Bleeding after PPH - pretty bad.

Sam7654321 · Newbie Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 2

This forum has been helpful as I'm browsing it.. but I had a question to anyone who may have had the PPH procedure. I had it on the 26th of Dec, and for the most part the recovery has been far worse that i expected or was told. Mainly I've had this feeling of soreness and sometimes burning soreness that has yet to really go away some 9 days later. Moreover, today I about scared myself to death when a good amount of dark red blood came out during a BM.. and then kept happening for about 5-6 times, up until I felt light headed from all the blood loss. I called the doctor who didn't seem too alarmed and said that "a little" bleeding is normal and can occur as far out as this.. but that if it kept happening I should come in for possibly some stitching on what ever is bleeding. Well, finally the heavy bleeding seems to have stopped, but now I get these occasional very dark brown "Wet farts" that come out when I sit to go.. I'm eating as much fiber as possible, and don't know what else to do. I'm dreading having to travel from Phoenix to Washington DC via a stop off in Denver on Monday, and the lack of proper restrooms and hot water to sooth my butt after a BM..

Anyone have any experience with the healing process of the PPH? I was told it was a lot easier than the traditional surgery, and if so.. God bless you all that did that!

Guest · Guest

Hi Sam, my mom just had the PPH procedure exactly 3 weeks ago. During the past few days, she is experiencing the same bleeding during BM that you described above. I'm curious to know how your recovery went after the bleeding. My mom, like you has had a really bad experience with this procedure. Michael

Tham · Newbie Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 45

"Lot easier" than traditional surgery only in terms
of lesser pain.

That was my mistake too, choosing the PPH method.
It's been overrated, overpromoted and overhyped, not to
mention far more costly. Many surgeons are jumping on
the staple bandwagon as the latest fad or "in-thing", and
many patients are also selecting it, thinking it is a easy,
troublefree and painless method.

It takes experience and precision to use the device. If
the surgeon does the suture too high or too low down
the anus, there are going to be problems, not to mention
intense pain.

The Ethicon (Johnson & Johnson) staple device alone costs
between M$1,000 and M$2,000 in Malaysia, depending on
which hospital you go to. It's made in Mexico actually, and looks
like a kid's flimsy toy ray gun.

There have been quite a few complications and side effects
with this device - bleeding, fecal urgency rectal occlusion,
stenosis, rectal perforation, suture tear, rectovaginal fistula.
Because titanium staples will be grasping your anal wall,
anything can happen. Worse, it has a high rate of relapse -
the staples do not really cut away your piles, it just pulls or
retracts them back up the rectum. One of my hemorrhoids
have already recurred only after three years.

I had a combined staple plus diathermy surgery. The staple
cannot grasp hemorrhoids which are too big and confluential,
as was the case with one of mine. It stapled two, and this third
one had to be excised with diathermy.

The surgeon packed my anus with gauze. I started bleeding
in the middle of the night. The next morning, I went to the
toilet, thinking I was going to have a bowel movement, but
only passed out congealed blood, staining the whole toilet
bowl red. I'm not sure if this bleeding was from the staple
or diathermy, or both.

I didn't realize how much blood I had lost until a Hgb test
showed it had dropped from 13 to 10.

The the difficult recovery period for the next two months
- fecal urgency and incontinence running to the toilet 5 or
6 times a day. I wore a lady's sanitary pad, but like Sam above,
I kept passing out dark brown fecal matter with smelly gas
every now and then. Stenosis caused the passing out of
long, pencil thin, dark stools in the toilet. The worst thing
was fecal impaction on two occasions, just when I thought
I was recovering.

I would suggest you use Dead Sea salts as a sitz bath at
least twice a day to help with the healing. Then get some
emu oil and rub it in and around the anus. Drinking some
aloe vera juice made from the gel, which doesn't cause a
cathartic action, also helps healing.

Guest · Guest

My mom continues to bleed with bowel movement almost a month after the procedure. The blood is mixed in with the stools and it is red/maroon. The doctor says this is normal and that it is from the wound and that it can last for another 4 to 6 weeks. My mom is looking to see another doctor for a second opinion. This was supposed to be the less painful of the hemorrhoid procedures. It has turned out to be the opposite. Please think carefully before doing this. Also chose an experienced doctor/surgeon. Thanks.

Tham · Newbie Joined: 28 Jul 2006 Posts: 45

It appears the latest Ethicon model "PPH-03" staple
causes lesser bleeding than the first generation "PPH-01"
model which they used on me and many of the people in
this forum.

If anyone still wishes to go for the staple method, ask
the surgeon if they are using this model.

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/queryd.fcgi?db=pubmed&cmd=Retrieve&dopt=Abstract&list_uids=17500179&itool=pubmed_docsum

Bleeding after PPH - pretty bad.

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