hemorrhoidectomy recovery time

My heart goes out to all of you. I am so sorry that you had to endure this procedure. My question involves assisting my husband in his recovery. He is scheduled for surgery on Friday the 3oth of January and I am extrememly worried. Can you give me some suggestions to help him through his recovery? What did you find most comforting, both physically and emotionally,from your caregiver?

I really want to be able to help my husband through this, any suggestions will be most helpful.

 

 

 

Yes i know me to. I had a Miligans operation 2 monts ago and still feels a sting/burn (better if the sh*t is soft but whitout being floating) when visit the toilet and also se fluid trace on the underwear. Hope it will disapear. Are you flawless now?

I had a hemorrhoidectomy surgery done on the 18th of last monthit is now the following month on the on the 20th I am still in excruciating pain I wish I would have done my research before doing the surgery I do not recommend this for anyone it is the worst pain you can ever go through but the one thing that helps me alot is sitz bath I find myself doing the sitz bath at least 10 to 12 times a day I also used take stool softeners I take fiber gummies that helps the BM my doctor prescribed me Norco with hydrocordone and that does not work it helps a little so if you're going to have the surgery be prepared to be in a lot of pain I wish you luck

Your body will let you know if you're on the road of recovering from hemorrhoids. If the amount of bright red blood is limited to a few drops or completely nonexistent, then they are recovering. Wishing you a fast recovery. :)

lol great post, finally a positive one albeit warts and all! true tho, coping with physical pain can be 100% more tolerable when the mind is focused on the reality and a good dose of humour. I read all the posts a day before my surgery and I was completely petrified but without an option I went ahead. that was 2 days ago and although the first 24hrs were a drug hazed hell, I woke up the next day determined to heal my body as quickly as possible. already reduced pain relief meds and now slowly working on my food intake since I was completely empty prior to surgery for the colonoscopy. my husband ran around closing windows thinking there was a thunderstorm but was just my gurgling guts!! 1st BM this morning was similar to the prepping bowel cleanse so can't really call it a normal poop but painless so that was a relief...messy tho so shower and sitz bath stat!! The pressure from the 'wind' was uncomfortable but not unbearable if you just relax and listen not fight your body. I also replaced some doses of painkillers with a nice little spliff (to avoid constipation...I can report a solid sleep and happy crazy dreams :) I'd love a bourbon haha but not sure the empty tummy would cope well...never say never tho tis early days still! my worst fear atm is coughing, that is very scary never realised a cough comes from your bum til now!! Fingers crossed it's all up from here so I can get back to work asap I don't really want to take a donut cushion with me cos it will blow my cover of letting the boss assume I needed 2wks off work for a 'lady procedure' I'm still quite prudish about my own body even tho at work we pierce, implant and tattoo genitals lol So here's cheers, bums up and wishing us all a happy ending

26 (yesterday, the day after surgery:/) year old female. I had my consultation a week ago for a "skin tag" I wanted removed but was told by the colorectal surgeon it was a hemy:( 6 days later I was admitted for 1 internal hemy to be removed. I'd never had pain or bleeding so was not even aware I had one. The procedure went great, I was in pain but it was bearable. I took stool softeners, oxycodone, nurofen and panadol every 4 hours for 2 days. I resumed a fairly regular meals schedule and everything was going well. Bleeding and exudate but nothing dramatic. Until the first BM. Holy good damn it HURT. Sweating, swearing and a whole lot of blood. Took some painkillers, cold shower and bath. In bed now having spasms but fingers crossed that's the worst of it. I have Uni in 2 days and want to be able to go! Good luck everyone x

Okay, so I've read about all the terrible recoveries and I wanted to share mine. I had 1 external hemmorhoid removed that was the size of my thumb, I could barely sit. Im am in day 8 of my recovery and I have had few problems. I took pain meds only for 24 hours after the surgury and was back to work full time within 3 days. In day 8 I still have a little blood spotting but no pain at all. Either I was the lucky one or those who write in the forums tend to be the ones with the worst experience. So if you are going to have surgery soon, cheer up, it may not be that bad.

