HELP Post Rubber Band Ligation pain UNBEARABLE

thank you so much for your message @faye39922 i really appreciate you taking the time out to reply to me and i hope that bleeding does stop for you - have the docs advised anything at all?

I am taking a stool softener (movicol) this time round and the pain is still excruciating and just lingers ( i wish the doc had given me this with the first op so i wouldn't be in this position again).

I have tried to search for the bands after a bowel movement but have not seen anything yet so I am just hoping they have come out as i was told they would.

I actually wasn't expecting to have this procedure on Friday. i went in for my routine check up with my consultant who performed my first surgery in Nov and explained how i was starting to feel pain and pressure with a lump formed. He examined and said that rubber band ligation was needed and if i consent. I didn't expect for it to happen then and there and the only thing i asked was if it would hurt. To which the doc replied you will feel a pulling sensation for the first 24hours (now i am thinking what a LIAR)! So i have no idea what/how many were banded and after it was done i was in so much pain i couldn't even think straight to even ask any more questions. All i remember was being told in 3days the bands will come out with a BM, the hems will shrink and fall out, expect blood especially after day 7. Nothing was said about experiencing pain after BM.

So i started looking online and everything has said you will feel an ache/dull pain for 24-48hours .... so 4days in with the pain as horrific as it is ... i wondered if it was normal.

I know its not something you've experienced (the pain with BM) do you know if that is normal?

I honestly thought it could not be any where near the pain i had after my triple surgery in one back in november.

Wow! now that is saying something because i have been told over and over how labour/birth is the worse pain i will ever go through in life!!!!

I haven't had any babies yet (got married only 9 months ago and had 'bum problems' for 6months of it so far - not the greatest start to married life!). I do however fear pregnancy/labour/birth especially as I keep hearing how hems are a huge problem in pregnancy and i just do not want to go through this again.

Thanks again for replying its nice to speak to someone who gets when i say its the worse pain ever! look forward to hearing from you 😃

its so good to speak to someone that has experienced 'bum issues' too.

it really is the unsaid isnt it and you do feel totally alone with it..

i always had mild piles when from my late teens to early 20s but i did use to suffer with ibs so i think thats why they come about.

my bleeding issues started after delivery of my 1st baby - she was very quick and i think may of caused a anal fissure and internal hems.

i had no intervention after her and things did improve after a year but then my 2nd baby was very big and i started having issues again while i was pregnant. he was even quicker so a few wks after birth the bleeding started again.

i saw a specialist and had the camera.

he dis the banding on the day so like you i had no time to think about it.

the actual procedure itself wasnt too bad but i did faint which apparently can happen.

he too did not tell me how painful it would be but he did advise that i would have a lot of bleeding after the first few bm which didn't happen.

he said the bands can take up to 10 days to come off and that i may not see them if they do so maybe yours haven't yet and thats why they are painful.

also maybe you have a fissure from the procedure which can be so so painful.

i have read that some people get a fissure after the procedure.

are you bleeding after bm at moment?

when i had a fissure i found that putting vaseline up there helped just before bm.

im taking lactalose stool softener prescribed by my dr as on going now as im worried if i stop then they will go back to be really bad again.

i never ever suffered with constipation but i find that i only have to have a slightly bigger poo and it sets off my problems.

i literary dread going to the toilet.

before i had investigation i was a total wreak and it sent my health anxiety through the roof.

so previous to this did you have hems surgically removed and skin tags removed?

i have 2 tags too but he said the recovery is painful from those and more cosmetic but i do hate them and wonder if they bleed maybe?

i hope you start feeling better soon.

have you phoned the hospital and spoke to the secretary? im sure they will pass it on to the consultant and they will get back to you.

i did call at 2 weeks after the procedure as i had bleeding and the secretary said that the consultant said to give it until 6 weeks post procedure as everyone heals at different rates.

how you feeling between bm?

are you taking pain relief? x

It is so true - i have honestly never felt so alone in my life, i feel like i have no life! I think everyone around me is sick of my bum problems too because they do seem never ending!

Oh wow, that has got to be so difficult especially when handling a newborn/ 2 little ones with the unbearable pain of an anal fissure and hems! i honestly do not know how you've had the strength to cope with the pain... I am an absolute mess with no children to be responsible for.

I didn't realise the procedure could make you faint but completely see why!

