Hemorrhoid Surgery Recovery Time

munchkin1960 · Newbie Joined: 04 Apr 2008 Posts: 6

Percocets are stronger than vicodin. Vicodin is stronger than darvocet. All can cause constipation, unfortunately.

I'm now 2 mos. post surgery and am finally off the pain pills. Still swollen after a BM (and still have some pain). I have the same problem as another person who said in their post that the pain and swelling makes it feel like you have to have a BM. I seem to have 2-4 in a row; by that time I'm not feeling too good! Crying or Very sad

Still, it's getting better. Still don't know if it's been worth it - it will depend on how much the swelling and pain goes down and how much of what's there now is scar tissue. As my GYN said - it's pretty scary looking. Right now it's not that much different that before my surgery except I don't have to push everything back in, but it's still sore and swollen (like before my surgery).

My doctor said it takes 3 mos. for any surgery to heal completely. That meshes with what SCZEPP1 said. One month to go, I guess.

Painpainpain · Newbie Joined: 22 May 2008 Posts: 28

I feel for all of you. I really do. I discovered a bump on the exterior of my anus on the 9th. On the 19th another one formed. I went to the doctor on the 22nd and it was reveiled I had a Thrombosed Hemorrhoid. I will be going in soon to get rid of the clot or clots soon, hopefully next week.

One problem.. I am unemployed, living in PA and have no health benefits. Yea that means I am possibly screwed right? I will be able to afford this surgery, but if other surgery is needed, or complications arise, I am screwed..

This really scares me. I am unemployed and need to find work soon. All of my previous experience has been labor work. Well as we know, you cant walk around with a hemorrhoid and expect to impress anyone.

I am absolutely screwed...

As of now the Thrombosed Hemorrhoid is the size of my thumb. This thing is so swollen..... and the pain and pressure i feel from the swelling is almost umbareable.

Anyone else in a similar situation?? Have you found anything that has helped you? Are there jobs that suited for people with this condition??

Wow I am so stressed out... I really feel for all of you and hope everyone gets better soon.

Guest · Guest

I'm not sure if it is possible to get it done if you have larger ones, however I just had laser surgery to remove mine 3 days ago, but I don't think they were very big.

The day after I spent at home, but no real problem, on the second day i was happily surprised to find that my first BM afterwards wasn't really so bad. I went to work, and I even drove 4 hours that day. It hurts, but I haven't taken any pain meds at all. I am taking softeners, so that helps a lot also.

I feel so bad for you going though all of that. I looked on here because I was thinking my slight pain wasn't normal (the dr. said i could go back to work the same day). I hope everyone gets better very very soon!

And those of you thinking about it, just check into the laser option.. If it is a possibility, get it.

Guest · Guest

Friends,
Its been a week to the day. Internal and external removed or stapled. I hate to discourage anyone looking into having the proceedure so I'll just say this. It has been painful, at one point I felt as though I crapped a cactus. I don't expect it to be much better by tomorrow. However, it is getting better. At times where the pain was really rough to get past I took some comfort in the fact that the condition wasn't getting better on it's own prior to the surgery. I dealt with the pain and bleeding for over 7 yrs, it seemed most everyday I was concerned if I would be able to do my job or even have a moments rest. Now though the pain is there and I'm moving about rather slowly I am back at work, lite duty, and I am getting through it.

LGilbert · Newbie Joined: 23 Jun 2008 Posts: 1

Most of the questions on this site involve "...should I or shouldn't I?", "will it hurt?", "Will they go away?", "How long will it take to recover?", etc.

I am a week into a complete hemorrhoid removal. Had I known how much better I was ultimately going to function, I would have had this surgery ten years ago. After twenty years of problems, I know the following for sure:

There are ways to minimize developing hemorrhoids or reduce their bother, mostly involving a lifetime of good eating habits including a high fiber diet to facilitate easy bowel movements without straining. HOWEVER, once internal roids have become chronically distended, prolapse, bleed from fissures, and show other signs of increasing dysfunction, they are not going to go away. They are going to get worse until you live under a procedure of cold packs after bowel movements with manual retraction of prolapsed and/or bleeding polyps followed by clenching for multiple 30 second intervals and lying upside down until you feel better. Is this the way to live?