I wanted to provide some new input on this topic as I did alot of reading prior to the surgery, and had alot of fear because of what I read. I did however learn what to do to prevent alot of the nighmares during the recovery process.

1. Pain meds are your firend for the first 5 or so days of recovery. Take them on schedule regardless of pain level,
2. Pain meds are your enemy as narcs will cause constipation. Use a fiber suplement "Meta" most of the care instructions suggested 3 spoonfulls each AM with a stool softener. Have milk of mag available and ready to use if the first BM after surgery is difficult or does not happen within 48hrs. Drink lots of fluids. I dont like water, but drank watered down V8 fruit juice by the gallon.
3. Sitz Bath - It really helps alot. More than just a bath. I tried both. Use it at least 3 times a day expecially after having a BM
4. Urinating may be difficult due to swelling. If unable to pass urine easy- the sitz bath helps make it easier immediatly after.
5. Induce a BM at least daily using meds noted in #2
6. Keep your cheeks dry. I used a hair dryer (on cool), and placed absorbant gauze between them and changed it hourly. If you develop "diper rash" you are not keeping it dry enough. You will work harder that feeling sucks.

My surgery was expected to cause a high amount of pain per my Dr. He said where the roids were was of the worst places for recovery. By following these important rules I can say that the pain never became horific. I can honestly say my pain never reached a 10.

Best of luck with recovery. It is not easy, but being anal (no pun intended) about recovery will allow the pain to be minimal.

I am 67 and had a large external hemmorrhoid surgically removed a couple of months ago.  I put it off for a long time mostly because of websites like this where people talk about their awful experineces.  After my surgery, I did have a complication with urinary retention and had to get a catheder for three days.  However, while annoying, there was nothing overly painful about this. Otherwise, I took the narcotic pain medicaton for a day, but didn't like how it made me feel and switched to tylenol and ipubrophen for the next three or four days.  After that, I just decided to live with the pain.  It was constant and annoying, but not unbearable.  After two weeks, the pain stopped completely.  Now I have no more bleeding. no more discharge and no more pain after every bowel movement.   So it was two weeks of some pain and a lot of discomfort, but overall, this surgery was one of the best decisions I ever made about my health.  So those of you who are contemplating this surgery, or who have recently had it, take comfort.  There is hope for the furute.

Just wanted to add my own experience here, as I've found these forums extremely useful and informative over the past month.I'm four and a half weeks post op - 'extensive work both internal and external, no stitches' - and I'm just about better, and thrilled with the results.

I think it's important to realise that every recovery will be an entirely individual experience depending on the work involved, age, gender, lifestyle etc etc. There are some things that appear to be universal however, so I think they are worth highlighting.

Research your surgeon if possible, or at least ask questions of them. I've seen it recommended that only colo-rectal specialists should undertake such surgery. I didn't have that option because of where I live but my general surgeon spoke very knowledgeably about leaving enough unexcised skin around the anus to allow for stretching during healing and to avoid stenosis. He knew what he was talking about.

He did however, give me the impression that I'd be recovered after about 2 weeks, which I wasn't. As a previous poster has pointed out, maybe this IS the norm and these boards are populated by those of us who took a little longer. Who knows?

Week 1 will be pretty rough. We are talking about bums, scalpels and BMs here - that's never going to be easy, right??? For me, as for others, it seemed to be a constant balancing act between getting your pain meds right, avoiding constipation and/or diarhhoea, and dealing with the first painful BMs. There's lots of really good advice about that on these boards (and others), so read it. Read it all and pick what helps you. The things I personally couldn't have lived without were warm baths, drinking lots of water, gauze between the buttocks and Netflix. I was prescribed Diclofenec for pain relief which was excellent and didn't cause constipation. I found it didn't quite last the full 12 hours (you can only take it twice a day) so I topped up after about 8 hours with a mixture of paracetamol and ibuprofen, which my surgeon said was fine.

