After benefiting greatly from this forum, it's my turn to contribute in the hope other people will at least avoid some mistakes.
I am exactly one week post op, and I can feel things are starting to improve now. Not out of the woods yet, but I can function slowly. Much has been said about the pain, so I won't spend too long on it. In one word: Yes it is painful, sometimes to the extreme.
Now let's see what helped me, and what didn't.
First off, I think I had a "deluxe" treatment. I got full anesthesia, an experienced surgeon and last but not least, some BOTOX injection. This helps with releasing muscles, for pain and recovery speed. One thing I haven't seen mentioned too often is the blood. My doctor warned me to expect "some blood". Good lord!!! my first BM, 24 hours after surgery was like spraying my bathroom red for 40 minutes. It was not the most painful, as very liquid but one of the most painful BM. I had to lay down 3 times not to faint. Happy days. Afterwards my body must have been in shock as I was shaking in bed, with high temperature for 10-15 minutes and then cold sweat. Exhausted as I was (and after loosing substantial amounts of blood), I slept soundly.
My doctor didn't tell me about sitzbath. I'm very uspet about this. It took me 3 days to find this forum and try. I can't thank you enough! It feels like drinking water when eating a curry: Instant relief, and if you stay long enough, the pain doesn't come back as strong.
I got some "Tramadol" for the "heavy pain". It is opiate-based, and made me feel funny for a few hours, which was nice. The pain recessed a bit. But it (or something) made me (midly) constipated. It was the worst BM, passed in the morning, and then, I was in pain the whole day. It was extremely painful (day 6). My advice: stay away from it, and use Allen's (first post) panadol/ibuprofen combo.
There is nothing worst, NOTHING than a hard stool. This leads us to drinking a lot of water. I thought it was the usual "drink lots of water" grandma advice when one is ill. NO! Drink loads of water as if your life depends on it. Keep your stool soft at all cost! And get some electrolytes while you're at it, it'll help with the blood loss and possible diarrhea. The rest of the experience was similar to most on the forums, maybe a bit better (got back to work on day 5, working freelance, but don't do it if you don't have to).
So in short:
- Above all, don't let your stool get hard, NEVER (many posts on what to eat and drink, my advice: avoid opiates-based medicine, not worth the payoff)
- Ask your practician for BOTOx injection, pay extra for it if needed, it is worth it.
- Don't be too frightened by the blood (first BM only for me). There is A LOT of it at first.
- Of course, use sitzbath/ bathtub.
- Don't move around, use taxis, work from home or don't work if possible.
- local aenestetic cream 30 mins before a BM helps.
Finally I want to point out that the experience is definitely not a walk in the park, but it can be bearable if approached right. It looks like I am getting slowly away with less pain than some less fortunate members of this forumm butrRemember: Don't let your stool get hard!!!
Best of luck, and thanks everyone for your contribution.
Mat
A thank you for posting this! I had a stapled hemorrhoidectomy 2 weeks ago. Also a rectal skin growth (non cancerous) was removed. Feeling much better then the first week. I was prescribed Norco for the pain but didn't take it. I thought it best to know where my pain level was in relation to how I was healing. Yes, it sounds insane but I bit the bullet and found it to be manageable. Though it took me 3 days to have a bowel movement and took Ducoset as a prescribed laxative. When the time came for the first BM I thought I was going to pass out!
The build up of fiber from the previous days came at once. There was some blood and tissue that came out but of course I was prepared for this. Bleeding lasted about 3 days and lessened as time went on. The Sitz baths ARE the main key as previously stated. I'm 2 weeks post op and still doing a sitz bath now 1-2x's per day. Still feeling a tad sore but this helps a lot.
The tissue in the rectal area will take some time to heal. I do see what looks like swollen rectal tissue outside of the anal area but will keep an "eye" out for it if it doesn't change.
I don't regret this procedure, but as myself and others have stated there will be pain/discomfort at varying levels. Allow yourself the time off from work to completely heal. I think if you go back to regular activity too soon you're asking for possible issues with the wound healing. Technically it's probably another 2 more weeks for me, but rest it up as much as you can. It’s very important to allow adequate time to heal and monitor anything that doesn’t look or feel right.
A thank you for posting this! I had a stapled hemorrhoidectomy 2 weeks ago. Also a rectal skin growth (non cancerous) was removed. Feeling much better then the first week. I was prescribed Norco for the pain but didn't take it. I thought it best to know where my pain level was in relation to how I was healing. Yes, it sounds insane but I bit the bullet and found it to be manageable. Though it took me 3 days to have a bowel movement and took Ducoset as a prescribed laxative. When the time came for the first BM I thought I was going to pass out!The build up of fiber from the previous days came at once. There was some blood and tissue that came out but of course I was prepared for this. Bleeding lasted about 3 days and lessened as time went on. The Sitz baths ARE the main key as previously stated. I'm 2 weeks post op and still doing a sitz bath now 1-2x's per day. Still feeling a tad sore but this helps a lot. The tissue in the rectal area will take some time to heal. I do see what looks like swollen rectal tissue outside of the anal area but will keep an "eye" out for it if it doesn't change. I don't regret this procedure, but as myself and others have stated there will be pain/discomfort at varying levels. Allow yourself the time off from work to completely heal. I think if you go back to regular activity too soon you're asking for possible issues with the wound healing. Technically it's probably another 2 more weeks for me, but rest it up as much as you can. It’s very important to allow adequate time to heal and monitor anything that doesn’t look or feel right.
