THD Post Procedure Recovery

Sir,I m also planning to go for same surgery.What is ur advice,Sir ?

Day 8 after thd. Day 7 felt good. Mild discomfort, but trending in right direction. This morning pushed a bit on BM and had blood on wipe. Feel like I've gone 2 days backwards with pain level. Back in bath every couple of hours. Not comfortable in any position. Was so encouraged yesterday that I'd rounded the corner. Anyone else experience this?

Hi, how are you now? I had a THD last year and didn't feel anything like that. On the contrary I would suggest this method everyone! Please let me now

Hello all.
This discussion thread helped me tremendously (both information-wise and therapeutically), so I felt it was only right for me to share my experience regarding THD. I'm now 15 and 1/2 days post-op, and I FINALLY feel almost 100 percent healed, with things moving right along! But it didn't start out that way ...

For context, I am a 38-year-old male (half hispanic/half asian) who always has been moderately active (exercise) his entire life. I have a relatively athletic build and weighed 182 going into surgery (I'm down to 173 now). My diet used to largely consist of meat, RICE, and a small amount of veggies and fruit thrown in. I've also had spicy food (or added spice) for as long as I can remember. Starting at age 20, I began eating out a lot, and I made sure I hit my quota of partying during my 20s.

I got my first hemorrhoid at age 30, but it would go away. It progressively worsened to the point where I started noticing blood in my stool at age 34. I eventually developed internal hemorrhoids, which prolapsed with every bowel movement (GRAPHIC WARNING: There was blood every time I wiped, and I had to push in my hemorrhoids every dang time I pooped.)

I finally saw my doctor in Summer 2016, and he referred me to a gastroenterologist, who said I had Stage 3 hemorrhoids. Although my booty hole would burn sometimes after I ate really spicy food, he said my hemorrhoids likely were due to a lack of fiber in my diet and not because of all the spicy food. I opted to skip a basic "banding" procedure and went instead with the THD surgery, as my mother, stepfather, and best friend all had traditional hemorrhoid surgeries - and they said the recovery SUUUUUUUUCKED!

POST-OP
My surgeon said recovery would take about 7 days and that I could eat anything I wanted to as long as I took the medications .... Pffff, yeah right! I had a highly unpleasant experience the first 6-7 days (although not as horrible as some people's). I wouldn't consider it an agonizing time, but it was uncomfortable, painful, messy, and frustrating!

My surgery had been under general anesthesia, and they gave me local anesthesia before I left the hospital. The local lasted about a day, day and a half, which was good and bad. Good in that I wasn't in intense pain immediately after surgery, but bad in that as soon I arrived home, (GRAPHIC WARNING) I crapped blood and, well, c**p involuntarily (thank God that only happened once)! And I had involuntary farts for about a day or so (yeah, I secluded myself in my house ...).

Well, because I had been starving post-op, I threw down some Vietnamese soup, Chunky soup, rice, and a couple small ribs (stupid, I know). The next day it all came out throughout the day, and it was NOT a pleasant feeling! In an attempt to make my bowel movements smoother the next day, I mistakenly combined soup, Metamucil, three spaced-out stool softeners (not "samplers" as I involuntary call it sometimes - LOL), apple juice, veggies, and a couple fruit smoothies to make sure I got enough fiber. Yeah, the overload wasn't a good idea, especially since fruit (especially juices) get my bowels going regardless. As you probably imagined, I had like 6 painful - albeit smooth - bowel movements that second day. The sitz bath was my best friend.

STABILIZED ROUTINE
The next few days I ate little and tried to find the right combination of stool softeners, Metamucil and food. I eventually found that taking a tablespoon of Metamucil in the morning and afternoon, along with one stool softener before bedtime, was the right combination for me. Of course, I drank at least the recommended eight glasses of water per day and kept my diet mostly (small amounts of) fruit, veggies, toast, and just a tad of rice, pasta, salad, or soup. I slowly added chicken to my diet, and I nervously ate a burger on day 13 (I had a steak tonight).

Throughout the first week, I would have like 3-5 bowel movements a day, which were uncomfortable and somewhat painful, despite the fact that my stool was not hard - even my farts hurt. What did help move along my bowel movements while sitting on the toilet was propping my feet up on a box or on the small trash can, which put my knees above my hips (squatting, basically).

Then, it was back to my ordeal. I dealt with pressure/discomfort any time I sat directly on my bum (an inflatable doughnut cushion helps!), or when I would walk or stand for long periods of time; this often materialized in my perianal/perineum area. I often woke up in the middle of the morning because I had pee or poop or because the pain returned. One of the most embarrassing parts: wearing my wife's panty liners for about 11-12 days!

