Recovery Time For Hemorrhoid Surgery

I have not seen any post for this in a while..........I found this post three weeks ago, two weeks prior to my surgery, and was very scared after reading to the point where i lost sleep and was considering not going through with the procedure, but in weighing the consequences of having this annoying and embarassing issue for the rest of my life, versus getting rid of them, I opted for the latter. Today is now one week post op and I must say it was not as bad as I anticipated. The day of my out patient surgery Monday, November 8th I was in no pain up until the following day. On Wednesday the pain finally kicked in but it was no worst than what I suffered when I had my hemmi flare ups so it was manageable for me. My first bm (which I was not looking forward to) on Thursday was a bit scary but also manageble. I did everything that I read in the previous post and what my Dr. had said, take sitz baths two times and after bm"s which helped alot. Right now I am sticking to my stool softner and milk of mag two pills two times a day, my psyllium in the morning along with FiberOne cereal in the morning, I have a bm once a day and sometimes two times a day, I skipped one day and was concerned but then it happened the following day. After the first week I can say that I am almost back to normal, my walk is much better and I am now sitting regular and not in bed all day. My next concern is having a normal bm without the stool softners and not having narrowing of my rectum, since I am having a daily smooth (not diareah...(sp) bm. I hope tish shed some light on those who are considering not getting the procedure done. My pain was more of a burning pain and if taking your meds as prescribed you would be ok. I was on Oxycodone-Acetaminophen 2 every 4hrs which I took mostly at night to let me sleep thru the night and during the day if needed. Good luck,

I posted back in August a few days before I had my surgery...I ran across this site again and thought I would let everyone know how it went. About 4 hours after my surgery when the numb wore off I truly wanted to die! I swear it! I cried and cried and told my boyfriend I wanted my hemorrhoids back. I figured out pretty quickly that the 5 mg Percocet wasn't working but that a couple of them and a xanax would keep me asleep and not it pain for hours. So, probably not the best idea, but I kept myself knocked out for about a week. My mom kept my daughter so I was pretty lucky I was able to just do NOTHING. The second week I laid off the pills but I still mostly laid in bed but I got up and started moving around a little at a time. Bowel movements were hell though, then I got diarreha (sp?) which was like passing battery acid! It was awful, but I took the advice of many on this board and soaked in a hot tub for a few minutes after and it helped tremendously. It works better than any pill they can give you. The third week was good, no pain except for with bm's. The fourth week I went back to work with no problems at all. It has been about 2 1/2 months now and I am so, so glad that I had it done. For a few days I wished I hadn't; the pain from the surgery was way worse than the pain from the hemorrhoids, but it didn't last all that long. Occasionally I get a little blood with a bm but I am completely pain free for the first time in many years. I know a lot of people have had horrible experiences with this surgery but mine was great and I wish I had done it a long time ago.

I am about 13 hours post surgery and suffering. I have never had such intense pain. I am able to urinate, but have not yet had a BM yet - based on the posts that could be another experience I won't enjoy. I am doing warm water baths often, but finding that it is painful to sit for longer than 5-10 minutes and I need to change position. Sigh. On pain pills which work for a bit, but wish I didn't have to - but the pain is beyond anything I've experienced before. I am doing high fibre small meals and dry fruits and stool softener. Wish me luck.

Hi Leonnyan

Good luck, fill that bath up high, and try and float off your butt, or better still get a sitz bath that helps a lot. I would sit in it just not to feel uncomfortable, and your butt is not touching anything in that.
Anxiety when the bowel movement is coming is the worst feeling, but close your eyes and try and think of something else, something good.
The first week is the worst but there is definitely light at the end of the tunnel, believe me! I am 11 weeks out and feel great compared to before.
Thinking of you!

Thanks mbkg92.

I can only describe the pain in day two as thrilling. I've been doing baths often, but find the sitz bath uncomfortable to sit on. Sigh. Pain seems to be worse in the evening though I did little all day. I'll try a longer bath this evening before I try to get some sleep and float. I am happy to hear there is light at the end of the tunnel - at this stage I am not seeing it. Thanks.

Post surgery day 4. I am passing stool, but it is hard and exquisitely uncomfortable; a mental exercise involving deep breathing and sweating a lot. I am eating a super high fibre diet supplemented softeners and fiber but still not found the right balance. On the positive side, I didn't wake up in the middle of the night needing pain medicine, though I dosed in the morning with straight acetaminophen; I am saving the prescription meds for when I am totally wiped. As of today, I am feeling depressed about this ordeal and do not feel I have turned the corner yet. Sigh.

