Lenght Of Hemorrhoidectomy Recovery?

Hello everyone, I'm Jay.

OMG where to start? I guess I will start by thanking everyone that has posted on this site, it has truly made it easier to understand what I am going through so, Thank you! I'm a 29 year old female and I got hemorrhoidsafter the birth of my daughter (she will b 3 in May). I didn't have any real issues like the others on here just some pain after some of my BM, bleeding once it a blue moon. Sometimes I'd push it back in and it would slide back out or it would be too swollen to push back in, those were my major issues. I guess I got tired of the pushing so I decided to go to the Colon Center. Surgeon said I had internal hems but what was coming out was a skin tag. She said skin tag is the left over stretched skin that sometimes gets left after the swollen hems come down. She said I can have minor surgery to have it removed and that she would rubber band the ones inside while she was in there, so I said fine. They gave me a date for surgery told me it will be about an hour and have someone pick me up after. Nurse handed me some papers that told me what to do pre-surgery, no eating after midnight and post surgery high fiber diet, water intake blah blah blah. I did no research since the doctor/nurse made it seem so easy. Needless to say if I had done the research I would have most likely cancelled but I didn't so I went for my surgery this past Friday, March 29, 2013 @ 7:00am.

Surgery day - When I finally woke up from surgery I saw the Surgeon for all of 1min. She told me all went well that everything was removed to call the office on Monday to scheduled my 4week follow up. I was still groggy so couldn't even manage a whole sentence but was happy with what I heard and wanted to go home.Nurse let me go pee, she then contacted my husband and handed me my prescriptions for percoset and colace along with my discharge papers that say can resume all normal activities (can you say BULL SH!T/Impossible???) Was home by Noon. In all honesty I did not want to take percoset cause I hear stories of people getting addicted to pain medicine BIG MISTAKE!!! My suggestion to anyone is take the first dose AS SOON AS POSSIBLE to beat the pain it will be your savior!!!! And ask the doctor make sure it is okay to take Advil or Tylenol with it. Pain was horrible my rectum kept having spasms or something which just felt like hell. I took a sitz bath and finally went to sleep that night around 11pm.

Day 1 Saturday (day after surgery) At around 4am I woke up in excruciating pain again my anal doing spasms and feeling like I had to poop. I went and sat on the toilet and all that came out was blood it hurt like hell and my but felt like it was throbbing afterwards. I took a sitz bath (as hot as I could handle), a shower popped in the 2 percoset and went back to bed. I woke up around 10am all i remember is the painful spasms which even with the percoset still hurt like hell, trying to go to the bathroom 3 more times and only having bloody BMs and 3 more sitzbaths. Being a bit drowsy and watching tv. tried making dinner for the family and myself but felt like c**p afterwards. Your best bet is just to rest

Day 2 (Sunday). Woke up around 6am again anal spasms same as day before sat on toilet had a semi BM mostly blood but very little tiny poop droppings. I slept a lot of the day waking up from the pain and feeling like i had to go. When i went to the bathroom I noticed i was having trouble urinating (something they did not mention) which sucks with all the water intake. However it would be easy to go while sitting in the sitz bath. I had an ecoli UTI during pregnancy so I'm very cautious & careful when it comes to cleaning that area down there but with the blood and seepage I'm kinda worried that I will get another one :( . I was also afraid to pass gas and still am.

Day 3 (Monday) I would spend some time before bed reading this forum & I saw that a couple of people combined the pain meds with Advil/ibuprofen, so before going to bed (Sunday night) I took two advils along with the two percoset and i was in heaven I actually slept through the night woohoo!!! I woke up at 8am and felt very rested thank God. Even though I would sleep during the day I was not getting enough rest since i kept on waking up because of pain. I had breakfast which led to a BM mostly blood again but bigger pellets of poop. I called the dr office to schedule my follow up appt. I asked a couple questions that I had one being an extra piece of skin that felt like a hem but was on the opposite side of where the original skin tag was. The nurse told me that it was normal and once the swelling went down I wouldn't notice it (fingers crossed she is right because I would hate to go through this again) I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon with the family and then around 4pm we all took a nap. When we woke up we had dinner watched tv and went to bed.