For the first couple of weeks, be prepared for setbacks, recovery isn't always a linear process. I'd have a really good day and be feeling well on the road, only to be scuppered by an unexpected BM at 4am, when there wasn't a single painkiller left in my body nor enough hot water for a bath. Bleurgh .... yeah, it was horrid and depressing, but I coped and it passed.

Be prepared for nobody, other than those on these boards, to be interested in the details of your recovery. Total obsession with your rear end is inevitable, but socially unacceptable, LOL.

AVOID CONSTIPATION AT ALL COSTS, if possible. This happened to me twice and was definitely the worst of all the experiences. You know your own body and your own digestive system, so use this as a guide. Don't avoid eating out of fear of BMs, this will slow your system down and make things worse. Eat regularly, plenty of soft foods and liquids. Jelly and ice cream were good as a sweet treat for me.

Stool softeners - the jury is out for me on this one, although others swear by them. Again, use what you know about your own body as a guide. I tend to have a pretty 'rapid' digestive system, so the softeners just gave me diarrhoea. However, this is slightly preferrable to constipation, so take them unless you feel they are upsetting you.

Things not mentioned very often but which happened to me and were nothing to worry about include; apparent anal incontinence - when I needed a BM, I needed it NOW and only just made it to the bathroom a couple of times. This kept me housebound for about 2 weeks and made me worry that it would be permanent. It wasn't, I am now fully in control again.

Leakage - for the first couple of weeks I was leaking a small amount of clearish liquid throughout the day. It had a distinctive smell but wasn't actually offensive. I worried that this was a sign of infection and/or anal fissure. It wasn't, it stopped and I'm fine again now. I dealt with it using small panty liners in my underwear (which actually were also very helpful in stopping my underwear 'riding up' and chafing my tender parts!)

Itching - this started for me around the 4 week mark and is particularly bad after a BM. I think it's the final healing of the tissue. I just apply an anaesthetic cream, prescribed by my surgeon, and this deals with it very effectively. Not sure how much longer it will last but I'm not particularly bothered by it.

However long your own recovery takes, try to be positive and have a sense of humour. This isn't always easy when you feel it is taking longer than you'd like, but it does help.

If you are considering this surgery, read everything you can lay your hands on, including all the horror stories. Not to frighten yourself, but to give you an idea of some of the things you might expect during recovery. I think it helps to know that, whatever your experience, there is somebody else going through the same thing.

It's been a bumpy road but I'm better now, and thrilled with my new bum!

Lady GT, I recently had this procedure six days ago. I suffered with hemorroids for 10 years and I had finally had enough with it controlling my life and ruining my time spent with family. Anyway, I had two 3+, one 2, and two 1's removed, so you can imagine how much fun that was. My recovery has been really good. It took three days to have a BM and it has only gotten better since with having at least 2 or 3 daily. My only concern now is the swelling. I am constantly looking at them with a mirror to see if the swelling has reduced any and I can't tell if it has. My question is, how long should I expect the swelling to be an issue. I read every one of those posts previous to yours and found yours to be the only one that was similar to mine. Please, any info on this would be helpful. 

***this post is edited by moderator *** *** private e-mails not allowed*** Please read our Terms of Use

Hi Ben. I had a lot of swelling too and at first I was disappointed because it almost looked like I still had the haemorrhoids! From memory, it was around week 3 that things started to look 'normal' again.
Sounds to me like you are doing great for just being 6 days post op. Be patient, the swelling WILL reduce but it's still early days for you. Good luck!

My experience is just about the same as your. I'm going to try and find the xyloproct you spoke if. I feel l8je killing myself right now..I have never experienced anything like ..now I know why the terminally I'll opt for death.