Leonnyan,
hang in there!!! I had my surgery in August and I promise it does get better. It just takes time! I completely understand how you feel...been there done that. I do have to warn you that some days are better than others so don't get discouraged. Hang in there!

Thank you guest. :-)

Today is seeming a bit better by some measures. I have reduced my pain killers to acetaminophen only and am not feeling like I wait for my next dose anymore. Going to the bathroom is frequent and not comfortable and is the biggest annoyance now - basically it breaks up the day in to pieces of stalled time. On the plus side I am catching up on a lot of reading and movies this week.

I'm still not putting my doctor on a holiday card list.

Hi Leonnyan
You will find now that you are off the hard core meds, like percocet or vicodin or the like, that your bm's will be softer and more frequent. I don't want to sound like a broken record but they make you horribly constipated.
The high fiber diet and a lot of water every day along with the mnetamucil will work. You'll find the panic and sweats lasts until you can regulate your bowels and get it down to once or twice a day, and then you'll become more comfortable with starting to do your regular activities again. Look it does take a solid two weeks to be anywhere near normal, and the swelling lasts around 4 weeks. You'll find you will turn a corner after 10-14 days and you will be surprised how comfortable things will be after that.

Good luck try and enjoy thoise movies and the rest.

Max :-)

Thanks Max for the details.

Tomorrow will be exactly one week since surgery and I am not feeling anything like normal. I feel like I have lost ownership of my body and it is frustrating. I was feeling optimistic about passing stool and then today felt like a step backward - all over the map. The positive is that I am have less pain moving about and am able to do more things during the day. I am unclear about swelling and where it is occurring if that doesn't sound odd. I think there must be swelling on the inside as there is often pressure, but also have irritation outside. Argh.

Tomorrow is another day and each day has been better. Your note made me more optimistic.

-L

Well it must be almost two weeks now since surgery, i hope you are feeling much better. It does go a little like that one step forward, two back you just forget so quickly after things are a lot better. I was a screaming wreck at times when trying to go looking back, i had mine on 13th Sept. 2010.
I was swollen and could not touch my butt for two solid weeks, they gave me cream, with a nozzle to put cream up you know where. I thought they were insane, i couldn't touch it, never mind put a nozzle anywhere near. Mine were mainly external maybe that's why there was a lot of swelling.
Well you will have the good and bad days. On day 14 i was at work and had to go, i was worried but it was manageable, and i sat in the sitz bath when i got home.
Hope the high fiber is evening out your regularity. When do you have to go back to work?

It will be better soon!
Max

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I was very worried before my recent surgery. I am a 38-year-old male. I am overweight but relatively fit. I play soccer.<p>



I had a big internal hemo that was bleeding ... and a polyp. I was in pain with about 1/2 my BMs. I was uncomfortable more often than that. Something had to be done.<p>



So I go in for surgery. Doc found the source of my pain: I also had an ulcer.<p>



Had all that stuff removed. I was so worried because I had a hemorrhoidectomy and a sphnicterotomy in 1998. That was not a good time.



This latest surgery was a breeze. My doc explained that techniques/equipment has improved dramatically during the past 12 years. My maximum pain this time was 5 on a 10 scale. And even that lasted only a few hours. I walked out of the hospital -- told the nurse to give the wheelchair to an old person -- less than three hours after surgery began. By the time I went to bed, my pain level was at 2 or 3.



I took only one hydrocodone tablet. I was prescribed 20.



I felt 90% within two days; 100% within five days. I am 10 days out now and I'm so happy. My pain is gone!



Good luck to any and all of you facing colorectal surgery. There are alot of success stories out there. I am one of them.



(Even the first surgery, though it hurt for a few days, cured my problem. And before you get scared about the pain, remember that you're in pain right now because of your particular problem.)