Day 4 (Tuesday, today) Before going to be last night I was telling my husband how I was worried about having a set back since people some people complained about that on this forum. I went and had the percoset with Advil went to bed and hoped for the best. Woke up this morning around 8 and in pain.. Did my usual morning routine, bloody BM bigger poop pieces, sitz bath and shower, popped two percosets and back to bed it was did not wake up till 2pm. Husband made me lunch and took two Advil without the percoset since the husband goes back to work tomorrow and I will have to tend to our daughter can't be high or sleepy. Went to the bathroom after lunch and had a regular BM still bloody but actual stool came out and it wasn't too hard so I guess the colace is working. It still hurts to go, unfortunately it feels like some one is ripping you from the inside or stabbing you. I jumped right in the shower as since the throbbing was not as bad as the previous times probably because I took the Advil. I was very happy that I actually pooped and I spent the rest of the afternoon in bed drinking water eating fruits watching tv and reading the forum. I really hope tomorrow is a good day as I will be on my own come Thursday.

Some tips to help through the first couple of days is rest as much as you can. Take it easy. If you are single let some family or friends know about the surgery so they can help you with meals and any errands that might need to be taken care of while you recover. Show them this forum if you have to!!! If you are reading this before your surgery make sure to not have any events or appointments with in days or weeks following your surgery as you will not know how much time you need to recover and everyone is different. If you have a job take as much time as you can, sick days, vacations day and/or personal days, it is very difficult to walk around or even sit down. I use panty liners for the blood and seepage, and change them every time i go to the bathroom to pee. I use flushable toddler wipes (daughter is potty training) and I don't wipe I pat the area and then pat it dry with toilet paper. I'm afraid wiping will hurt to much. I also keep napkins in the bathroom to pat myself dry after a shower, no matter how much you wash there is still some blood and I think most people will agree they do not want to ruin towels. After every BM take a sitz bath with water as hot as you can handle it will work wonders. Take the stool softener (colace) the doctor prescribes along with the pain medication and like I said before ask if it is okay to also take Advil/Tylenol along with it if the pain becomes unbearable.

Once again thank you to all that posted what they went through with the surgery I know everyone is different and healing time/process will be different for all of us. This is a very painful surgery and I wish doctors/surgeons would be more forthcoming and realistic when given out information about the procedure. As I sit here writing this I am still not sure if I am completely happy with having this surgery. I am still in a little bit of pain and am worried of having a set back. I read all of the horror stories people shared as to why they had no choice but to have the surgery, the hems were really bad and ruining lives, my only consolation is that if I have avoid all that then I guess I will be happy in the end.. I am sorry to those that have had to wait weeks or months for relief. I know my first two days were hell and I was miserable and unhappy I hate not being able to do things on my own. Thankfully the hubby was smart enough to take these past couple of days off cause I really thought it was gonna easy and nothing to it and boy was I wrong.

I will try to post an update on Friday (1 week after surgery) or Saturday and maybe once a week until my 4thweek check up. In case anyone is reading and is curious. In the meantime I pray for everyones health and easy recovery during this time and hope you all have a great support system and help because this is not something one can and or should go through alone. My best to all of you.

~Jay

I'm here again... "I am a 33 yr old female from India. I've had hemorrhoids for around 11-12 years. "

I wrote 3 days back after completing eight weeks post-op. I stated that I was feeling much better and not bleeding now. I think I showed the 'smiley' a little too soon. I have started bleeding again. I can't figure out what went wrong. I had hard stools one day so perhaps that is the reason but I'm not sure.

Now I am really feeling frustrated and dejected. I read the post by MikeO89 "Been almost 4 years now since....". That has given me some hope and as of now, it is the only hope I have.

Like many others I too feel that the doctors and surgeons need to tell us the truth and the details. Most of us feel like we are findng the way out in utter darkness. Forums like this have given me more information and support than my Doc. Anyway...I hope that I can write here again after a few days with some real positive news about recovery.

Dear Jay,

I am the 33 yr old female from India. I read that you are using very hot water for sitz bath - "water as hot as you can handle". I did the same thing initially thinking hot water will also act as a disinfectant. Later my friend, who is a naturopath, told me not to do it. The wound at this stage is raw and very hot water may scald it. What you need is warm water...as warm as comforting, but not hot.

Wish you well!