Hello, So I am relatively young. Had a full hemorrhoidectomy when I was 31. I have major OCD and would consider myself and over preparer. I researched the heck out of this procedure for MONTHS! I was absolutely terrified and tried and did everything under the sun before going through with it. This included several Ultroid treatments (helped with internal) and lots of acupuncture (highly recommended). Bottom line is neither of these things made them go away. It was controlling my life. My husband was deployed and I was alone, so like I stated I was crazy prepared. I bought everything I would need for after the surgery. I also prepared my living space to make things as easy as possible. I was terrified that morning. I went in, 5 hours later left completely numb, and was shaking in my boots at the thought of what it would be like after. When I got home I took my meds along with some Miralax, sat in the bath for 30 min and then hit the bed. I should also add that after the surgery I had iron retention so I had to go home with a catheter which sucked. The catheter situation lasted a total of 5 days and I opted to see my acupuncturest who worked his magic and had me peeing the very next day. Anyways, I'm not going to lie. At about midnight that first night I woke up and there were tears. No pain med no matter how strong could take the edge off of it. But guess what, another soak in the bath did. I staid in the bath at least 9 times a day for 7 days. I know that sounds crazy, but it worked. I also took my pain meds and stool softener on time every day. I added an ambien at night for extra comfort. Without a doubt I can say that the surgery was 100% worth it. No longer was I a slave to my condition. A week of pain was gone and I had my life back. Looking back I would have done it again, again, and yet again. I can honestly say that before the surgery there was not one blog post I hadn't read nor was there an article left unturned. (Seriously I was terrified). Keep this in mind...Rarely does anyone post a good experience. They want to reach out and say don't do it. It was horrible! I get it...maybe it was in fact horrible for them. For me, it was all in a mind set. I was done dealing with the problem and surgery was my solution, so I was going to get through it! I survived your husband will to. The best thing you can do for him is be his alarm clock. Give him his meds, make sure he is hydrated, run a million baths, talk when he needs you to, and make life very easy for him. My poor spouse was away, but he skyped me everyday. Called my mom and had her come to town and made sure every dang thing I needed was there all the way from Iraq! Keep us posted...your gonna get through this and so will he! :)

I am writing this post for those of you looking for a little bit of hope in this process. No it is not fun, but a bit of positivity among so many depressing posts on the internet may help guide you along this process.  A little background info on me: I am only 10 Days into recovery, but wanted to post my experience thus far and will continue to post as the weeks go on. I am a 24 year old female, which is pretty young to be going through a surgery like this, but after dealing with hemorrhoids for the past 3 years and chronic constipation for as long as I can remember, something needed to be fixed. I decided it was time to consult my surgeon and have surgery now that I had developed three internal stage two hemorrhoids and an external stage three hemorrhoid. At this point I was fed up and exhausted.

Prepping for surgery: A week before my surgery I decided to really focus and cleanout my system best I could so I avoided meats, dairy and gluten. Then two days prior to surgery, I did an entirely liquid/ raw foods diet that consisted of mainly drinking fruit smoothies, protein smoothies, and eating lots and lots of veggies! I WOULD DEFINETLY SUGGEST DOING THIS BEFORE SURGERY. The day of the surgery I was very nervous given all the reviews and blogs I had read regarding the aftermath of the surgery, but I was relieved that I had completely cleared out my system and there was nothing left in me.

I tried to ask as many last minute questions as I could prior to going under anesthesia, which helped me relax, but at the same time all cases are different so it’s hard for a surgeon to tell you exactly what you’ll expect. The anesthesia knocked me out right away and then I was done before I even knew it! Waking up I was very groggy and drossy. I was prescribed Oxycodone, which I only took for the first two and a half days because it does indeed cause constipation. The first two days you will most likely experience gas pains from the anesthesia - it is very uncomfortable and puts a lot of pressure “down there,” which is the last thing you want. I did have a BM on the second night, it actually wasn’t terrible. It was diarrhea and not a whole lot so the burning after was more significant than actually going. I took an oxy for that and was able to get through (I would say level 5 on the pain scale), and then went to bed. The first 4/5 days are the worst of the whole process in my opinion, but were not nearly as bad as the horror stories I read about online pre-surgery.