Find a rectal surgeon specialist, not a general surgeon. A major hospital will have a colon and rectal surgical practice. Make an appointment with a hemmoroid specialist. A specialist knows exactly what has to be done. You might only need a rubber band ligation. Probably not when the roids get to the point you have been miserable for years. Once they are bad, they are bad.... They are not going to go away. Perhaps they can be controlled with a non-surgical procedure. Only the specialist who has done this a zillion times has the experience for a proper evaluation. Forget going to a hemorrhoid laser clinic or other "retail" practice. Those are only for early intervention, not fully compromised vascular systems. Insure that you choose a specialist with vast surgical experience. . He will know how to not cut too deeply and damage a muscle or remove too much distended skin. He will use microsutures that won't tear. The operation takes 1-2 hours depending upon the extent of the damage. You will wake up in pain. If you decide you are miserable and unhappy then that will be your condition for the duration of recovery. If you are smart, you will be stoic, as I was, as I knew this was part of the process. The surgeon will give you high power pain killers, and perhaps Valium for spasms. Use them for as short a term as possible to avoid their side effects (severe constipation, for one).

Two days after the procedure I terminated all pain killers and ended the Valium, relying on Tylenol, stool softeners and a mild laxative. It still hurt, but not so much that extreme intervention was warranted. Your first BM will take from 1/2 hour to all day, hopefully by day 3. The specialist will warn you that you will be miserable the first time. You'll live. You will try to pass something that feels like a petrified walnut because your system can't tell if there is fecal matter present or your butt is just swollen and resembles fecal matter. So, you drink lots of water, and take a laxative. Then, relief. The next day things are a bit easier. By day four, going to the bathroom is a pleasure. LOOK!! No distended tissues, no hour process to restore some state of normalcy.

I took a mile walk on day 2 being dragged by my dog. I don't recommend this.... By day 4, I was snipping plants in the garden; By day 6, I was gently sawing small dead limbs off trees (no effort over twenty pounds is allowed); By day 7, I am so happy that I did this and I feel good enough to do about anything that won't raise my blood pressure. Yes, there was a lot of pain for a couple of days. So what??? You don't get something for nothing. The spectre of pain became ominous when the pre-admission interview nurse asked me how much pain I could tolerate. I swear I heard her ask me to give her a number between "...8 and 10." I always look for the humor in the most miserable conditions. On the way home from the hospital our van battery died as I was getting pain killers from the pharmacy. I had not been out of surgery three hours and I was taking apart the battery connections. The initial pain killers had worn off. No matter, we were stranded in a torrential downpour. My girlfriend walked to our house, retrieved my car and I cleaned the battery terminals and we jumped the cars together. Zilch. My VTVM (voltage test meter) indicated the battery was toast and sucking down the system. An AAA battery truck was called fixed the van. Okay, so I was in severe pain after surgery fixing a van in a thunderstorm. Could there be anything more unexpected and, thus, bizarrely fun, when you are miserable? Would you prefer a boring moment? Not me. I am at my best in a crisis, an opportunity to solve a problem.

Bleeding: You will bleed for a couple of weeks. You had parts of your bowel removed and there might be 60 or more stitches that are in long lines from inside your rectum, through your anus opening to the outside where the external roids were happily making you miserable until their leisurely existance was teminated. The wounds have to knit. They will ooze blood and plasma until the skin is again intact. You can afford to lose some; You have plenty. So you pack yourself with a couple of cotton balls stretched into a 3 inch hotdog shape and change them every couple of hours. Be creative. I cut some clean towels into small rectangles and throw them away after every change as I was getting sensitive to the cotton balls. Every time you go to the bathroom you get to hop into the shower and wash with a nice hot stream from your handheld shower head you insured was in place in preparation for the first blessed event, followed by a closely directed 30 second cold blast. Very nice....

A week later and I'm ready to go for walks at reasonable speed and I am reveling in my decision to have had this procedure. So, it hurt a lot for two days, I got to attempt to fix a car under duress, and there was a discussion as to whether the initial post-hemorroidic bowel movement was worse than childbirth. It's part of the experience. If you want to really be miserable being miserable, just lie around complaining. I prefer to enjoy myself while miserable, figuring out ways to keep my new puppy in check, planning pathetically healthy meals, contemplating a summer exercise program to aid final recovery and sneaking outside for very slow adventures. My girlfriend kept preventing me from assisting her in gardening. I thought clipping small twigs would not cause a problem. She limited me to pointing out suspect tree branches she could saw off. I was allowed to water the tomatoes and feed Minnie-the-Moocher, a pregnant deer that has adopted us and looked very worried as I walked very slowly to her bowl with her daily ration of deer chow checkers.

Well, it's no lifting over 20 pounds for the next three weeks, but I have lots of projects I can do like fixing the primitive fish clock, insuring our baby wrens are not disturbed by our killer cat and photographing the growing wasp nest in the garage. Hmm...being disabled isn't so bad after all, especially when you feel better than you have been for twenty years. You just change your attitude, make productive choices given available opportunities, and start humming, "Keep On The Sunny Side Of Life".