It sounds like most of you are having a fairly good time recovering from you surgeries. I am currently on day 17 and still in a lot of pain. I had a large internal hemorrhoid removed at the time of my surgery. Since then the pain has been almost unbearable. My pain mostly comes from a large open incision beside my anus. The wound goes all the way into my rectal cavity. All BMs have exited this incision. I told my doctor and he doesn't seem to believe me. One doctor said a little feces and mucous is normal, but what I'm experiencing does not seem normal. Has anyone else experienced anything like this? I have read all the forums I can and have not found any similar stories. If anyone knows anything, please help.

I am 4 weeks post op after having 1 external and one internal rhoid removed. I am a 29 year old female from New York state and I had been suffering from internal rhoids for over 10 years since I was pregnant with my first daughter. The rhoid became external in 2011 when I was pregnant with my second daughter. I hadn't actually been suffering recently from any issues with the rhoids. I had been eating a healthy-ish and exercising and fter suffering for years, I had learned what I needed to do to not have pain and problems. I decided to do the surgery because I am turning 30 this year and wanted to get my minor health issues in check before I got older.

I had my surgery Friday, March 22, 2013 and regretted it immediately. It was performed by a general surgeron I believe (to be honest i didn't do much research going in and that was my first regret) and I was told (like others on this site) that this surgery wasn't a big deal. Initially he suggested I take a week off but when he found out I had a sedentry job, he said I could return on Monday. When I woke up in the recovery room they immediately gave me a local anesthetic (I had general for the surgery) and pretty much passed out. I was in and out of it for about 3 hours before I could stay awake for more than 30 minutes. I got lazy bladder or whatever after the surgery and even thought I had drunk about 100oz or water I still could not pee. When they threatened about 6 hours after the surgery to use a catheter I guess my bladder woke up, I was able to pee and finally able to go home. My mom drove me home and I could swear she was trying to kill me because every bump or lump in the street she hit made me feel like I was dying. I was sent home with a script for loratab and told take one every 4-6 hours, a stool softener and to eat a regular diet and use the sitz bath 2-3 times a day. That is it. There was no mention of the incontience I experienced. I was not told I would need to wear depends or that I would need pads on my bed or the floor.

I had my first BM two days post surgery with the help of milk of magnesia, a stool softener and tons of water as I was told the loratab would constipate me. My first Bm was pretty much water and helped to remove the gauze tampon that was put into my butt during the surgery. I ended up not being able to hold myself at all and the whole bathroom got messed up. (This happened quite a bit during the first 17 days until the stitches dissolved. My 3rd BM was the painful one. It had a little bit of substance to it and once again I thought I was going to die. To be honest, I wanted to die the first two weeks. Even after my 13 day follow up, whwen the doctor said I was 90 percent healed, I felt like I was going to die. I couldn't walk, I could barely breathe.

 

Fast forward to today. Day 30. Feeling a lot better. EVERYONE, YOU WILL GET through it!!. I didn't believe it on day four when I was reading this site, or even on day 14. But I have come a long way. I still have something going on on the right side of my rectum I guess when I BM it feels like a scratch and I still try to time my BMs for when I am home and can hop into the tub afterwards (they are not messy any more but I still enjoy and it does help with the annoyance of that scratch or whatever on the right side. Lots of water, metamucil and a stool softener and fruits and veggies. I feel about 7 percent me. I was actually able to do a full food shop and laundry yesterday. I had to take naps after each but I am better than I was two weeks ago.

 

Recommendations: Take real baths, that sitz thing only pools blood and is not comfortable after about 5 minutes. Lots of fruits and veggies. Also wait until the stitches come before using the metamucil or whatever is recommended. Make sure to have plenty of depends and pads around, you will need them. Have a soft pillow or cushion, work chairs, the driver's seat all feel like c**p for a couple of weeks. Lots of water. And lastly if your dr. recommends taking time off use it! I went back to work after 4 days and although I made it, it was hell. I had to time my bm for before or after work, time to clear the bathroom, take a bath (a lot of times before work). I would be up 3-4 hours before I had to be to work. Also long walks are hard. I couldn't do my ususal walk (5 blocks) to the train until last week. And it exhausted me. I went to sleep as soon as I got home. Use your resources, friends, family, etc., to help you with chores (ex cooking, cleaning, laundry, etc). Sleep when you can. You will be exhausted for a while. I am still easily exhausted, still some pain with BM but overall doing a lot better. I know as each day passes, you feel like this will never end but it will. I still understand it might take another 2-4 weeks or longer before I feel 100 percent like me, but I want all to know there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

