After Hemorrhoidectomy Surgery - Recovery time, Swelling, Pain

I had my surgery on 8/25/08 and I am still having problems. Stayed in the hospital the first three days and after was not be able to urinate for the first 48hours they used a catheter on me. Filled up the first bag (2LITERS) in less then an hour and put another 1.5 LITERS over nite. I can urinate on my own after 5 days although I some times have to force it. Plus I had to get medicine to reduce the size of my prostate although not enlarged before the surgery. After surgery for the first 48 hours `I was constipated and received a laxative however probably too much. I pooped almost non stop for a full day. It is now 8/31 and I am still having problems although not as bad as day 1 to 3. I guess it will take time although before the surgery I was told it would be at least three weeks to recover. I hope not more then that, and it is time to take a pain pill although the frequency is growing further apart.

I had my done exactly a month ago. The first 2 weeks were hell. I rather give birth than go thru the paid I were for those 2 weeks. A BM was horrible. Not even the pain killers helped (morphine). I am feeling much better today, but stll leave skid marks on my underwear, just like before my procedure, I have skin tags which the doctor has prescribed me some cream which is helping but I believe that those tags are not going away. They still look like my external hemorrhoids. Anyway, I am glad to hear that some people did not have any problems, but if my hemorrhoids ever come back...I will live with it.

I had my hem surgery 1 week ago tomorrow and I am having 10 + BM's
each day! Some very small and some worth the pain! I think all my trouble started with major constipation all my life. Then, about a yr. ago, I had bleeding & diarrhea so I went to a Colorectal Surgeon for a Colonoscopy, which he removed 1 benign polyp and I was diagnosed with Microscopic Colitis (similar to Ulcerative Colitis) so I was given medicine and was fine a few months, then more bleeding and diarrhea. Went back tot he surgeon and he recommended rubber band ligation for 2 of 3 large internal hem's. I had it done and it was almost painless, but more bleeding more diarrhea, so he sent me to a GI Dr. and he gave me steriods (Entocort)which stopped the diarrhea almost immediately. I was to go back and have the 3rd hem. done (rubber band ligation) but the GI Dr. discovered a fissure (as I had been bleeding more and constant diarrhea.) So, I chose a different Surgeon, I had quite a few problems with the first surgeon. The 2nd surgeon, said "it appears that I could have some cancerous lesions"! Scared me to death! So, I hurried and scheduled my hem. and fissure surgery. I had never heard of a doctor suggesting that I had 'cancer' without more screening. But, he has a great background and the very best training at the very best hospitals in U.S. So now, I am waiting for lab results and suffering greatly regarding the pain of so man BM's.(and no diarrhea) just normal...soft BMs but some really small! But no matter small or large the pain is excrutiating. Like passing out painful..but I didn't pass out, kinda' wished I had!! I have been eating small amounts of food, yogurt, pasta, soup, nuts (for fiber) fruit, metamucil, prune juice, and dulcolax. I felt like I was going to be constipated so I really stocked up on all the above! I have enjoyed hearing all your stories. I just hope I don't have to go back for surgery, and hope the lab tests are 'normal'. Thanks to all,
BonnieB

After reading the following posts on the endeavors you'll have faced after having the hemorrhoidectomy.. I must say, I feel rather lucky.. Knock on wood. This is my second surgery and I must say, this one was rather painful compared to my first one! I had my hemorrhoid lanced two times prior to having my surgery, so I'm considering the option of my butt being in pain to this reason... I passed stool on the second day of recovery... Today being the fourth day; still bleeding a bit while having BM and a lil' in my boxers due to excess gas. Sitz bathes seem to work real well, and the doctor had perscribed me a stool softener... which doesn't seem to work too well. I had taken some Milk of Magnesium and it really did a number on my bowels- so therefore, I don't really recommend taking more than two teaspoons of it. I have one problem, though.. I'm worried about the swelling- which the surgeon said would eventually decrease after a few weeks... any suggestions on what the best thing to do while waiting out this grueling process? BTW, my first surgery was for a thrumbose hemorrhoid- they just removed the entire thing... which was awesome. lol Thanks for listening! Oh yeah, only five percent of people who have this surgery get their hemmys back... so don't fret over it, unless you're really having to strain to get that poopy out! ;-)

someone please give me advice!!!

i am currently 20 years old, a young health guy, who had surgery on July 1st for an external thrombosed hemorrhoid. I have never had a real problem with hemorrhoids until one day i suddenly get an enormous amount of pain and could not walk. The next couple days I look for doctors to see, and I go see one who tells me I need to have surgery. So I got surgery....

