Hemorrhoidectomy Surgery Post Operative Healing.

8 months ago i had the external hemorrhodectomy (the standard 3 big ones) and delorme's procedure for rectal prolapse. I've posted here and elsewhere my survival advice. Happy to see readers have found these tips useful. I need to be clear that an external hemorrhoidectomy is reputably not as painful as the delorme's procedure. And according to my surgeon, the delorme's on its own is not as bad as both the external hemorrhodectomy and delorme's at the same time. Its goes something like this: external hemorrhoidectomy about 2-3 weeks for the pain to subside; delorme's 4-5 weeks for pain to subside; have them both and its 2-3 times 4-5 equals somewhere between 8 and 15 weeks before you can look at a watermelon and not instantly think about painful bms. So the point of my post is twofold.

First I need to go in to have a fissue and a 'few spots' fixed. It is day surgery and not supposed to be too painful or disabling. The surgeon has waited to see if it would all clear by itself-it hasnt.Given that the urgency of my bms apparently relates to these spots, i wish he had intervened much earlier. Over the past 8 months, my bms have significantly settled but still can produce an urgency once or twice a week that makes leading a carefree life impossible. Fortunately I moved house and am now within walking distance of work. This means no bus or train rides terrifed every trip that the immediacy of my bowel motions doesnt cause a very embarrasing incident. And no more holding my breath each train trip whilst it passes through the 'holding zone'where it can stop between stations for 10 minutes or more waiting for the train ahead to free up the next station!

My other point is that IT IS WORTHWHILE HAVING THESE PROCEDURES.To quote ABBA, 'If I had to do the same again, i would my friend Fernando'. Prior to these procedures, i had almost unbearable and constant itching around around my anus, soreness; blood on the paper most times; and worst of all, a never ending urge to pooh (whether i actually really needed to or not-due to the prolapse tripping the nerve endings in this area to send the time to pooh signal to my brain). If the surgeon can succesfully fix these little spots and the fissure, I'm hopeful I can soon think about going to the cinema, taking a bus or train or going for a walk without having to worry about or plan out the toilets along the way.

One other tip; drink plenty of water.

Garry

I have to say, AllenN's idea for use of the sitz bath saved me! Yes, it sounds gross, but it literally takes away majority of the pain. I can't believe I didn't give birth in water.

Anyways, I am exactly 1 week since surgery, and I am doing great. I am on an anti-inflammatory and a stool softener. I have been eating everything I usually ate, except for cheese and pop. Just drink lots of water as well, and I've been eating a lot of berries and other fruit to keep it soft.

I had my first BM 3 days after surgery, and all that came out the first time was a rabbit poop. Hurt a lot for 10 seconds (in the sitz!) but then pain gone. Continued through that day to have about the same size, not as painful BM's. Today, I finally had 3 regular BM's (I guess my body was catching up) and they weren't that painful at all. The BM's used to look quite compressed. I actually dropped the sitz bath on Day 6, since the BM's were larger. Just keep taking the anti-inflammatory and softener, because it is regulating your body back to normal. You can tell the internal structures are coming back to normal because of the size of the BM's. 

As per AllenN, I have pretty much been hanging out in bed, or on the couch, and going to the bathroom. Lots of reading, watching Netflix, playing games on iPhone. Today I went to the public library to get magazines and books. Not walking super fast, but I am not in any pain at all. Just a bit of discomfort.

I wanted to thank you so much for all of your posts!! You gave me hope when I was going through such excruciating pain following surgery. I had 3 internals and a thrombosed external removed I saw my surgeon yesterday who said that I was healing very well and should be fully healed after another 3 weeks. I thank God I had the surgery as I was bleeding so bad I was anemic and the pain got to where I could barely leave my home. The surgeon told me that my internals were in the top 10 as far as bad one's he's ever seen. That the internals were strangulated and sitting atop one another :( What was supposed to be an hour surgery took him 2 1/2 hours to get rid of it all. He's an amazing colon rectal surgeon and I know I have my life back again :)

I came across your post on day 2 and again thank you very much! P.S. I had a LIS procedure a year ago for the fissure repair and it was painful but likely due to the fact that it was sitting atop the hemorrhoids. In retrospect I should have done them together but such is life :)

Hi, I'm in day 4 of recovery and had my first BM this morning. Agony personified.
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. You've put it clearly in perspective
Surgeons often tend to be great technicians and not good with people, so as a result, I really didn't know what to expect on a human level. Now I do!
Much appreciated
Good luck to everyone who's in recovery or yet to be operated on. You need courage, belief and strong support.