I am now 2 years post-op. I feel it was the biggest mistake of my life. I had piles, but they would have been manageable  I fell for the consultant's advice without researching the topic, he said it's worthwhile to do and even though it's painful for a week, it heals in 3 weeks I am sorted for the rest of my life. The sad fact is that I am screwed for the rest of my life.

 

I had incredible pain for 2-3 weeks. My wound wouldn't heal for 3 months and even up till now I have to be really careful, as I no longer can control my muscles at at 35, I am incontinent of faeces!

 

Now sure what the guy did to me, literally for months I had to dash to the loo in order to reach it on time, I was binning one pants after another. Now the situation is slightly better, but still have dirty pants and had 2 major accidents when I just couldn't control it.

 

The other problem is that perhaps my passage got narrower, previously I was regular in the morning, apart from a couple of times had constipations a year. Now constipations are pretty regular, I have problem unless I am on a rough diet and drink plenty of water. Going to the loo happens when happens during the day - maybe the lactacids messed up my indigestion and there is an extra problem down there too? No idea.

 

According to the consultant, there is no problem with my spinchters. Yeah, really? Apparently new skin tag developed outside and I also have the rare "fissures" every now and then. I wish I had never done this op. It really wasn't necessary. The worst thing is the worry I am left with, the weird thing that I have to think about No 2 every single day. I am thinking and worrying about poo every day. It's not even something you want to talk about with your friends, because of a massive shame factor.

 

Right, so if you are in a position to decide about the op, think about it at first, research it, as it's incredibly painful and clearly many things CAN and usually DO go wrong.

Hi,

I am really sorry you experience so much problems :(

What kind of surgery you had? My wounds are not healed by 3 months mark. And I am quite depressed.

Still discomfort and inching after BM. Some pain during BM. I think I got fissure or something on top of surgery.

1.5 years out and still issues for me. The dang surgeons act like nothing is wrong. I started reading and thought I might have had a form of colitis, but the blood work my GI doc did failed to show this. She thinks I have IBS instead.

Hi,

Checked your posts. Do you have anal stenosis still? Why do you think you have colits?

What is your overall situation now?

Its me again..."I am a 33 yr old female from India. I've had hemorrhoids for around 11-12 years. " My surgery was done on 4th Feb, 2013. Today is 4th June, 2013. So I am now 4 months/ 16 weeks post-op. I am happy to report that except for some tiny-little problems, I am now fine. There is no bleeding now and no pain either. The tiny-little problems are these: 1) For some reason, the initial part of my stools are harder now than they were before the surgery. So I make sure that I drink upto 3 litres of water in a day. But this does not help every time and sometimes I end up having hard BMs. 2) As reported by some other people, I too have become slightly incontinent. If I feel the pressure to pass stools but am unable to do so immediately, I experience some seepage from the rectum. I spoke to my doc and she said that this will become ok with some more time. Fingers crossed but I think four months was enough time for things to be ok. 3) I still pass stools twice in the morning. First BM happens after I wake up and the second happens after I eat my breakfast. I am not sure why this is so. Before the surgery I used to have one BM and then I would be good for the whole day. The first 3-4 weeks were straight out of hell but now I am much better. For those of you who have just been operated upon or are contemplating the surgery, things may be and will be bad after surgery but gradually they will improve. I read the posts of some people who are still bleeding after 1-2 years of surgery. That is really sad and I am sorry for them. It must be scary and frustrating. Try using some ointment meant for Fissures and apply it inside the rectum with a gloved finger. The medicines need to reach the wound which is still open. Best wishes to everyone for speedy recovery and good healthy life.