My experience was not terrible. I had more discomfort than pain. I had a bad reaction the vicodin the day after surgery and had to go to the hospital, but i'm guessing that was either because i could not eat real food and i have a very weak stomach as it is. After that, I did not take pain killers...I was just on antibiotics...I may have taken a tylenol here or there, but not too regularly. I had a bowel movement a day or two after surgery and was able to urinate. While it was uncomfortable, and sometimes painful by putting pressure on the area, I feel like it could've been worse hearing some of the other stories.

Anyways, I took the summer to relax and recover and it was uncomfortable to walk or sit down for a while because i felt a lot of itching, which im guessing because the stitches were still dissolving. my doctor told me the wound is completely healed by now, but....

this is where i have got a lot of problems

about a month and a half ago, I started to have a lot of pain again and i could hardly walk by the end of the day. i just felt pressure and pain in the area. i live in a townhouse, so i could not walk up and down the stairs by the end of the day. i went to my doctor who told me i had an anal fissure, which was odd because i don't bleed during BM that often. i may have spots of blood, but it's never flowing or anything. and it's not regular. anyways, i just went along with what he said...and he gave me nitroglyercin. Well what happened after is that I think i had an allergic reaction or something because the entire area from my penis to my anus was extremely red and extremely itchy and painful. i could hardly walk. my doctor did not believe i was having a reaction when i told him on the phone and said some rude comments, so im not going back to him. his office is in Los Angeles, but I go to school in San Diego. As a result, I found a doctor/nurse practioner at UCSD that I went to see. I stopped taking nitroglycerin after 5 days because of the pain. When I went to see the doctor at UCSD, she told she did not see an anal fissure, but there was a fungal infection, so she gave me a powder to use. and thankfully, the infection i think has gone away for the most part...but now...

i'm having a lot of pain when i walk. it's like there is a needle just poking me in one or two spots around my anus, but not actually in it or anything. it's not where i had the hermorrhoid either. i dont' know why, but it's painful when i walk. i don't know why i'm still going through this. i don't know what's causing this, but has anyone else gone through this type of shooting pain? if so, what did you do? i'm going back to the doctor and ask what's going on. Last time i went though, she told me there were a lot of nerve endings that cause a lot of the pain during an external hemorrhoid exicision. I wonder if it is like pinch nerve or something, but please share...

Hi Had hemmorectory surgery 3 weeks ago and although suffering in the first two weeks pain has gone away bowel movements 4 - 6 in a space of 4 hours loose and taking laxative senna and lactulose and on a liquid fruit and soup diet. Before op saw a homeopath who gave me remedies to take to aid with the healing and recovery abnd with the surgery. My advice is to go and find one alternative health is good in recovery with this. Im tired and dizzy most days but apart from that recovery is going well.

I just had a hemorrhoidectomy on Wednesday. I'm 7.5 months pregnant with my second child. I developed a thrombosed hemorrhoid last weekend. There are no words to describe the pain. I fist went to my OB/GYN who promptly prescribed me pain killers (darvocet) and told me it had to be removed.
The next day I went to a proctologist who removed it. OUCH! I screamed and cried in pain for 45 minutes while my poor husband and 4 year old son sat in the waiting room listening.
The surgery was awful. He gave me a "local" and it didn't work.
Today is Friday and I'm still in pain. Again, being pregnant doesn't help. My OB upped the pain meds and prescribed vicodin. I haven't taken one yet because of the baby. However, I don't know how much longer I can go without it.
The irony here is I've had 4-5 BMs since yesterday morning! Why is it I don't have that many in a week but after Ihave surgery on my behind I can't stop going! They've been mixed. I've drank milk of magnesia for the past two nights and it seems to work- almost too well.
There's still A LOT of bleeding too.
I also felt the doctor messed up when I saw that my backside looked the same (if not worse) than before the procedure. He assured me it was fine. It better be! God help me if I have to have that procedure done EVER AGAIN.
Good luck to anyone who is having a hemorrhoidectomy.
To all the people who are in my position, no one will ever fully comprehend this unless they've experienced it themselves. I feel a real bond with you all and I was so grateful to read your blogs and know I'm not alone!

I had a hemorrhoidectomy two weeks ago, and am still in extreme pain. The only pain reliever they gave me was Vicodin, which causes constipation--somehing I sure don't need now. This steady, serious pain, bowel movement that are blindingly painful and very small, stead sweating-none of this can be normal can it?

