Hemorrhoid Surgery and PAIN

ohhhhh my god in two months i have to remove mines,definitely i'm canceling operation.

My surgery is in a week! Wish me luck!

I think I would rather take a gunshot to my head.. T_T

I want to give you a quick heads up that a thrombosed hemorrhoid is nothing compared to the surgery. I have given birth twice and suffered with hemorrhoids (thromboses) many times but never had the kind of pain I had when I had the stapled hemorrhoidectomy. The pain was so bad I thought I was going to puke constantly - you can find no relief for approximately 8 or 9 days, I lost 10 pounds in 1 week! You must have good pain killers and lie on your back for any relief! Still, having said this, I had my surgery 3 weeks ago and now I only have the burning pain (at a much lesser degree) prior to a BM and just after the BM. I use cream to help alleviate the pain and in general, things are much better! I am hopeful that I will never have to deal with hemorrhoids again, but don't let anyone kid you - the pain is excruciating - like nothing I have ever felt before!

Concur with author . I've had to ensure this Twice in two years because my surgeon screwed up the first one - managed to create an anal fissure in the first one and after promising to rid me of all hemorrhoids missed one on the first op. Like all good CYA (cover your ass) surgeons , he said there's no guarantees of success and said I needed to have a second op to fix the fissure and fix the associated "leaky bum" issues it created , and remove the hemorrhoid he missed . The pain is borderline intolerable. Including the author of the article I am responding to, I've personally known two others who've endured the procedure and they have both stayed that their definitions of pain changed while recovering. Think "north Vietnamese lifting fingernail and burning raw flesh underneath torture " for comparison. When stool runs against a raw flesh wound that has not scabbed (I learned wounds don't scan on the inside and opening of your rectum - too moist ) , there is several lovely things that happen . Aside from the area having one of the highest portion of nerve endings per square mm in the body, the massively high bacteria content and Ugly chemicals present in stool combine with the rough exterior of stool to rub and mix in with the fleshy open wound - the hole that the missing hemorrhoids (yes many holes) left. This sensation is quite unlike any other. The only answer is sitz baths. I found pain killers useless - they were not localized enough . You are dealing with a small area - your anus. I was quite bitter having to go through this twice . The second time affected my business that I was launching. Trying to work in the weeks after the surgery is extremely difficult . I wanted to delay, but my wife had had enough of the leakage caused by the first op so along I went, hoping the second op would be better - wrong . To add to the fun, as the author I responded to alluded to, recovery can be messy . You have stool and blood to clean and manage . The stool is contagious and if you don't sterilize (not wash, sterilize) your hands after each stool passing and sitz batch episode , you will get some infection . For me it was a stomach infection . I was therefore in agony from my anus, stomach cramps , diarrhea, nausea and a 38.4 temperature - a melting mess of decay and misery. The voodoo doll targeting my surgeon has no more spaces for pins. I would urge people who have serious hemorrhoids to think twice before having surgery. Think about this - if a surgeon genuinely believes the only treatment is exactly the same as was offered to King Henry VIII, he is probably old school and not up with latest techniques (or at least latest techniques are out of his repertoire and he's just milking the tried and true through private healthcare til retirement). There are real risks with the surgery , it is extremely painful , messy , will make you unproductive for at least two weeks , and they may screw it up and you are back on the table . There are more modern treatments becoming available now . I'm in Australia - maybe behind the eightball here - but I see some real progress is being made in the UK and US on non surgical treatment of bad hemorrhoids and had I known I'd have looked there if I could have afforded , or dug deeper in AU with a surgeon who was more forward thinking than "Jack the Ripper" who I was recommended (think he topped Med School in 1915).

I am now 6 months out from my surgery..fully recovered. I hae no symptoms. I am a happier person today.

I was given a very strong painkiller after the surgery, and did not feel any pain until the next day (I waited and did not take a pill until I was in pain). So resumed the painkiller pills and the stool softening pills - they helped a lot! After two weeks there was no more pain. I did try to eat as little as possible during that time. Now, two months after, I feel so happy I had surgery, and ask myself why I waited so long. I was very scared of this procedure, but I didn't feel a thing during it, as I was sedated.