I have never posted before but am writing 7 days post op to help if there is anyone reading that may be helped by my story. I went to my OBG to get my annual exam and was a bit worried about some external hems that I got during pregnancy. They were not bad and have not caused me much distress or trouble for the most part. Sometimes they would flare up and bleed after a BM which was the cause for the majority of my concern. She referred me to a colorectal specialist. I got an exam and very matter of factly he suggested we do the procedure, he said I would have to take 3-4 days off of work and it was a fairly simple in office procedure. Hmm...easy enough?
In office means you get shots directly into your anus, which was excruciatingly painful, I don't think the area was completely numbed while he was removing the tissue and I was in complete agony. He did not give me stitches, instead used silver nitrate to cauterize the area. Took about 15 minutes and he was done. I was nauseated and light headed, he had me lay down for a few minutes with a 7up and then wrote me a scrip for percocet and sent me on my way, said the numbing agent would wear off in about three hours so I should get on top of the pain medication before it started to hurt. It started to wear off much sooner than that and I was in my car waiting to pick up my kids and waiting for the pharmacy to fill the script. First night was complete and total hell. I wanted to die. The percocet did nothing to help the pain. I ended up taking it every two hours along with an excedrin, I did not sleep at all. I felt completely betrayed and taken advantage of. My doctor had not even remotely mentioned that this would be so painful and I felt like it wasn't a necessary op to begin with. I was angry with myself my doctor and just plain in pain and terribly scared and depressed. AND thanks to the percocet...constipated. I began taking stool softners and by the second day managed a BM. Disgusting as it may be I did it in the bath, it was the only place I was able. There is probably nothing more humiliating than soaking in your own feces. I still felt like I would rather be dead. The only thing that I could imagine that would be worse would be seeing one of my own children going through this. I also started thinking that this is what they should do to people who are in prison for rape or child molest. You start thinking weird things to keep your mind off the pain.
In addition to my pain my anus appeared to have a large alien growing from it. Please excuse the graphic nature of this but it was not pleasant. It looked to be a new hem, it was rather hard to the touch and black (from the silver nitrate I suppose) What the hell is this?Is it swelling or could it be a new one...? Again really wondering why the F$%# I did this??
In addition to all of this, some of the silver nitrate sneaked onto my vag causing a huge rash, that was the least of my problems.
I spoke with my doctor 4 days post op, I was completely hysterical and asked him why he even recommended doing this? His response was that it was a voluntary procedure, as if I had opted for some sort of plastic surgery. I was so pissed off, I could barely breathe.
7 days post op......today.
BM's are still painful, the fear and anticipation is probably worse than the actual thing. I am down to 1 percocet daily taken in half doses. I am eating very little (lots of fiber one cereal) and drinking lots of water.
I am not in terrible pain any more and the swelling is going down, there still appears to be a rather large hem but I am staying positive that it will be gone one day.
Emotionally this has been terrible and I am trying really hard to be kind to myself. I had NO idea what an ordeal this would be and wish I would have known what I was getting into before I had this done.
I don't know that I would do this over, perhaps six months from now I may feel differently but that of course is hard to say. For any of you out there going through this now, I feel for you and hope you will find comfort in these boards as I have.
Will update as time passes

I had hemorrhoid surgery 15 days ago. My doctor had me go on a "low residue diet" the same day of surgery and it has been a blessing. I can eat fish, chicken, turkey, cheese (in moderation), eggs, white potatoes (without the skin) and white bread (without the crust). Believe it or not, most of this food is absorbed in your small intestine and what is left passes thru and comes out like a watery goop. You don't feel like you have a brick coming down the chute. This does away with the great fear everyone has with regard to bowel movements. I'm amazed at how well this works.

1 week has passed, after surgery! the pain is still...... OMFG! IM BOXING THE WALL WHEN HAVING BM!
seriously this is no joke...... i have not 1 but TWO! YEAH 2 THROMBOSED HEMMERHOID AT one time.. on the left and right..each is like a grape sized big
make that double the pain from 1 side. each time my stomach growls, im all prepared to go for a battle and feels like im going to die in this battle. the farked up part is my stomach tends to have BM 3 times a day. imagine that. smoked atleast 5 sticks when having BM. i dont eat medicine because it seriously doesnt help me aBIT! never did jump into a hot tub or wadeva. after washing i take in a deep breath in and out slowly... no matter what i eat , the ppain is still the same. the problem is the waste is going out. it still hits the parts. feeling farked up now... its kinda true when they say the pain is like getting shot by a bullet. i had a major accident surgery b4 dealing with broken arms shoulder and leg but the pain is nothing compare to this
damn it 1 more week to go hope its getting lesser.... i understand how the pain u all are going... but i noticed the bleeding is getting lesser aand lesser. im not shy to say im using ladies ..... u noe what i mean. it really helps with the bleeding seriously. well i hope this doesnt pass down to my daughter. i dont want her to suffer like me............ peace and out. i will update more on this






sorry for my english