I think what you eat is highly important pre and post-surgery.  I stuck to raw/liquids the following three days and then worked into whole grains such as oatmeal, quinoa, and also added in nuts, salads, probably pretty close to what you would consider a vegan diet, (with the occasional scoop of ice cream). Don’t get me wrong though, everyone is different so test out high fiber foods and lots of liquids prior to surgery and see how it affects you. Day 5 in my opinion was the worst. Mostly because of the swelling and pressure I was experiencing and I finally had a real BM so that wasn’t very comfortable at all. No you will not die, it was probably an 8 on the pain scale, but it didn’t last forever and that was the worst of it! Sits baths are highly recommended – I take them countless times a day, whenever I feel like it might help relax me or after a BM. As seriously gross as it might be, I would suggest trying to have your first couple BMs in the sits bath because it really really helps with the pain. By the end of day 5, I had gone to the bathroom about 3 times and finally felt relieved. I was more sore than I was in pain, but the gas pressure was finally completely gone from the anesthesia and I knew I had been through the worst of it. Ever since then I go to the bathroom on a daily basis, generally a couple of times. There is an initial pain for maybe 10 seconds and then I’m ok, just a bit sore after, but nothing terrible at all. Since I no longer take the prescribed Oxy, I alternate between Advil and Extra Strength Tylenol. For fiber supplements I take a stool softener every 12 hours and I take Metamucil 4-5 times daily – I finally feel like I have found the perfect combination of being able to go consistently and not having diarrhea! I did have some concerns though in regards to the swelling I was having and it felt like I had bumps down there now from all the swelling and initial pressure (so presumably I was freaking out that my hemorrhoids had come back!) I have also experienced bleeding so I wanted to check with the doctor that these things were normal and not reasons to be going back under the knife.

I had my one week follow-up a couple days ago where I was able to ask my doctor about the swelling and all the other concerns I was having. He checked and said swelling is completely normal, bleeding is to be expected for the first couple weeks or so, and in time everything will heel. I realized I have to tell myself that this is my body’s way of healing, as uncomfortable as things might feel down there, this is just the natural process – so don’t freak out if you notice these same symptoms happening to you! Now that I’ve had my follow up, for the past three days I have been walking a lot more, roughly two miles a day, I feel fine other than the bit of soreness I experience after a BM and sitting is still uncomfortable so I need a pillow under my bum. Other than that I really feel back to normal! In fact I have to hold myself back from working out and being active because I want to, but I know I shouldn’t push my body.

I should also probably note that being active before the surgery is definitely beneficial. I would recommend getting yourself as healthy as possible because it will only help with your recovery process. Before this, I generally worked out 5 times a week, ate healthy, and always focused on eating foods high in fiber. I do have a desk job so this is a bit of a concern returning to work and sitting for 8 hours a day, but getting up and stretching and walking will definitely be a priority. I had my surgery on a Thursday so I was out that day and Friday, and then I took off the following two weeks to recover. I have one more week before I return to the office and have decided to work from home this upcoming week because I feel up to it. I would strongly advise taking at least two weeks off of work - even with a good recovery the way mine is going, there is no way I would be ready to be back in an office yet. The bathroom care/ sits baths take time and are necessary, plus sitting all day wouldn’t be possible yet.

So far I would say this surgery is ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT. I will post again in a week and I hope that my response will only be filled with more positive and reassuring things, fingers crossed! If you’re like I was pre-surgery and are dealing with the constant concern for your bum, dealing with discomfort, having to use baby wipes every day, and absolutely hating how your life is controlled by your “bathroom issues,” then I highly recommend getting the surgery. Just do your research first, get healthy, and prepare the best you can and look forward to a better life after recovery!