LG

sunnsurf · Newbie Joined: 24 Jun 2008 Posts: 1

I had a thrombosed hemorrhoid removed over one month ago. The pain was severe for about two days after surgery. I highly recommend a completely clean system before surgery. You do not want to have BM after this procedure for a few days and staying on a very soft diet after surgery is best too. I stayed on liquids for about a week after surgery and it helped to ease the BMs. I am still having pain with BMs and some bleeding. I have found drinking metamucil twice a day, stool softeners, digestive enzymes, and eating more fiber filled foods have helped with keeping the stool soft. A hard stool is like a knife to the anus and the pain takes hours to go away with the help of mild pain medication. I would still choose this surgery even with the pain and suffering over living with a thrombosed hemorrhoid.

I believe my total time away from work was about one month. The warm bath water was and still is my best relief after BMs. Things I have changed to prevent future hemorrhoids: Get on/get off the toilet. No more sitting for long periods of time while texting or reading. FIBER!! lots of fiber and water. Watching what I lift and reminding myself constantly about good posture. Good luck to anyone out there suffering with this condition. I wish you the best.

Guest · Guest

I´m from Brazil, and I´m putting the after surgery pain in the third place of the biggest pain I ever had.

I did the surgery 4 days ago, after 3 years of intermitent bleeding. I was not having any pain also, just the bleeding. I´m 32 and I´m not taking pain medicine but I´m taking Profenid and Antibiotics to avoid infections.

Yesterday, I was doing fine with very low bleeding when I decided to take CENTRUM CARDIO to help on vitamins. Today it bled badly after the BM.

I´m not taking the cardio anymore. I guess it reduces the viscosity of the blood.

Also this metamucil thing make me to go in the bath everyday for 2 or 3 times. I decided to eat only fibers and regular centrum for now.

SCZEPP1 · Newbie Joined: 08 Feb 2008 Posts: 3 Location: Maryland

I feel for you folks. I went through that darn pain then wahmo, blood then to the hospital. After surgery was brutal going to the bathroom for weeks. It finally went away when I started the Epsom salt baths but that could of been it run its time. I wish that pain on no one when going to the bathroom. Then afterwards it felt so bad back there I thought I had to pee but could not go. Sitting in the bath tub was the least pain for me. The sitz bath? The feel is it stretching back there would make it worse at times with the pain. I had the surgery Mid November and it got better Mid February but it was on and off suttle pain for a few months but by April I was much better. Once in a while I will have discomfort back there and it seems to be irritated but it goes away in a day. Keep hanging in there folks, take the fiber pills, diet, drink water, heating pad, power for back there, get the clean wipes, ones you can carry with you as well when you are not at home. Keep yourself clean!-Steve

Guest · Guest

I just had my surgery excatly @ 1:30 in the after noon last monday and I am still sore. I also think that the Dr. Sewed me up wrong. I had to return to the ER yesterday because I had looked at it because of all the pain I was in, and saw that the Dr. had done sewed a stich on my inner thigh and the stich was pulling the inside of my tissue out. That was the most painful shit I ever been through I had three c-sections that did not hurt that bad. I was in some really bad pain I could not lift my left leg up off the floor. I could not walk,eat or sleep. I would take the pain med and still did me no good. So I wonder if it was becasuse of the surgery itself or the pain of the suture pulling away at my inner thigh. So after the Dr at ER cut the suture I was a little bit better not all the way but at least I could sit on the toilet.[/enc]

Guest · Guest

I just had an external thrombosed hemorrhoid excised yesterday morning, it is now exactly 24 hours later.

The pain is absolute pure hell, never could have imagined how bad it could be. My doctor is a bastard because he really made it sound like I would be "uncomfortable" for a couple of days. He actually said I could go back to work in a day or so.

I can barely walk, any position my body is in is agony. I removed the packing last night and besides the stitches are two massive hemorrhoids protruding out of my ass that were not there before the surgery.

Before the surgery I did not eat anything and cleaned out my system completely. I have been taking metamucil every 4-6 hours along with stool softener, I have eaten a pear, three nectarines, 6 saltines and two cups of broth.

I have been taking 2 percocets every 4-5 hours for the pain. Usually after 3 hours pass the pain becomes unbearable and try my best to suffer through another hour or so until the next dose.

Passing gas was excruciating, I cannot imagine what it will be like to have a BM, I am simply dreading it. I have been sitting in a sitz bath with warm water every few hours for 15-20 minutes, it seems to help the pain right away but as the clock ticks it starts to hurt more and more so I have to get up.

This so far has been a nightmare and just the fact of how the doctor made this sound so nonchalant, so easy I do not recommend surgery unless as a last step. I really had no choice I guess, but I would have waited longer and continued the proctofoam, lydocaine and high fiber diet for a few more weeks.

Maybe I will feel differently in a few days, I hope so.

Hemorrhoid Surgery Recovery Time

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