Bill...I'm sorry to say that this seems to be the norm. My surgery was on 11/10, and as of Sunday, my bowel movements were excruciating - pain, burning - each time I was shaking, sweating, and crying. Immediate sitz bath afterwards as there was no way I could wipe.

If you are taking Vicodin, please be sure to take stool softeners - I'm taking three at night right now, and if I have a BM that is too painful, I will take milk of magnesia just to get a day or two of rest afterwards. Also, if your doctor hasn't told you about it, call around to your local pharmacies and find one that carries Nupercainal - it's a topical analgesic, and has helped with the severe burning/pain immediately afterwards...apply it beforehand and it should help during the bowel movement.

Also, communicate with your doctor that the Vicodin isn't helping your pain. I had to BEG my doctor for something other than percoset as I wasn't getting any relief. Don't stop if he says no. They know how painful it is, tell him how much pain you are in.

I hope for the both of us that the next week brings much healing!

I had my surgery on 11-5. I wish I found this site earlier. I've gone through all these things and I'm "glad" to see that it is normal.
The thing I'm really freaking out about is loss of bowell controll? Has anyone experienced that? It is extremely upsetting.

I had my surgery on 11/7, and I'm going to try to go to work tomorrow (1/2 day). I think the bowell control thing may be from too much milk of magnesia or fiber or prune juice - if not - call your doc. I had that problem in the first week. I also have the swelling problem most people seem to have. Went to docs this past week for 10 day check up - said was normal. It's like the roids are still there (external). Really freaked me out. I'm still freaked, but not quite as much as I was. Still painful - and uncomfortable - it's like somebody put a tampax up your butt. I doubt that I would have done this if I had known the pain, etc. might go on for 2 mos. That's what they say recoup time is. But going back to work time is usually 2 wks. I would find it hard sitting down 8 hrs. a day if I had that kind of job - no way.
Hope this helps; take care.

Hello,

I just wanted to share my experience with my hemorrhoidectomy. I'm a healthy 6' 165lb 24 year old male and got them from working out. I've been working out for a little over a year and stepped up the weight quite a bit for a couple of weeks and then while in the shower one night after the gym noticed a pea sized bump down there. OH NO!

So I went to a gasteronologist who said I had the external one and he checked inside and noticed a small one inside too. So I scheduled an appointment to have a surgeon look at it and explore the options. The gasteronologist gave me a prescription for Analpram which did nothing. After a week of using that stuff the external one went away but another one appeared even larger on my right cheek. As soon as I went in to the surgeon he said that it was thrombosed and needed to be removed asap.

He wasn't available to do it until 11/17 so I went with that. He said a week out of work should be fine. HA!

So the surgery went fine and I got Lortab's, Doc Q Lace (stool softner), and Dibucaine cream for additional relief.

The week went by as usual, pain killers every 4 hours, applesauce, jello, mandarin oranges, sherbert, mashed potatoes, green beans, chicken noodle soup, vegetable soup, an occasional prunes here and there.

Well the post surgery paper work said that if you haven't had a bowel movement 4 days after the surgery to contact them. I didn't have one so they had me take a Fleet Enema. That was the worst bowel movement in the world. Pain galore!

Well it was pretty good based on my opinion. I got everything out from that week. So as I'm laying down on my stomach trying to relax which took over an hour to feel better I noticed that there was a ton of blood that was all over me down there and the bed.

I felt lots of pressure like I had to go again so I ran to the bathroom and "pushed" and nothing but blood and clotting burst out. I was class 1 hemorrhaging and got rushed to the hospital. It turns out that one of the stitches came out and I was rushed back to get general anesthesia again so they can sew me up again.

After that I spent the next two nights in the hospital so they could monitor me and make sure all was well. Everything went reasonably well and I was released Sunday night 11/23.

I felt about the same for a while and they prescribed me two additional meds to make sure I didn't get any bacteria (Levaquin once a day for 7 days and Metronidazole to take every 6 hours). Well after a few days of taking them I realized that I was having side effects from them (very dark urine, headaches, fever, etc) so they had me stop taking those two and I have been better now since so that's good. Plus I have added Gatorade into the mix so it'll help with rehydration and electrolytes as well.

I had my second BM the day before Thanksgiving (11/26) which started at 5:30 PM and finally finished at 8:00. Boy that was an experience. The good thing was that it was 10 times better than the first one. This one was very soft but I noticed that a tiny stitch came out with this one as well but hopefully that's just something that happens with the BM's. Who knows?

