THD surgery - recovery time and side effects

Anyone want a true horror story? Read my post about THD.   The subject of the topic is "THD (transanal hemorrhoidal dearterialization) cost?"

In a nutshell: it was extremely painful, I almost died, and the hemorrhoids are back.

Anon 

Hello, had my THD done four months ago and feel great. I am 48 and had three internal stage 3 hemorrhoids for the last 15 years. It started coming to a point when pushing them back in became harder and harder. Besides my life turned into mess as I had to limit my walking and standing - after about an hour of walking HDs would fall out and after being pushed back in they would only stay in for 10-15 min. I did not have them bleeding lately though before if I did not push them back immediately they would start bleeding. I am Canadian - this procedure is yet not known to Canadian doctors who (three of them) advised me to go for haemorrhoidectomy telling me how painful it is, how they would have to do several of them in my case, knowing nothing about THD, not being interested, and trying to convince me that this is some sort of Internet scam or that this is going to be equally painful; neither them nor my family doctor were interested in supporting submission of my case to OHIP for the surgery to be paid off. So I contacted Dr. Mark Falvo's office in Niagra Falls, NY who consulted me on the procedure, scheduled the procedure (thank you Lisa!), conducted the procedure (thank you Mark) and supported my very well after the surgery. Yes, I had to pay out of my pocket, but when I look back (literally :-) ), I think that this was one of the best investments I made so far. If you are going to do the same make sure that you clarify and confirm ever cent that you are going to pay both to the doctor and to the hospital as the system is not quite ready for us "out of pocket" paying Canadians. So here is my TDH experience: 1. I am glad I arranged for 4 weeks out of the office - I needed all of them, not because it was painful all the way, but still - I am glad I had the 4 weeks to recover fully. 2. defecating into a sitz bath was a golden advice that worked wonders for me 3. lots of water, bran, not allowing constipation and most unpleasantly gases to happen should be a priority; I stopped taking strong pain killers after day 2 or 3 - Ibuprofen worked very well for me 4. I used electric heating pad for 2 weeks almost nonstop and it was helping. 5. unfortunately, I had 2 external hemorrhoids popping up after week 2 scaring me to death - fortunately one of them soon vanished, and another one is still there, small, not causing me any trouble. 6. up until month 3 I would sometimes feel unpleasant tingling sensation up there, but now it is extremely rare. 7. After the surgery before leaving the hospital I made sure I could pee; this was not a problem afterwards though peeing was happening in a somewhat unstable way, at times it was difficult to go or know when you want to go. 8. hot bath was a big deal and helped a lot; took it twice a day 9. corticosteroid prescribed by the doctor helped too with external hems. 10. there was very little bleeding in my case, though six arteries were tied up and the doctor did do mucopexi; pain was 3-4 on the scale of 1 to 10 during first 3-4 day - practically all of it taken away by ibuprofen and heating pad 11. Today my defecating pattern changed dramatically - no need to spend half an hour on a toilet, I am done in 5 min and when I say done - I mean done fully. I take bran 1-2 spoons at bed time, drink more water, take probiotics, am more active (!) and in general feel better. I feel that I owe a lot to others who shared their experience on this thread hence my story. Hope it helps.