A relative has had hemorrhoid surgery about 5 months ago however she gets extreme intermittent pain  ( happining avg. every 2 days) THe doctors cannot seem to  know what is  wrong. The screams are a nightmare. (She has seen numerous doctors) Anyone has had any problems like this ? She is 56 years old . Can this pain be psycological?

Great to read all this. Original poster is almost completely replicating what is happening to me day by day.I cant believe how painful this is but good to see its normal.  I am day 3 and havent slept for 2 nights. I seem to need a BM every hour but for all the pain I produce something that a rabbit wouldnt even be proud of.

On a sid enote post op was amazing, I asked to be let out early as was feeling good. When I got home the morphine wore off and thats when the hell began. Morphone is an exceptionally good drug, dont underestimate how much it hides the pain!

I'm 5 days post op, had laser surgery December 17th, and today has been the worst. I'm hoping that this will be the worst of it and it will get better from here. The pain from the surgery itself wasn't horrible, the first 2 days was tolerable. I took 600 mg of ibuprofen every 6 hours. On the 3rd morning I had my first bm and it was painful, but no screaming, shaking, passing out. After my anus was on fire for the rest of the day. The sitz baths didn't help ease the burning. I discovered today that the warm water recommended for the sitz just wasn't enough for me. It needed to be hot water to provide any relief. I have had to have my bm in 2+ smaller amounts, which extends tbe burning & swelling over a few hours. So far the surgery wasn't as painful as I expected and the LORD has looked out for me. I must admit if I bad found this thread prior to surgery I definitely cancelled. Each person is different and you just don't know how your body will react. My advice is prepare for the worst and pray for the best. I'm praying that I will continue to have an uneventful recovery.

Background: 30 year old male, always had stomach issues (20-30 min BMs and cramping) my entire life. A year ago started seeing fresh blood in the toilet, went to a Gastro - ended up finding out I have Chron's in my large intestine and in my appendix, which was removed (Feb 2013). Around the same time I started having internal hemmorhoids coming out of me during BMs and retracting afterwards. The hemmorhoids got worse and worse over the year, and would bleed and cause discomfort.

I had the surgery Jan 9, so today is Day 6 after the surgery.

Day 0 (Thu): Went home and was fine, from all the drugs they pumped into me. I was told to stick to the meds and that I would be in pain. OMG would there be PAIN! It felt like someone hacked something off inside of my body and there was a large open wound inside of me.

Day 1 (Fri): 2 percocet brought the pain down to a 5/10, except that if I stood up, I'd start sweating like crazy and get lightheaded, and have to lie back down immediately. I couldn't even stand to pee. My wife gave me an empty Tropicana bottle so i could kneel on the floor and pee. Talk about feeling useless!! I switched to 1 percocet, but the pain was then a 7/10. I was lying in bed crying and writhing in pain. We called the hospital and got Vicodin prescribed. THANK GOD!!! I took 1 Vicodin, passed out, and woke up with the pain at a 2/10. Stood up and smiled! Felt like a person.

Day 2-3 (Sat-Sun): If I didn't take the Vicodin right on time, the pain came back and OMG is it PAIN! The Vicodin would take ~15 mins to kick in. Still no BM. Called the hospital on Sat night, they had me take Milk of Magnesia. Took that Sat night and twice Sunday. Still nothing. Finally Sunday night at 11pm when the Vicodin wore off, I just took 2 Advil. 4 hours later, in middle of the night I finally had a BM. Fortunately my wife was sleeping, because I must have sounded like a man dying. Damn was it scary to go. Fortunately less blood than I thought.

Day 4 (Mon): Took only Advil all day - was so happy to be off the Vicodin. Ended up having 4 separate visits for BMs, clearing me out. I think this was too much movement for the area and it was feeling quite sensitive. Mon night I took a sitz bath in the tub. Upon getting out of the tub, the pain came back - and i mean PAIN!!! Back on the Vicodin! Woke up in middle of the night, Mon night as well, in AGONY! More Vicodin.

Day 5-6 (Tue, Wed): Sticking to Vicodin most of the day. No BM - which is good, need to give it a rest.

