All you ever read about is the horrifying and borderline suicidal aftermath of hemorrhoid and/or fissure surgery...but that's the thing, you never hear about the GOOD experiences! People are less likely to find a site just to post something that went very well, so I owe you one.

After about 6 years of suffering and two years of reading horrifying reviews, I decided to go through with the surgery. At 19 my doctor clarified that I had an external hemorrhoid and after 6 years, one turned into about FIVE external! Terrible reviews kept me away from the banding procedure over the years and now, at 25, things were so bad down there that it was too late to even consider anything but all-out surgery. Reviews were awful, so over the years I tried just about every home remedy in the book and even considered some id**t's idea of tying one off myself (I didn't). One day the flare up was so bad and painful that I was dizzy and just about fainted.

It was time to take the leap and visit a surgeon for her advice. She took one look and seemed surprised I'd waited so long. Not only did she point out my external friends, but I had two fissures and an internal buddy as well. We scheduled a surgery for less than a week from that appointment where  I would be put out and remove the uninvited guests. Unfortunately a couple spots would have to remain open wounds so the fissures could heal naturally without being ripped open during every BM. Believe it or not, I was EXCITED to get this out of the way and I have a VERY low pain tolerance (I cry when I get a shot).

They had me empty my bowels and not eat after midnight the night before the procedure.

THURSDAY/Day of surgery: I got up, went in, they wanted urine sample and blood sample and then just wait around for my turn. When they gave me the anesthesia, I was out in maybe 20 seconds and woke up in recovery thinking it hadn't happened yet. No pain at all for about an hour and a half. In my recovery room I felt a dull pain but that was it until the evening. When I got home it was a bit sharper but no big deal. Took some pain meds and a stool softerner and went to bed.

FRIDAY: The morning after surgery was the worst of the ordeal. Obviously I was in a massive amount of sharp pain but I hadn't taken pain medication in seven hours so no surprise. I stumbled to the bathroom (no BM) but was in enough pain that I had to get my mom to walk me back to my bed (No, I don't live with my parents, my husband is deployed in the Navy so we we're saving some big money by me staying at their place). The open wounds hurt the most, especially when I changed the dressing. As long as I rested, it was totally managable. The pain level went from a 10 to an 8 when medicated and stayed that way pretty much the whole day as long as I rested on my side. I kept thinking, "This is it?! What?!" -I was expecting I'd want to put a gun to my head.

SATURDAY: Could move around the house slowly, get up and down carefully but was comfortable laying in bed most of the day hoping for a BM. Everything seemed fine, I was thinking maybe the reviews are just about the BM's, which hadn't happened yet.

Fast forward to MONDAY when I had my first BM after taking Miralax on Sunday. This had to be the real torture, right? But when it came, I took deep breaths and didn't force anything. It just felt like a moderate flare up, some blood and it was over. The same thing happened the second time. After I took a sitz bath I went back to my day. No pain pills. In this week of healing I make sure I don't sit directly on my butt for more than an hour without walking around, take stool softner, have Miralax with my meal and change the little padding over the surgery site every few hours.

I won't lie, it had it's painful moments but it was sort of like getting braces. The first day it's pretty awful, at first you wonder why you did this but you do what you can to keep the pain as low as possible and get through it. I have an EXTREMELY low pain tolerance, and if I can do it, YOU CAN TOO. Someone who had the surgery reccomended that I stop reading the nightmare stories online to relax and that was the smartest thing I did.

So please, if you already dread going to the bathroom, just trust me and get it over with! It's so worth it! Get rid of that pain in the a**!