So no additional bleeding so far (knock on wood) and I have had gauze and the cream on so that's been a help. Also the hospital gave me these mesh "boy short" type of things so those are nice since my boxers just weren't doing it for me.

Thanksgiving was out of the question so I just had a cup of squash, cup of mashed potatoes, and a wedge of watermelon.

I have written down everything I ate and took and the times so that I can duplicate it and keep track so that I can have another soft BM. I hope all continues to go well. I go back to work 12/1 (office job, sitting for 8 hours) so hopefully I can last the whole day.

Luckily I didn't have to suffer with them for 10-20+ years like some have mentioned on here. This all developed and got worked on within a few months.

I didn't have additional swelling like some mentioned but I do notice a few skin tags that I'll see about removing when the time comes.

They removed 3 hemorrhoids.

Hope this helps others.

-Anthony

I had my surgery on 12-01-08. I was advised I would be in pain for at least two weeks. Well I am four days after surgery and I am all ready feeling better. Today I was able to walk around the house with little pain. The area with the sutures is still sore but it gets less sore everyday. It took me three days to have a BM, but once that was out of the way I was feeling better. I have read the horror stories about people being down for weeks and months but on my present course I will be able to go back to work three weeks after surgery. I have a physical job and I have no wish to go back to work less that 100% but I think I will be OK. I originally took 5 weeks off after reading the post from other people. Now I am thinking I will be able to enjoy the last two weeks of my time off and relax without any pain.

I had my surgery on 12/7/08 for external and internal that what the doctor told me i had. Reading all these stories is pretty helpful and realized if the pain and situation is about the same.

On my 3rd day of hospital I had to leave and be ask to check out cause I felt like they were over druging me and still depress about not having my first BM. I really felt like i had to go but it wouldn't come out, it felt like I had a but plug or something.

Later that night, I tried to go again and I still felt like it something was stuck. So I tried pushing and little piece came out, then I tried pushing really hard couple of times. Finally my first BM and painful, couldn't stand cause of pain effects.

Conclusion, my butt hole is so dam tight and I have to PUSH to let it out. The constipation pill for my 3rd BM really help the pain but still had to PUSH. Still bleeding, probably from little Pooooo still stuck up the butt that stop the blood flow. Each day i feel like i'm gonna die in Toliet. ENJOY for the many who has this surgery.

I had my surgery last Thursday 12/11/08 and all went as planned. Although I had the surgery by an expert in the field at one of NYC's best hospitals, I still felt somewhat afraid. They needed to do a better job at preparing me for the actually day-of surgery. While in recovery I asked for more pain medication and was given morphine intravenously and right before discharge (1 hour later) I was given two Percocet tablets. I was given a R/X for Percocet (30 pills) and needed them once the anesthesia wore off. I think by virtue of where the surgery is EVERYONE will need some pain management. It's a sensitive area - Period. I was told that I should be at work in a week, but knew that my office gig would require that I be at work that Monday - just 3 days after surgery! I didn't have a BM over the weekend and was stressed about it. Sunday before returning to work, I had the doctor on call prescribe another 40 tablets of Percocet - better safe than sorry. The truth is, I went through ALL 30 tablets over the weekend and was glad I got the additional 40. Today (Monday) was torture riding the subway to work and trying to walk at a normal pace. Sitting at my office was Chinese water torture, but I endured and even ate my regular breakfast and lunch meals. By 3 p.m. by booty had a heartbeat of its own and I suspected I needed a private bathroom to attempt a BM. As luck would have it I had one! Painful and uncomfortable as it was, I was relieved that I was "going" normally. I spent another 15 minutes with hot towels tidying myself up and reapplied two panty liners I've smartly taken to wearing to protect my undies. Hey, it's not about pride, it's really about what works. I guess the act of going that first time opened the flood gates and I was able to have another BM when I returned home and took a nice hot bath afterward to help with the pain management. I still feel pain - not severe - and feel extreme discomfort going to the bathroom. I also find that if I wait too long to go - pee or #2, I sort of spasm and find myself pushing really hard. Not a good idea, since I've been bleeding pretty steadily...not dark rich blood, but more than spotting. I invested in two boxes of pantyliners, so I'm much more confident about staying clean and keeping my undies wearable after this ordeal is over. I just pray that the recovery is shorter than the stories I've read on here. Good luck everyone...I'm sure we can all use it. Bottoms up! XD