So after BM there is blood on my stool not in the tub but just on the stool - is that what is for you too?

oh okay 10days that gives some timeframe. i was thinking maybe thats what is causing me this much pain, in that the bands are still in there tightening.... i guess time will tell...

It didnt occur to me that it could be an anal fissure because normally that comes with the muscle spasms whereas this is a real burning sharp pain which can be symtpoms of a fissure too! i really hope the fissure clears up if it is that.

My problems started with constipation when i was about 18 (im 30 now)had internal and external hems but i managed to keep them under control with suppositories and creams etc. until the pain became more and more unbearable ... to the point i couldnt even get onto the bed or put my own trousers up and walked like a penguin... at that point i had been on a waiting list for a long time with the nhs to see a specialist but nothing (assuming the back log and overload of covid) so i decided at that point i was going to try one of the private hospitals just to even get a diagnosis because the doctors wouldnt even check me with my pants down they would say its hems try this cream and nothing would work.

so after seeing the consultant he said that he thinks i have an anal fissure and the lump was an external hem + a skin tag (he wasnt able to examine inside because i couldnt take that pain).

i went into surgery the following week and whilst in surgery the doctor said it was a lot nastier inside then he thought .... he preformed the LIS (to break up the muscle that was spasming and not letting my extremely deep fissure heal), he performed a hemmoroidectomy because i also had a thromboised hem and then he removed the skin tag because that was covering my anus so he couldnt even get in to perform in the first place ....... so 3in1 the pain and recovery was out of this world never experienced anything like it .... i was in agony for months on end with what felt like no end in sight

.... after the op because the fissure was so deep my anal muscle kept spasming and the doc said we might have to operate again and break the muscle further, i cried my eyes out hystercially hyperventilating at the thought of going through that again .... so he got me to try another muscle relaxant which after like month 5 the fissure healed .... however i started to feel this pressure and pain and hems again..... . i was on lactulose then and i felt exactly the same how am i ever going to get off it with the fear of constipation .... however doc moved me onto movicol because i was finding with lactulose if my stool was even slightly bigger the problems and the pain was more whereas movicol the stool was even softer and just slid out!

then the pain got worse in this last week and i ended up where i am now!

Similar to yourself im just super fed up with it like i just want a 'normal' arse and to go to the toilet without pain!

Are you finding the skin tags to be casuing you problems? because for me the skin tags didnt hurt per se they just made cleaning myself harder and mine literally covered my entire hole!

I am 100% with you i dread going to the toilet because im like how painful is it going to be how long am i to be in pain for after - i am guessing these are your thoughts too?

i brought a sitz bath off of Amazon which i have used religiously after every BM which usually soothed me .... however with this banding ligation they don't seem to be helping at all.

the only painkiller i'm taking is paracetmol and it is doing nothing 8 in one day feels like nothing! Doc didn't prescibe anything else... i wish there was something stronger that didn't cause constipation!

i was thinking of waiting till friday before i gave the hospital a call again so then it has been a week and i didnt sound like a crybaby (which i think my family thinks i am)...

between bowel movements its less painful but still very painful like theres stuff just stuck up there tightening and a sharp stabby kind of feel .... do you still have any of that feeling or would you say you are passed that part now? x

ps apologies for the length of the reply ... its hard to explain without the detail ... never know who might find it useful too xx

its fine, honestly its just nice to speak to someone that understands.

my friends and family get sick of me talking about my bum too and to be honest they cant understand as they haven't experienced anything like it.

find it so difficult speaking to my partner about it as he certainly doesn't get it.

i had to have therapy for my health anxiety as was sure i had bowel cancer and even after having seen the specialist i do still stress about that.

you poor thing you sound like you really have had an awful time. no wonder its taken over. i mean you just cant get away from it can you as going to the toilet is something you need yo do every day so everyday you have the reminder constantly.

the evening after the surgery i was sobbing with the pain and i couldnt even hide it from my toddler. it was honestly terrible so when the blood returned i was devastated as i don't want to go through that again and i certainly do not want to have the surgery as i know the pain of recovery from that is as you say terrible and lengthy plus it doesn't always work does it.

yeah after bm there is soletimes blood on the stool but its mostly when i wipe.

i use baby wipes to yes because of skin tags its harder to get clean and thats when i sometimes notice there is either bright red blood or just pinky light water on the wipe did you ever have the pink water on the paper?

also i notice that my stools are often ridged. i have read that hems can cause that?

thats interesting what you said about the lactulose as i am finding if they are big stools it gets me off again. can you take movicol long term i wonder?

i would suggest with the pain youre in and the feeling of fullness is that the bands are still doing their job at the moment so yeah give it until friday if you can handle it.

has it eased at all today?