Its me again..."I am a 33 yr old female from India. I've had hemorrhoids for around 11-12 years. " My surgery was done on 4th Feb, 2013. Today is 4th June, 2013. So I am now 4 months/ 16 weeks post-op. I am happy to report that except for some tiny-little problems, I am now fine. There is no bleeding now and no pain either. The tiny-little problems are these: 1) For some reason, the initial part of my stools are harder now than they were before the surgery. So I make sure that I drink upto 3 litres of water in a day. But this does not help every time and sometimes I end up having hard BMs. 2) As reported by some other people, I too have become slightly incontinent. If I feel the pressure to pass stools but am unable to do so immediately, I experience some seepage from the rectum. I spoke to my doc and she said that this will become ok with some more time. Fingers crossed but I think four months was enough time for things to be ok. 3) I still pass stools twice in the morning. First BM happens after I wake up and the second happens after I eat my breakfast. I am not sure why this is so. Before the surgery I used to have one BM and then I would be good for the whole day. The first 3-4 weeks were straight out of hell but now I am much better. For those of you who have just been operated upon or are contemplating the surgery, things may be and will be bad after surgery but gradually they will improve. I read the posts of some people who are still bleeding after 1-2 years of surgery. That is really sad and I am sorry for them. It must be scary and frustrating. Try using some ointment meant for Fissures and apply it inside the rectum with a gloved finger. The medicines need to reach the wound which is still open. Best wishes to everyone for speedy recovery and good healthy life.

Its me again..."I am a 33 yr old female from India. I've had hemorrhoids for around 11-12 years. " My surgery was done on 4th Feb, 2013. Today is 4th June, 2013. So I am now 4 months/ 16 weeks post-op. I am happy to report that except for some tiny-little problems, I am now fine. There is no bleeding now and no pain either. The tiny-little problems are these: 1) For some reason, the initial part of my stools are harder now than they were before the surgery. So I make sure that I drink upto 3 litres of water in a day. But this does not help every time and sometimes I end up having hard BMs. 2) As reported by some other people, I too have become slightly incontinent. If I feel the pressure to pass stools but am unable to do so immediately, I experience some seepage from the rectum. I spoke to my doc and she said that this will become ok with some more time. Fingers crossed but I think four months was enough time for things to be ok. 3) I still pass stools twice in the morning. First BM happens after I wake up and the second happens after I eat my breakfast. I am not sure why this is so. Before the surgery I used to have one BM and then I would be good for the whole day. The first 3-4 weeks were straight out of hell but now I am much better. For those of you who have just been operated upon or are contemplating the surgery, things may be and will be bad after surgery but gradually they will improve. I read the posts of some people who are still bleeding after 1-2 years of surgery. That is really sad and I am sorry for them. It must be scary and frustrating. Try using some ointment meant for Fissures and apply it inside the rectum with a gloved finger. The medicines need to reach the wound which is still open. Best wishes to everyone for speedy recovery and good healthy life.

Jay,

Thanks for this post. I am post op day 9, and while I experienced many things that you have, my biggest complaint now is that I have no regularity in BM or sleep or regular day to day activities. I am a prisoner in my own home because I don't want to risk not being near a bathroom. My body is simply not healing as quickly as I would like. If it's not feeling constipated, its throbbing or the sensation of wanting to pee all the damn time. It feels horrible. Reading these posts though help big time because you can get a sense of what to expect. The worst thing I did was go into this without being prepared. That was by far the most idiotic thing I've done in a long time.

-M

We are definitely all put together differently.

I'm currently at day 4 post-op, after having 3 very large prolapsing internals removed via traditional method.

Pain-wise, I believe that I've been extremely fortunate. I was taking paracetamol for the first day, but I'm not using any painkillers now, and have had 3 BMs so far. Yes, it sure smarted a bit, and I rather expected it would, but it wasn't anything I couldn't deal with.

My biggest issue is nausea that seems to be caused by the antibiotics the doc prescribed - it is making me feel really crappy (pardon the pun) and I'm struggling to maintain my appetite. I'm pretty much forcing myself to eat fiber-rich food and just dealing with the nausea, because I know that the alternative is not something I even want to contemplate.

I'm hopeful that everything continues to progress and that I am lucky enough to avoid some of the experiences others have described.

Hi, there. I had my operation 2 days ago. I am feeling ok, just a bit sore. Had my first BM today in the morning (a very bad diarrhoea) and just wanted to ask for how long the laxatives should be taken? I was prescribed lactulose 10ml 3times daily. I guess it was too much for me. Thanks in advance for any advice.