I had this op just over 3 weeks ago. I am still in agony. BM's are my worst nightmare. The pain lasts for hours and hours afterwards.

i can see no light at the end of my tunnel !! 4 days ago my doc prescribed me butrans patches, amitriptyline for nerve pain and more antibiotics. I now have chronic diarrhoea !! I have stopped the laxatives and bran for now but wish I hadn't been given theses extra drugs. I just don't know what to do for the best!

the diarrhoea has caused extra pain on top of the severe pain that I already had. I am now into my 4th week off work and Ann dreading going back. I work as a full time pharmacy tech in a mens prison. It's always busy and to go to the loo involves unlocking and locking lots of doors

 

Hi Allen Your experience is almost identical to mine, i had fissure and hemorroids and received Botox injection the hemorroidectomy 5 days ago, i am still suffering !! I am a pain doctor as well !! You made me feel better by not to expect to heel that quickly, thanks. Ehab Shalaby

Thank you, Allen, for all of your candid information.  I have had anaphalactic reactions to both acetaminophen and ibuprofen.  What would you recommend as an alternative to your post-operative pain regimen?  Also, do protruding hemorroids ever heal with alternative treatments? After reading all of these posts, I am worried that things will be worse than before the surgery!

Thank you so much for helping all of us folks.

 

Big fist bump to AllenN on numerous fronts but especially the advice about pooping in the warm water sitz bath. That advice was huge and I'll admit I probably wouldn't have tried it on my own. Today marks one month post-op and while I still have some occasional discomfort, it is nothing compared to week 1 and 2.

I am 50 y/o male and had traditional Morgan-Milligan hemorrhoidectomy and sphincerectomy. I had three Grade 3 hemorrhoids,  2 fissures, and a torn sphincter. The doc used a cauterising pen to remove the offending free loaders. I had an epidural and was in/out of surgery in 30 mins. See below for more about the hospital.

Here's the main thing I wanted to share which may help others: My recovery suffered two major setbacks. The first was the result of too much fiber supplement, think Metamucil, which just tore my stomach up and black tarry stools (melena stools) were pouring from my butt for three days (days 13 thru 15 post-op). On average, I was on the toilet every hour and a half during that period and in extreme discomfort. The lesson here is TAKE IT EASY on the fiber. Start with 1/2 or even 1/4 of a serving for the first week if you need it at all. After this cleared up I quit consuming the fiber supplement all together and never looked back. During that 3 day period I'll bet I lost 2 pints of blood; no way to know for sure, just a guess. It's worth mentioning as well that I have a wimpy stomach so the fiber may not effect everyone with the same intensity.

The second setback came on day 23 because I pulled on the stitches. Big mistake. The stitches were coming undone and hanging out of my butt like dental floss and were itching like crazy. The doctor said they were dissolving stitches so I didn't think it would be a problem to tug on the dangling ends thinking they would just slide out. They didn't and I pulled progressively harder until something hurt really freaking bad. The lesson here is DON'T DO THAT!! I was in post-op day 1 or 2 pain all over again for the next 3 days. I pulled on something that shouldn't have been pulled on. I thought I was well on the road to recovery but instead I spent the next three days laying on my side because anything else hurt too bad.

