In my life I have had 6 successful banding treatments of internal roids. All went smoothly, so smoothly that I mistook the procedure as relatively simple and quick recovery. What I failed to understand is that my procto is a pioneer in the field of banding who has done over 15000 bandings over 40 years. He is the gold standard for this procedure. He requires no enemas before treatment; he does not insert his fingers into the rectum and stretch it it any way; he uses no machine to tighten the band, and he takes about 3 minutes or less for the whole procedure. He causes no trauma to the rectum. It take two days for the pain to go away, no bleeding, and 3 weeks for total recovery.
I had 4 bandings by him in my 30s and now in my 60's, 2 more this summer because the roids came back over the years.
In Jan. 2012 I made a huge mistake. I sought out a dr. who claimed to know both banding and infrared coagulation. BIG MISTAKE, changing doctors. This doctor from Rush Presbyterian in Chicago required two enemas before treatment; he stuck his fingers into my rectum and was actually stretching my rectum tissues, my internal roids and external tags, causing pain and soreness; then, after placing the band on, he used a machine to tighten the band, asking if I felt a "Sharp" pain. I did feel tighter and tighter pinching pain, so I said "no." Sharp pain to me is like when you get cut, or stabbed with a screw driver, or the pain of an ulcer. the combination of him tightening the band way too tight, two ememas, stretching my rectum with his fingers, and placement of the band, caused extensive trauma to my rectum.
Within 2 days my rectum swelled up badly. All my external "tags" and internal roids were thrombosis, and the pain was excruciating. I could not move my bowels. It was like pushing against a brick wall because my rectum channel was closed due to all the swelling. I was in deep trouble, not being able to move my bowels. My only choice for survival was to carefully very carefully give myself enemas, which can cause more problems, risking knocking off the band and hemmoraging. Imagine- inserting an enema tube through thrombosis and swelled hemhorroids. It was exceedingly anxiety producing, not knowing if I would recover. And I would not go to the quack again at Rush Hospital and no other dr would see me and I could not get a quick appointment with my former procto (he is semi-retired), so it was up to me to save myself. My only other option was go to the emergency room. But I was finally able to move my bowels with enemas, very careful and slow insertion of the enema tube. It took enemas for two weeks, 50 hours of baths, and one month for all the swelling to go down. I was very lucky to have recovered without permanent injury. When I complained to Rush hospital, they insisted that the physician did not do anything wrong.
If he did not do anything wrong, then why was injured so badly? And why is it that my current proctologist can still do the banding procedure without inflicting any harm on me? By this September, I will be done with all banding of internal roids by my pioneer Dr. I have just one more treatment and I'm done! I am lucky to know him.
QUESTION: I would like comments from people who had banding and even doctors. Do you agree that I was injured by the Rush physician? Would you go to Rush Medical Center in Chicago for a banding treatment? Do you think how the Rush physician treated me was "appropriate?" What are your comments?