* This whole time I've been keeping tissues in my underwear and every 2-3 hours I check, and there's some blood on the tissues and dried blood on me, which I clean with some wipes. Apparently this is causing me to smell a bit, and since my wife is pregnant and EXTREMELY sensitive to smell, I constantly reek to her - me, whatever I wear, and whatever I've been lying on. * I've been lying on an pull out bed from our couch, and have yet to sit normally on a chair. Furthest I've walked, is the end of our block.

I will agree with all those who said that the surgeon/hospital does not inform you of the amount of pain you will experience and the recovery time you will need. Until I found this thread today, I thought there was something wrong with me for still being at this stage. Now I feel much better that where I am at, is common.

Thanks to the comments in this thread, I will be taking more frequent sitz baths and ordering some pads and a donut pillow. I am supposed to fly to LA in a week for a few days to see my grandmother, but think I'm going to skip it. My wife and I are taking a major vaca in 4 weeks and I am hoping to be pretty much back to normal...

Any other advice is greatly welcome and appreciated. Happy to answer any questions, and provide updates.

Hello there and hope you are feeling better. Your post made me chuckle a bit, though it was agony you went through. Several years ago, I was fed up with my bum too and decided I was going to do something about having these things that when irritated, caused pain, itching and bleeding. I went to a general surgeon (which I regret) and I too had a hemorroidectomy. Unfortuanately, I had complications (because doc didn't know what he was doing) and I wound up getting anal stenosis...that is the narrowing of the rectum and anus where you can't poop, no room to come out. I kept calling the doctor afterward, freaking out, knowing something wasn't right. I tried so much to go to the bathroom and couldn't, I used baths too. It was a total nightmare for me, with so much pain in the area. This went on for months. The muscles in my body also took a beating, since I had to use them so much to get up or in a good position. This id**t removed most of the staples left in me, during a follow up visit at his office, where I had to lay on the table stick my bum out so he could remove some that were still on the opening. I should have checked out this general surgeon before having anything done by him, because when I did some online research, he had complaints from patients before...Thank goodness I had a few friends I could talk to for encouragement, though it did nothing for what was going wrong with my body. During this time, I went to my gynecologist, who I shared my source of torture and he recommended a different doctor in another county to go to. That doctor was awesome and he had to do a sphincterotomy, at a different hospital. This surgery was so much less painful than the original surgery from the dumb ass surgeon who ripped me apart and left so many staples inside. I know I still have a couple of staples inside that never came out, my new gasto guy saw them in a colonoscopy but he wouldn't remove them for me....All that I went through was horrible and I let that bad doc know how I felt too. I still have some hemorrhoids but inside, also found during the colonoscopy, but I am good for the most part, except when that staple irritates me.

I am so sorry you had to go through so much pain. The tissue is very sensitive down there. I remember being sent to get all sorts of medicine to numb it, but it didn't last long. I hope you are all healed up and on your way to some normalcy. Thanks for giving me the chance to vent too...Take Care.

Did your Dr. tell you the maker of the stapling device? If not you may find it important. FDA has a number of injuries with failure during surgery.

No I do not know what type it was. If I found out, what do I do with that information? Can I sue that company? I had the surgery in 2006 or 2007.

Hi i've just read your post, i do hope you are a lot better now. I am so grateful that i have found you. At least i don't feel alone anymore.
My problem started with cervical cancer, which lead to a overdose of internal radiotherapy, that created a conjoined mass, of bowl, bladder, stomach and womb> i ended up having a radical hysterectomy, 3 open bowl surgery's ( left with a bag) and mounds of problems with my water works. But these are not the prob, i've got over them and reversed the colostomy bag, but now i have been left in great pain (arse ache) Just like your self, i turn old in a matter of seconds, it takes my breath away, cant eat sleep or have a life.(fun) The pain killers don't touch it, my diet makes no difference. I see my specialist constantly and always going for various scans test ect, I self diagnoised after talking the specialist advice since April 2010.
my Hemorrhoid problem, i am now treating with fresh alo vera ( cos my GP frightened the living daylight out of me about the creams) I came to the realisation i suffer from Bile acid diarrhea,which burns the whole way through my system, ( then sets my arse on fire) the specialist has changed my meds, but i only get small relief.
One thing is for certain i will not be having that dreadful operation, that this blog speaks of!!
Thanks for sharing