Hi @faye39922 apologies for the delayed response ive been having those days!

i completely get you everyone is very much like oh here she goes again another bum problem or the minute i say something i get the eye rolls!

It is really hard.... i feel like unless someones been through it they just don't understand your pain. I am so with you on the partner thing .... they just don't understand, they can't understand that if on the day you had a 'normal/near to normal' BM then you feel a bit better but if you have a terrible BM which is more often than not... it just ruins everything because the pains just unbearable and being told to think positively when you've had months and months and months of constant pain and being told mind over matter ... in actual fact DOES NOT help!

That is really tough imagine how scared you must have been feeling and how it plays with your every emotion 😦 did you find it helpful talking through it at therapy?

i had that fear too, my gran passed with it and i was terrified thats what is wrong with me so i do get it .... have you been back to the doctors have they checked whether the hems are still there etc?

I cant even sugar coat it the recovery is horrific but i had a 3in1 so its not fair for me to say that the hemmaroidectomy will be extremely painful ... tbh anything in this region is so sensitive so i think will always be painful ... eapecially as every painkiller that can numb the pain causes constipation so we arent even allowed them!

I tend to just wash the area ( i refill a little cup/jug) and pour the water after a BM and then dab to make sure ive cleaned myself with a damp tissue till im clean. I found that wipes really stung me so i stopped using rhem.... i have had the pink on the tissue it looks like its diluted blood - right?

i was told that movicol was better for me because it just really softened the stool so if i had a bigger stool it didnt cause as big a problem as i would find with lactulose. I was also told that it was better to be on something like movicol long term compared to lactulose (apparantly it can make our bowels lazy etc) My doctor preffered movicol for me - perhaps ask the doc why they had chose lactulose and try movicol .... i have tried fybrgel and laxido as well as the lactulose and i at the moment have preferred movicol in terms of a stool softner.

This afternoon after my BM i felt like the burning had calmed (not gone but a lot calmer) and then ive just had my second BM of the day (pure diahorrea) out of nowhere and i am on fire again! That pain is super strong! i really really just want it all to go away!

how are you feeling today? xxx

No worries I know those kind of days.

Yes I feel like most times my bum is all I speak about. I had one friend that had a few issues and yet having babies but nothing to the extent that I did. I searched the internet to try find someone with similar issues but it really is the unsaid isn’t it.

In the not so long past my whole days were governed by what my morning bm was. It was literary taking over my life.

The therapy really helped. It gave me lots of techniques of how to not let seeing the blood fast track to the worse possible scenario.

My Gran too had bowel cancer so

it’s always been a worry for me too because of that.

I have spoken to the Dr on the phone but not actually been seen. I am due to have a follow up appointment over the phone with the surgeon in the next month so I will see what he says but I really don’t want to have to go through that again or have the surgery to be fair. He did warn me that I could possibly need the banding another 2 times and the if that didn’t work I could have the surgery. So I was probably naive to think it would work 1st time round.

Yes the pink on the tissue is yes like diluted blood. That must be from hems then?

My bleeding is either bright red on tissue, a streak on the stool, a drip down the toilet or the diluted pink blood so far.

After my 1st baby I must of had a fissure as seriously for almost a year my bm were insanely painful. I use to sit and cry on the toliet, it was the worse pain ever.

I will ask about the movicol. I think they may have recommended the lactalose as it’s ok to use while breast feeding and I’m not too sure the movicol is. I do find that yes the lactalose can cause soft but big stools and if I haven’t drank enough water the previous day that can start issues again for me.

Do you notice ridges on your stools? I do but have heard that hems can cause this.

That’s frustrating that that happened to you today. Bet you were feeling really hopeful after the 1st. Are you still going to call the surgeon tomorrow?

Have you tried to put vasaline there before bm? It did help me with the fissure of that could be what you have got. Do you still have that heavy feeling like the bands may still be there? x