PAIN CONTROL
To combat the pain, I laughably began taking only 400-600 mg of ibuprofen like twice a day for the first almost two days. When the real pain finally kicked in, the doctor's office recommended I alternate the ibuprofen (I'd take 600 mg a pop) and the codeine/Tylenol 3 (two pills) every three hours to "stay ahead of the pain." And I took them religiously! Obviously, the codeine worked the best. I began weening off the painkillers on like Day 7, and I was completely off them by Day 9 or 10. Meanwhile, I had to use cortizone cream (and sometimes coupled with a triple antibiotic cream) to ease the burning and itching on my poor sphincter (I didn't ditch those until around Day 10). That particular discomfort - and the post-surgery pain - had me cleaning myself with a handheld shower head after every bowel movement.

RELIEF
It wasn't until Day 11 that I FINALLY felt my condition take a turn for the better, and like I said at the beginning of this post, I feel virtually all the way back (I'm fortunate to have had a two-week vacation from work). I honestly wondered whether I would feel back to normal, and I can't express the mental relief I'm feeling (yes, the first week really jacked with my mind). I have no discomfort, itching/burning, and I feel nice and tight back there (no prolapsing whatsoever). My follow-up was two days ago, and the doc said "everything looks good."

This also has changed my daily routine. I now take one tablespoon of Metamucil with water twice a day (I'd take three, but work gets in the way), eat a bunch of vegetables, and don't overeat. I've always drunk plenty of water, so that hasn't changed. I even purchased a hand-held bidet for my master toilet - works wonders! My surgeon recommended I stay away from disposable wipes, as some brands have alcohol and chemicals that actually can dry out your nether region. He also advises never to clean that booty hole with soap - just plain water. Whenever I do need to use toilet paper, I now only need like three non-painful wipes, unlike the several wipes I used to do because of the poop and blood.

RECOMMENDATION?
Yes, I would advise people to have a THD procedure if advised by a medical professional. The recovery can be scary (and have I mentioned painful?) at first, but if you take the appropriate measures, I'm sure you'll be just fine. My discomfort lasted about 10 days, but it's remarkable how quickly I've improved. Although certainly a dark time, my experience was NOTHING compared to the nightmares I've read from discussion threads regarding traditional surgeries. Not that traditional surgery isn't safe. My parents and friend are just fine now. It's just that their recovery did take longer than mine and had more discomfort/pain.

I apologize for being long-winded, but I really wanted to help out as much as possible. Like I said, I read and read and read about people's experiences and recovery routines so I could get a better handle of things during my tough times.

Good luck!

I had THD 6 days ago. I had hem's for 30 years (got them during the pushing part of labor) and they finally got bad enough that I decided to do this surgery at age 60. The surgeon said they'd likely get worse and maybe I'd end up with a prolapsed rectum! I don't know if that was a scare tactic, but it helped me make the decision to do it.
I found a highly recommended surgeon for THD in La Jolla, CA. She said the first week "would be hell" and then the 2nd week would be better. She said some people need 3 weeks to feel better. After reading all the posts, I'd say she was accurate.
Being an RN who works in a surgery center, I know all the things that go on behind the scenes, so in some ways I was anxious, in other ways I felt safe. I had excellent care at Scripps Green, both with nurses and the anesthesiologist.
When I woke up, I felt a deep ache in my rectum. The kind nurse gave me IV Fentanyl (4 doses, spaced 5 minutes apart) until I was comfortable. It kind of progressed to a crampy feeling in my lower abdomen, but the meds worked. She also gave me 10mg Percocet. I went home comfortable & slept.
I "stayed ahead of the pain" by taking 5mgPercocet every 4 hours, and was somewhat afraid to NOT take it, since I don't handle pain too well. (That's something to take into consideration when you read everyone's posts: pain is subjective, and one person's mild pain is another person's horrific pain.)
Day 2 was okay...I couldn't poop, so drank Smooth Move tea, had magnesium pills and aloe vera pills (trying to go more natural). Mostly had a dull ache in my rectum.
Day 3 was difficult because the pressure on my rectum made me feel like I needed to poop, but I couldn't, and was afraid to strain. So I loaded up on stool softener, Miralax, and all of the above! It was also difficult to pee. I had to apply pressure to my rectum in order to totally relax to pee (if I relaxed my rectum too much, it hurt like hell). This whole time I was eating soups (lentil, carrot, turmeric/veggie), drinking green smoothies, & lots of water. Still on the Perc's.
Day 4: Finally pooped! Like 10 times! Everything I took worked. I decided to go off the Percocet, since narcotics CAUSE constipation, and the pain wasn't all that bad. Pooping was painful, but also a blessed release of pressure. Lots of people said that sitz baths helped, but they didn't do anything for me. Instead I sprayed a gentle stream of cold water on my butt after pooping, which kinda numbed it. I took Tylenol, which did little. I wanted to take Advil, but my doc said to wait a week. Overall the pain was tolerable, and I could bear the pooping-pain (altho' I did cry a couple times).
Day 5: Woke up with a cold & cough. Wow, who knew how much it'd HURT the butt to cough? I attribute this to the fact that I was given IV antibiotics, which wiped out the "good flora" in my gut, and the immune system resides in the gut. I had been diligently trying to rebuild the good flora with probiotics, but alas, I lost that battle. My immune system couldn't fight off the cold & cough. So that made the day much harder. I still lay in bed a lot, sleep some, walk around the house, but my husband is taking good care of me, and I haven't felt up to going out. I need to stay close to a toilet because the BM's come on so suddenly. I had about 5-7 this day. Also had some bloody mucous-y discharge.
Day 6 is today. I woke up with the worst pain so far. I was in tears. It felt like someone was stabbing a needle repeatedly in my rectum. I went ahead and took Advil...just couldn't stand the pain. Took 2 Advil two times today, and will take it again at bedtime (it helped a lot). Today is the first day that I ate more hearty food, i.e. sausage, tuna, potato. Still on the Miralax, stool softener, prune juice.
I'm glad I have another week off work...I need it! I hope this will all be worth it. So far things look good down there. It still hurts to sit, and the cough has made my recovery slower.

