Hemorrhoidectomy Experience as someone who has Fibromyalgia with CFS (17 days after surgery)

My whole life I’ve struggled with gastrointestinal problems, I had my first endoscopy at 5 and my first colonoscopy at 20. I had a colonoscopy because of my recurring problems with hemorrhoids, but it was never sever enough to have anything done to them. I got pregnant at 25 and developed severely thrombosed hemorrhoids which were very painful, in fact they were a concern for my OBGYN when I was going to give birth and they had the colorectal surgeon on stand by in case I needed emergency surgery... luckily none of that happened and I had a pretty seamless birth experience. But that’s not why we’re here, obviously by the title you can see that I ended up having a hemorrhoidectomy almost 3 weeks ago. I not only suffered from hemorrhoids but I also have fibromyalgia with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibro is a chronic pain illness with no cure so pain is my number one enemy in day to day life. When I learned I had to have surgery my main concern was the pain and how I was going to take care of my 1 1/2 year old toddler, the doctor forewarned me of the pain and told me I should set up child care being that I am a stay at home mom. SO I FALL DOWN THE GOOGLE RABBIT HOLE OF HEMORRHOIDECTOMY PAIN. I read all these AWFUL stories and I nearly canceled my procedure numerous times out of the fear that I would be in awful pain, add a chronic pain illness into the mix and I thought I was done for. Well I put on my big girl panties and decided to go through with it, I figured the outcome would be worth it in the long run. I get to the pre op area and I am so scared I was given something to relax me then boom into the operating room I go... when I wake up the first thing that happens is that I pee myself, now this is embarrassing but it’s a good thing because that means I have gone to the bathroom and I can go home. While waiting to fully regain consciousness I start feeling pain, I think “oh no here it comes” the pain is at a 6/10 but I immediately tell the nurse who kindly brings me a pain killer to get me through the drive home (which unfortunately was a 45 mins drive.) So I get home and I am just tired, I go to sleep and have my husband wake me up in a couple of hours for my next dose of the pain killer and we added a stool softener per drs orders. When he wakes me up the pain is at a 4/10 to which he says “the dr said today would be the worse of the pain” and I was SO surprised, was this is? Was this as bad as it was going to be? Ok let’s fast forward cause this post is getting SO LONG lol... Day 5, pain isn’t bad at all! I’ve halved my dose of pain killer but I’m still taking it every 6 hours as directed; I’m uncomfortable but not in pain, however, I have not pooped. I call the drs office and they ask me to come in, his nurse practitioner examines my wound, presses on my belly and tells me I am not terribly constipated but they do need to get me to poop, she gives me some suggestions like more water, miralax, and milk of magnesia if the miralax doesn’t work in a couple of days. I take miralax and try to increase my fluids (the pain killers make me nauseated so it was very difficult to do this). Day 7: bowel movement. Ok so up until now recovery has been pretty painless, my pain being at a 6 at the worse and that was when I first got out of surgery.... until I went to the bathroom. I sat on the toilet and the pain was an 11, I thought I was going to throw up and pass out from the pain. I had a movement and I cried in my shower for about 10 minutes. I swear I’m traumtized.... I spend the rest of the day in bed with pain at a 7, started taking a full dose of the pain killer and kept taking my stool softeners. Day 8: another bowel movement, here we go, another painful painful experience. I’m scared and pacing all over my house, I on my knees praying because I know the pain I’m about to experience. Now this is graphic but I’m writing to explain the process in a way where people might consider the surgery and not think it’s the devil, I sit on the toilet and it all comes out at once, 3 seconds I was done (was a soft serve like consistency), pain level? 6, I hopped into the shower and that was it, I was okay. Day 9: third bowel movement, pain level 5. I am on day 17 now and I am able to go to the bathroom with a pain level of a 2, I have had days where I have 3 BM and days where I only have 1. I am pretty much back to normal, the most annoying part is wearing pads because you will have some discharge from your wound, normal healing process but it means I take a shower about 5 times a day. I really hope this can help someone who needs to have this procedure. If you’ve made it to the end of this I promise it’s not that bad and it’s worth it, you’ll be back to normal before you know it. Putting pain level in prospetives with the surgeries I’ve had from most painful to least painful:

1. Tummy tuck with abdominal muscle repair

2. C section

3. Hemorrhoidectomy

4. Breast lift

5. Keloid Removal behind ears. 

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