In the FWIW category: I had my surgery at Song-Do Colorectal Hospital in Seoul, South Korea. I work and live in Seoul so it is just fortunate I was already here, but if anyone has the opportunity to have their surgery done in Korea, I highly recommend it. The treatment was fantastic. Song-Do's protocol is to keep the patient in the hospital for two nights after surgery. My total bill was only $1600 (no insurance was involved). That included the initial consultation, pre-op examination (bloodwork, x-ray, ultrasound of liver/pancreas/kidneys), surgery, hospital stay incl meals -- and the food was excellent. Like most Korean hospitals, Song-Do has an international assistance office to help foreigners. They speak Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and English. They have 16 doctors and I was fortunate my doctor spoke good enough English that we could get by w/o any other help.

Thank you AllenN. I'm scheduled for surgery on March 13, 2014. This information is very helpful. On another note, I'm in the Atlanta, GA area and suffer from chronic pain. If you are not near me, can you possibly recommend a pain specialist.

Hi folks! I'm happy to see so many of you benefited from my advice. I'm happy these kinds of venues are possible on the net so people can benefit from their shared experience. 

I wanted to add for those of you about to go through the procedure that I'm now 2.5 years from my surgery. The whole thing is a distant memory and I can't imagine I would think twice about going through it. My bowel movement and everything is back to when I was 18 years old! (I wish the rest of my body would feel the same!! LOL!) 

I just wanted to encourage those of you who are about to go through this procedure or have recently had it to simply hang in there. Everyone will regret for the first week or two but in no time you'll have your old life back and you don't have to worry about this chronic and debilitating problem! Here's wishing you all healthy recovery! :)

I'm sorry I don't know any pain specialists in your area. However, you should look into Emory University/Hospital for guidance in this area. Hang in there and you will be fine. As I mentioned in the previous post. It's been 2.5 years for me and I've completely forgotten about the procedure. I agree with what was said above. Make sure not to take too much fiber. That's one mistake I made as well but I was so freaked out about being constipated that I over did it. If you go with less narcotics and more NSAIDS and have a regular balanced diet you won't put too much pressure during your bowel movements. Good luck!

Thanks again! Thursday is the big day for me. I will check with my doctor at Grady about a pain specialist for my other issue when this is over. I believe Grady is affiliated with Emory.

thank you for validating my theory about too much fibre. My mother had this surgery too in the late 90s and followed the post-op fibre prescription to the dot, and ended up with 3 painful BMs a day. I had the prescribed fleet enema 2 hours preop (presumably cleared any solids out) and have been on essentially clear liquids post op - i'm on Day 3 now - broths (with salt), pure cranberry juice (not the concentrate / drinks type - i'm scared of UTIs), lemonade, sports drinks for the electrolytes, and one small probiotic yogurt a day. I cut down the prescribed "two" servings of Metamucil a day down to 1 Metamucil, since i figure i'm not eating that much solids to need to have "softened", took Milk of Magnesia on the first day only and quit that. I've had my daily BM at my usual time (years long habit pre op) but it's all water - and only marginally painful, no straining involved, they just come out.

Hope this is an OK routine. Planning to do that for the next 7 to 9 days .. i'm not even hungry! nauseated and cold sweats from the pain sometimes, but no hunger pangs. Glad to hear someone telling us NOT to take too much fibre!

slightly worried about my stomach though, with all the anti-inflammatories i'm taking (diclofenac, ibuprofen), essentially on an empty stomach.  Fingers crossed that i won't end up with an NSAID-ulcer...

I just had my colonoscopy/hemorrhoidectomy this morning, got home about 1pm. I had to take 1 oxycodone and 1 valium and a stool softener at 2 pm. I've done 2 sitz baths. Hurting somewhat now(5 pm) so I'm taking 800 mg of ibuprofen because it is much too early to take the others again. Thankful there is no cancerous polyps, but my doctor did inform my mother that I would be in a lot of pain. Waiting for the ball to drop. Will definitely update when able.

Ok no BM but feeling like I need to go. Having quite a lot of pain like something is sticking me on the outside of my rectum. Drinking at lot water and urinating a lot. Feeling a lot of pressure plus a lot if gas. I'm mostly sleeping through it all. Very very sore as well. Going to try and eat some veggies and fruit today.