Immense pain still 3 weeks after sphincterectomy
Posted , 4 users are following.
I had Sphincterotomy surgery a little over 3 weeks ago for a chronic anal fissure. For the first 3-4 days after the surgery the pain was manageable. Since then the pain has been getting increasingly worse each time I have a bowel movement. The pain has gotten to the point that its hard to even stand after a bowel movement. Sometimes when having a bowel movement my body has a very painful muscle spasm and causes uncontrollable straining in the area of the rectum. I have had a hard time getting my stool to the desired consistency, with it being watery more than half the time. Bowel Movements are very sudden and cause me to suddenly run to the bathroom in less than 20 seconds to avoid an accident. Urinating is even difficult some days.Walking/standing is also painful most of the day, and I can feel pain going down the left side of my leg and buttocks (the side the incision was made). I have been doing tub soaks 2-3 times a day with epson salts. I have also been taking 2 extra strength Tylenol every six hours as instructed by my doctor with limited amounts of Oxycodone when the pain gets out of hand. I have made sure to take a stool softener every morning as well as a liquid fiber supplement. When i had a follow up appointment at two weeks with my doctor he said the pain is normal and you should see a reduction in pain sometime in the next 1-2 weeks. He did however say the area of the fissure is still very swollen. At this point I am extremely limited in what i am able to do on a daily basis. My day usually consists of moving from my bed to the couch due to pain from walking/standing. Sometimes I am able to get in a short walk if the pain is manageable. About a week after my post-op appointment I called my doctor concerned about the pain I was still experiencing. He stated if did not have a Fever or chills then I just needed to let by body heal as the pain is relatively normal for this type of proceedure.
I am just wondering if anyone else has had experience with pain this long after the surgery? I am at a point now that I'm wondering if I will ever get better. Also what are some possible things, If any I could be doing to shorten the recovery time. Thank you for any and all help.
0 likes, 3 replies
ashl brent57309
Posted
today I'm exactly 3 weeks post surgery and what has helped me to heal faster was lots of sitz bath and jogging a lot from the day of surgery (2 to 3 times a day each time 1.8 miles (I'm a runner). the first few days were tough for me because of diarrhea (pain10/10 during BM on diarrhea),but when the stool got firmer pain decreased to 3-4/10) . the pain during the day was 2/10 but by day 5th it got to 6-7/10 and lasted 1 to 2 minues . I only took one Tylenol during recovery.
shelly66193 brent57309
Posted
When i had inflammation with mine my Dr gave me Medihoney its a special honey you can get from some pharmacies and amazon. It worked great. im almost 2 months out and im still in pain
Rich44 brent57309
Edited
Hi Brent, sorry to hear about your issues. I had my LIS this past October after 6 full years of dealing with a chronic fissure that was unbearable at times. I still can't believe I lived with it so long. What I would ask you is who did your surgery? Was it a general surgeon or a colorectal surgeon? My doctor was a colorectal surgeon that headed the department at the hospital he was at. I did an anal manometry test first to make sure I was strong enough to have the LIS done (I was so strong that he told me the surgery may not even work but there was zero chance of incontinence). Anyway I had it done and I never took any pain killers. I joked that there is no way the post-op pain could be any worse than the fissure pain and I was right. I did buy a sitz bath to put on the toilet (WHY I didn't try this sooner I'll never know). After about a week, things got back to normal and I had no pain anymore when having a BM or since. I had one movement that caused bleeding a few weeks after the surgery but I immediately used my sitz bath I bought for the toilet so I didn't have to sit in the tub and everything was fine. So it's been almost 3 months and I have no pain at all going to the bathroom. Doesn't matter if it's big or loose. It's truly unbelievable that he fixed it (and he said he didn't - all he did was cut the sphincter and that was it). Six long years.
I am curious about the muscle spasm you mentioned. Is it near the tailbone? Is it hard to stand up once you go to the bathroom? Hard to walk normal? When you sit down is it super painful until the spasm is released by you sitting down? Do you feel a sensation when you sit of a golf ball being there? If you are screaming YES! YES! YES! I had it too in 2014-16. We could not truly figure it out. The surgeon at the time (who did not do an LIS) said I had to "break the cycle." Break the cycle?! What does that mean?! Anyway, I left my job in January 2016. The spasm issue was instantly gone. It was caused by stress at my job! You may be manifesting stress in that area. Are you stressed out daily by something (besides your fissure)? I can't really help you other than what I said. My surgery was a success and there was minimal post-op pain. Maybe you should see another colorectal surgeon.