Can anyone help Rafaelo Procedure

hi everyone.

Since my R Surgery didnt work as expected im still suffering from hems. i say suffering.. its not actually as bad as it used to be, but still there.

before, i would go through rounds of bleeding after BM (not every time, but when it did it would be a vast amount with bright blood present). after surgery this seems to have changed... i am bleeding more frequently, but a lesser amount and a more watery type of blood. Not the shocking bright blood but a more lighter diluted version. no aches or pains

im guessing this is blood mixed with leaking hems but has anyone else experienced this type?

hi.

yes, hems protruding when BM and also swelling every now and then. I've now been recommended HALO

Hi Ben and other,

I would be very interested in your updates as they come in.

I'm almost 3 months out and I would say the Rafaelo procedure 40% worked. I still clearly have hems, I still get pain in one side (not as bad a before) and after bowel movements I still feel swelling and itching for a while (hairdryer and cleanliness are top priorities). I also get the odd strange, sometimes sharp tinges, during the day down there I had before.

So, what to do? I am doing this all private following a botched NHS hemorrhoidectomy last year. But its a lot of money each time so I am a bit wary of simply going for another Rafaelo.

Do you lot think I should stick with the same private consultant that did it or look elsewhere (he has great manner, but now my trust has gone down)?

Also like to hear from anyone that has had the Rafaelo twice - what was the logic?

Best,

i am a late joiner to this thread.

so i had HALO surgery 2 years ago for bleeding hems. my recover was similar to the recoveries mentioned above. 2 weeks of agonizing unbearable pain, and second week blood clots ended up with an A&E stay. after 2 months i felt amazing. most of the hems had gone except one, but no bleeding anymore.

fast forward a year later and i have 3 thrombosed external hems, god knows how many internal bleeding hems. severe pain daily. and completely fed up. cant drink alchol, walking around even a supermarket is agony.

so now what. i know i cant live like this, but i know i couldnt deal with halo again either. feel so stuck and like lifes passing by me. considering trying Rafaelo but scared of similar recovery to halo.

Hi Cezzabell, I posted some time ago about my Rafaelo treatment. I had 3 internal hems which were causing me incredible discomfort and inconvenience. About 18 months ago, I was offered the options of haemorrhoidectomy, HALO or Rafaelo. I had a friend who had HALO and who had a similar experience to you - it simply didn't work, in fact it made her symptoms even worse, and I had also heard horror stories about barbaric haemorrhoidectomies where you spend the next 3 weeks crying on the toilet, so I opted for Rafaelo. I had hardly any discomfort during the procedure (which took about 10 minutes) or afterwards - compared to the alternatives, this was pretty much painless. Since then I have had no recurrence of symptoms whatsoever. Totally and utterly cured - and I didn't go through anything like what my friend experienced - chalk and cheese!

I have read on here that for some Rafaelo has completely changed their lives for the better. Others havent been so lucky but of course no treatment works for everyone. Everyones symptoms vary to some degree as does their anatomy and their reaction to treatment. One or two people on here describe their hems as being large and permanently protruding. They are, by definition, Grade 4 and if you read the Rafaelo website, it does say that the treatment is relatively painless and designed to treat all 'internal' hems. It also says it is 'relatively painless'. Compared to what you (and my friend) have been through with HALO and compared to the horror stories I have heard about full haemorrhoidectomies where they cut the hems out, this was NOTHING! I guess Rafaelo therefore isnt right for everyone and you have to make sure that your symptoms (and the type of hems) are right. I could have gone for a haemorrhoidectomy or HALO but I knew that it was going to be horrifically painful and that there was no guarantee of success with either. I took a chance with Rafaelo and, for me, it paid off. Not everyone will be so lucky but there is no perfect cure.

In your case, you describe yourself as having external hems. Rafaelo might not work for you, then again it might - but one thing is for sure that if you go for HALO again or haemorroidectomy, you know you are going to be in incredible pain and neither will guarantee success. I wish you the best of luck.

Hey everyone, I'm hoping my story might help avoid surgery altogether.

Recently I had been having more and more painless internal hemorrhoids. Up until 21 it was never a problem for me, but progressively it's gotten worse over time and I've been getting more and more constipated. I even changed my diet to the point I was pretty much eating pure fiber but STILL had constipation. I began thinking my I wasn't digesting food properly, so I started taking digestive enzyme complexes. That was my first major win and worked for about 5 years. But then I sort of ended up back where I was after that.

I had heard about a new test where you can study your entire gut biology so I sent a small little stool off to Germany. When my results came back I was remarkably OKAY in terms of my gut flora in fact some of my healthy flora were to high so I threw out my probiotics. What WAS to low was my mucus in my stool. In fact I had almost 0 mucus (except when my hemmoroids would leak). So I found some herbs that basically mimic this when ingested.

I bought marshmallow root and slippery elm in capsule Form, along with my enzyme complex that I take with every meal I take the marshmallow and slippery elm once in the morning. I imagine taking it at night would make it very effective but I'm a fan of taking minimal amount for efficiency.

Immediately after about 3 days I started having normal bowel movements, and it's been about 6 months now and I'm also hemmoroid free. Or at least bleeding hemmoroid free. At some point I expect this may not work, but I think if I keep adjusting the dose it should last my entire life.

This may not be a fix all for some of you, but I think if you're considering a completely agonizing surgery why not try everything else first?

Really hope this helps some of you, and please let me know if it does. Surgery is always the last resort in my mind and I'm glad I saved myself from it.

-R

Hi. Your stories were helpful so I thought I'd share mine.

I had the procedure 4 days ago in London. I saw the documentation promising no pain, miracle cure, walk out in 15 minutes etc. Doesn't seem to be the case so far..

I had hems that I've had pretty much my whole life, varying in severity and pain level month by month.

First thing I had a checkup with an endoscopy, to figure out what was going on, Doctor found 4 grade 1 hems that he said would be perfect for Rafaelo. He told me it would be under General anaesthetic which made me a bit nervous. I questioned why and he said he performs the procedure better under GA as under local it could cause an anal spasm in some cases which can affect results.

Operation day - Arrived at hospital about 3pm, Surgery was done at 6. Woke up feeling groggy and a bit achey and uncomfortable, but not a lot of pain. Doctor said I should notice 'a bit of blood spotting' afterwards and sent me home at 9pm with an 8 week checkup in the diary. I was given 2 kinds of painkillers (codeine and a strong ibuprofen) and laxatives to use for a week.

Day 1 - Felt a bit constipated, was passing a lot of gas and when this happened there was also a lot of blood in the toilet. Not much pain, but worrying that no BM

Day 2-3 - Mild - medium pain which was worse at nighttime. A large amount of swelling occurred inside my bowel, and pain increased both on the anus and further inside. I needed the toilet but couldn't physically go due to the internal swelling, it felt like a blockage where only gas could pass through a now very small opening. Whenever I tried to press to go to the toilet, watery blood just came out. I tried not to press too hard but I did try this and a small amount of fecal matter / blood came out which was pressed flat, due to the swelling.

It is now Day 4 and pain and the swelling is still there and the bloated constipation feeling is worse. Moved from the prescribed painkillers to regular ibuprofen as I'm worried their mix is causing more constipation. I still can't go to the toilet due to the swelling despite using the laxatives. Hoping this starts to clear up soon as I feel pretty rubbish. 😦 Had to cancel a couple of things in my diary as didn't feel up to it.

Did anyone else have similar symptoms that have now cleared up?

Hi All

I'm now looking for anybody who has experienced the HALO procedure for their hems?

This will be my second operation to hopefully blast these ******

Thanks!