement was not as bad as i thought. I had to use a enema since the stool softners were not working. OMG!!! that enema was no joke especially with stiches. but I had a bowel movement. Yes, I cried but it was just for a moment... I went to the dr three weeks later and he said that I am healing just fine. I am not completely healed but I am getting there. I have a little soreness when i have a bowel movement but that's due to me not being healed all of the way. But thanks to everyone who guided me through this. I really appreciate it.
Jaydee. This is a reply I gave to somebody who asked as similar question.
I don't think it matters too much how you take the oil but the aim is to try to get an even textured emulsified stool and the way to do that I believe is to take the oil with some food or drink so that it mixes nicely in your stomach. Imagine you are a concrete mixer (ha ha).
I have been known to swig neat olive oil from the bottle when I've got home having been out for a meal. After a while (when you take it like that) you start to appreciate the different flavours and why you pay more for one brand than another. Always try to buy it in dark bottles so that light is kept away from oxidising it and turning it rancid. You pay a bit more but you can be sure you are getting fresh oil. Most people are ignorant (as I was) that supermarkets are probably selling rancid oil if they keep it and store it in clear bottles for any length of time and the customers don't know the storage times. In dark bottles it will last for ages in a cool place. The most expensive (and best) oil I have ever bought and tasted was Australian oil which I paid about £8 for. I was surprised because most of the best oils are reputedly supposed to come from Crete or Greece. After a while you start to look at the brands and where they come from like you would look at wines. After I've bought a brand I haven't tried before I'll take a few swigs just to do a 'tasting'.
I'm not alone because at the point of harvest and after the process of crushing the cold olives professional oil tasters then decide on its quality and price it accordingly. There are international standards they have to follow so that an oil from Italy can be rated equally with an oil from Spain etc. Quite fascinating when you get into it. The only difference between oil and wine is that you don't pay a premium for the 'year' of harvest with oil as it is not a commodity that will store for years so there is no point. Oil buffs tend to favour certain plantations and varieties of olive over year of harvest. I'm rambling, sorry.
Re fiber. Mary Enig advises against the 'processed' cereals because they've been subjected to extreme heat and messed about with to make them more palatable for people who find chewing 'whole' grains difficult i.e. grains that have just been crushed or shredded or whatever. Any sort of bran tastes a bit like cardboard but like you I cheer them up a bit with fruit and coconut oil is great with them.
Re: Acute Fissure Surgery 
Which of course is not good news that anyone in my postion would want to hear. I wondered if you have tried Gotu kola I mentioned it in my previous posting. Or, might know someone who might have tried it?