Just came home from hemroidectomy, multiple outer and inner, and also a fissure repair which was a suprise to hear about after surgery. I dont even know what exactly he did to me and I was not prepared in anyway for this and I'm scared. I think I'm going to get alot closer to Jesus over the next few weeks.
I have to admit that prior to my surgery, on December 22nd; I read pretty much every entry on this website. First, a bit of a background. I have had suffered from hemorrhoids for roughly 17 years. In my twenties, I am 43 now; I had banding done three times. The procedure helped but they would come back, and with a vengeance. I do not ever remember a month where I did not bleed, or didn’t need toilet paper there just in case. After two kids I was told that I had no other options but surgery, that was 7 years ago.
Fast forward to about 6 months ago. Not sure what changed but I was pretty much wearing a pad every day due to bleeding. I was in a lot of pain and just knew I had no choice but to make an appt with a surgeon and get the show on the road. I was referred to Dr. John Flannery in NH. We decided on the new procedure THD but he did explain to me if there was any hanging he would do a hemorrhoidectomy. I had 3 internal ones and 1 external. Insurance covered everything, or rather, 80% of the procedure. I took 2 weeks off, knowing it could be longer. I started a high fiber diet a week before and started taking Colace.
The day of surgery I was petrified, not going to lie. I do attribute it partly to reading all of the prior entries here, and I had to keep reminding myself of a few things: 1. Everyone’s pain threshold is different. 2. It will all depend on the surgeon. 3. It will depend on the location of the hemorrhoids. 4. God never gives me anything that I cannot get through. I arrived at the hospital at 7:30am for a 9:45am surgery. They immediately called me in, had me change, asked all the necessary questions, ran the IV etc. About 15 minutes before going into the OR, I started crying…a lot. The nurse put something in my IV to take the edge off. The last thing I remember was being rolled into the OR, I looked around the room, saw my surgeon come in and off to sleep I went. I woke up 40 minutes later than expected with an incredible urge to go number 2. After about 20 minutes that subsided. I was told at that time that Dr Flannery did, in fact, have to do a hemorrhoidectomy and not THD. That would mean additional time to heal. I was mentally prepared.
I was sent home with the following instructions: Percocet every 4 hrs, Toradol every 6 hrs, 3 Tbsp of Mineral oil 3 times a day, 2 tsp of Metamucil twice a day and 100 mg of Colace twice a day. I did everything but the mineral oil…..I only did it twice a day. One thing I do suggest, is putting together a spreadsheet of everything required daily and a food/BM chart. I wrote down everything I ate, meds, and BMs and the times of each. This helped keep track of when I could take meds and it helped whomever was with me to make sure I was not over medicating (I was a little loopy) and eating enough. I never did take the full dose of Percocet a day. Once the Toradol was done, I replaced it with Advil. I went off the Percocet on day 12 and replaced it with Tylenol. . I did a sitz bath after every BM and sometimes in between.
The night after my surgery I ate high fiber foods. I did not have a BM and urinating was normal by the time I went to bed. The worst day that I have had, and I had some bad ones since, was the second day. I had in my system so much fiber, Colace and mineral oil that by 2pm on the second day the cramps started. As I moved into the night, the pain was so bad I started throwing up. Finally, I had a BM, and the plug that was in there came out. It was like being in labor. But once it was done, I was done. No bleeding.
The first week was kind of a blur as I was on the Percocet. I do recall from notes that I wrote down (I put a notes section on my food/BM chart so that I could keep track of how I was feeling) that I made two steps forward one day and one step back the next. I also wrote a pain level next to each time I had a BM, took a Percocet and Toradol. It was very encouraging to see the pain levels go down. I was not in severe pain as others have stated. I am not sure if that is because I was on Percocet and not Vicodin or because I was on mineral oil, which I hadn’t seen anyone else really say they were on, or if the location of my hemmys were in a totally different area. Please note I was definitely in pain, but not severe like I scared myself into thinking. It was totally manageable with the pain meds.
The 2nd week of recovery was much like the first except I introduced more than oatmeal, mashed potatoes and apple sauce to my diet. The best thing I had during the day was a shake consisting of: spinach, Metamucil, mineral oil, coconut water and frozen blueberries. I know have apple cider vinegar in them. I pretty much laid on my side watching Hallmark Christmas movies for 2 straight weeks. I was very lucky to have an amazing support system that others went to the market for me and helped with my kids.
The 3rd week I went back to work (I do work from home) part time. The pain that I experienced during this week was due to the fact that I had anywhere from 8-10 BMs a day since I stopped taking the Percocet. And I had a tremendous amount of spasms down there......which would result in me shaking and shivering. But once I was done, that all subsided. I decided to take the mineral oil only once a day now but it hasn’t helped.
During this entire recovery I really kept to Drs orders. I rested. I barely bled. I had pain and it was not easy every day but I never said to myself I wish I didn’t have this done. I mentally prepared myself going in. I knew that my life was going to change forever once I fully healed. Over half of my life I have dealt with the embarrassment and pain and I didn’t care if I had pain, I just knew a month or two of pain was nothing compared to 17 years of hell.
As I am typing this I have had a setback, totally my fault. We had some snow yesterday and I shoveled the driveway. More like pushed the snow, but I was erect for over an hour and last night I was experiencing a lot of pain again, and a tiny bit of bleeding. Needless to say, on the couch again. So when the Dr says, no lifting or over exertion, they mean it! I am now down to Advil/Tylenol twice a day together. I go for my post op appt this Tuesday and I am really hoping for good news.
I apologize if this is really long but I did want folks to see that it isn’t always horrible. Is it going to be easy, NO. But it will be worth it in the end, I promise! Good luck to anyone having this in the future!!