I'm in Ireland. I'm 4 days since surgery. Hve had 2 c sections &this pain&discomfort is much worse. Doesn't seem to be easing yet.

I was discharged at 5.45pm after my THD proceedure was done under full anesthetic at 11.30am. Really don't think this shd be a day in&out proceedure.Everything was OK til 11pm that night when the pain set in. I took difene 100mg & 1000mg paracetamol. I had a constant feeling of needing to go to the toilet which I was told was normal. In&out to the toilet all night&I took the plaster off around 3 cause I needed to go. At that stage with a lot of pain passed the padding/sponge (like a small tampon) & it looked like only blood not stool.

I was told to take 15ml of lactalose for a stool softener. My bowels them began to expell every 10-20 mins, the pain was horrendous. The passing of the BM was horrific but the stinging afterwards was just as bad. This continued for 2 days till I became severely dehydrated &ended back in hosp &on a drip & local anesthetic gel which helps slightly.

Then pulled back in the lactalose to ease the BM to hve gone back to just passing blood with extereme pain. So took 7.5mls of lactalose now.

I was stage 4 internal &external. From what I can see there is only one tiny skin tag (it looks like )left. There is black marks from where they lasered off the excess skin, I think. I had a least 6 or 7 large external ones.

Yes this is an honest account, yes it is very painful but hopefully it will be worth it. Think my problem is managing the pain. If I knew what to take that would be half the battle.

Hang in there. You are in the worst part. I was told it'd be "a week of hell", but it lasted more like 10 days. It has been a month for me now, and I'd say I'm 95% back to normal. But the first couple weeks were really hard with the pain, the BM's, not being able to sit, not being able to go anywhere because of how suddenly the BM's would come on, the feeling (pressure) of having to go all the time, and the overall feeling that it'd never get better. But it will. Eating whole, healthy foods and avoiding constipating foods like cheese, bread, and processed stuff will help your BM's as well as help you heal faster/better.

I had THD performed 3/31/17 waking up after procedure was in tremendous amount of pain. My blood pressure was extremely high cause of the pain. I was monitored given additional pain Med to help control it. 3rd day running stools cause of my own concoction to make it easier to come out. Now just taking a stool softener. cause I no I have to have a regular bowl movement. It was painful pushing out the running stool. Even with the stool softener and you start to have normal bowel movements does it feel like cut glass?

I know this is an old post. I just had the procedure and could not agree more with your post.

PLEASE WRITE TO ME REFERENCE YOUR THD EXPERIENCE, IM SUFFERING FROM ANAL ITCH AND A LITTLE PAIN AT NIGHT WHO WAS YOUR DOCTOR AND WHERE IS HE LOCATED

hi. If anybody Can please help my i had the surgery done yesterday. I am in alot of pain but not as bad as i thought it would be. The only thing getting me under is the plug they put in. Dr said it wil dissolve and slide out once small enough. How long does that take?? I feel like i need to make a BM but cant because of the plug. Andits making me feel uncomfortable. I do drink stool softener but its the plug it self that still doesnt want to come out. Any advice please??

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your discomfort. But from my experience ( I had my procedure done over two years ago), there was definitely no plug inserted , nor one required to slide out. I'm hearing this for the first time actually. I had mine in the UK. I just had pains and discomfort for about 2 weeks or so, but then all back to normal afterwards. All I can say is, try bear with discomfort for now. For me , I can say right now , THD is the best treatment I have ever had in terms of how it's improved my quality of life. I have stuck with a good diet and regular exercise since then though as I was warned no guarantee for haemorroids not to return again otherwise. Best wishes!

Please tell ur experience after above post as Sir, I am also planning to do THD surgery. Please suggest about Dr Ramana too.Thanks in advance.

I had thd Wednesday and it has been rough. It's sat now and I still haven't pooped. The plug I think is a thing your body builds to help the healing. How are you feeling now?

hello to all i had thd method back on 2016 with terrible pain post op and left me with a couple of skin tags.at the moment 2017 i am in my bed bedbound due to hemmoroids again!!but this time is worst since the thd method doesnt lwt the blood flow properly and heal so have another appoinentment for laser this time.No thd for me again.no easy method exists for hemorroids2