Hemorrhoidectomy recovery experience

Hi guys. Just thought I'd share my experience as some have noted that most posts regard an overwhelmingly bad time post op, but not every case is the same.

I had my surgery last Wednesday so I am a little under a week into recovery.

Luckily, I was placed at a private hospital that the NHS paid for, and I felt a lot more looked after prior to the surgery and was given a private room to relax in whilst I awaited surgery. My surgeon was very informative but did scare the life out me by constantly reminding me that this is a very painful procedure.

I had external and internal piles removed.

Following the surgery I was allowed to go home within an hour of coming around (mainly due to mu insistence because I couldn't bare the thought of laying there with a cannula sticking out of my hand).

Immediately following I noticed a small amount of discomfort but the area was mostly numb due to drugs. The first day was much of the same, so I spent the day out and about without much issue except for a large amount of blood in my underwear.

The following day was the worst. After taking the prescribed laxatives for 24 hours I was finally able to have a BM. The pain during was so bad that I almost passed out and felt extremely nauseous. The rest of the day was pretty bad with constant pain/nausea.

However by the third I felt relatively normal. I had quite a lot of pain after another BM but this subsided within a couple of hours and was aided by ibuprofen.

And I've had a similar experience for the next two days. The fourth day I was back at work and by lunch time the pain was negligible. And again today - this has been the case. A bit of pain for a couple of hours following a BM which subsides to a point where it's only just noticeable.

I am hoping that this will continue to be the case until I'm fully healed because generally, my experience has been easily manageable and not at all as bad as some of the other less fortunate cases on the forum. Aside from a couple of extremely painful moments during a BM it's been more or less easy to deal with.

I have the next week off work to continue recovery, and provided I don't suddenly fall into excruciating pain I imagine that I will be back to my normal self within the next week or two.

The main thing I'm looking forward to is a glass of red once I've finished my antibiotics course!

Just wanted to share as whilst some experiences are undoutedbly awful, everybody is different and not all cases will be as such. So if you're scared and apprehensive about undergoing the surgery, bare this in mind but I would say mentally prepare yourself for the worst. Until you've actually came out of surgery - you've no way of telling what it will be like for you.

My hemorrhoidectomy story.

BACKSTORY

            I attribute this fun little journey to college dorm food: pasta, pizza, freshman fifteen, soda instead of water, and an all around a poor diet. I never had what I now understand to be “regular” and “normal” bowel movements (I honestly thought it was normal to go once every two days) but I never really felt constipated - so I didn’t think much of it. I had been a picky eater my entire life and it never crossed my mind as a young college student the damage that a diet lacking in fiber, fruits, and vegetables had upon my body. I developed a very small “bump” right on the outside and noticed it getting bigger and bigger over the course of a year. It eventually swelled up, turned purple, and became very painful - so I had to make an awkward call to my mother asking to make me a doctor’s appointment. I first went to my general doctor, who then referred me to a highly recommended rectal, colon, and pelvic doctor.

            So, at 18, I was told I had a thrombosed external hemorrhoid and that all I needed to do was to drink water, eat fiber, and it would recede on its own. A few days later it went down, but left a small skin tag in it’s place. I wasn’t really bothered – I mean, who looks there? I went on to work at a movie theatre in college and would eat horrible food all of the time: soda, popcorn, candy – it was awful, and since my eating habits didn’t change, the hemorrhoid would flare up every now and again. Working at a job where I was required to stand up constantly was painful and put a lot of unnecessary strain on the area. I remember a particularly bad flare-up and having to take off two days from work because it was so painful, too embarrassed to go back to the doctor or do anything about it. Nothing can really soothe the area, and Preparation H was the only thing I used. This happened on and off, but generally over the next few years the flare-ups were few and far between, but my skin tag seemed to slowly, but surely, grow in size.

            At age 22, I saw video on the Internet called “If Slaughterhouses had Glass Walls” and became a vegetarian. My entire diet changed, I lost some weight, and realized how irregular my bowel movements were before. I didn’t have any flare-ups at all for a year, and thought that this painful pest was behind me. However, when I would travel and have an irregular diet, or when I would workout a lot, I would notice swelling starting to occur again. The “skin-tag” was still growing slowly, and I became extremely self-conscious of the appearance and was always afraid that it would flare up and become painful once again. When one of these flare-ups would rarely occur - not only was standing, sitting, sneezing, coughing, and bowel movements painful, I couldn’t do anything. It was completely incapacitating, but would last only a few days before resuming its normal, benign form.

            At 24, I decided to go back to the doctor I once saw as a meek, embarrassed 18 year old and talk to him about getting this ever-growing skin tag removed. I had recently had a small flare up and noticed that this external hemorrhoid was not going to go away and was still getting bigger in size (larger than a peanut M&M right on the edge of the anus, to be specific), so mainly out of vanity and fear I would have a flare-up while backpacking over the summer, I wanted to get it removed. It had been over 5 years since I had seen the doctor, and he took a quick peek and said that the skin tag wasn’t going anywhere, and would likely continue to get bigger over time as it was still considered an active hemorrhoid site. And so, I was scheduled to have my very first surgery: a hemorrhoidectomy.

SURGERY         

            To prepare for the surgery, I had to use a saline enema the morning before (literally one of the most terrifying things I have ever done in my life), and couldn’t eat or drink before midnight. If you don’t know what an enema is (I had to Google it and wanted to cry), it’s essentially where you have a little bottle filled with salty water with a tube on the end that you shove up your anus. You proceed to squeeze the bottle until the contents shoot up into your bowels and you “hold the liquid in” for about 5 minutes before “expelling”. I didn’t even know this was physically possible and wasn’t sure I even knew how to physically “hold” the liquid in, but boy does your body understand what is happening to you. It’s not painful, just a weird experience if you are as unfamiliar with your own anus, as I was. However, it clears out your system so all is good to go for surgery day.

             Let me tell you, I completely underestimated the reality of this surgery. In my mind, it was going to be a quick “snip-snip” skin removal surgery – quick, easy, and done. But in reality, it is quite invasive. They gave me a hospital gown, socks, and hair net – placing all of my belongings in a small cloth sack like one would when being admitted into prison. My anesthesiologist stopped by and asked me a few questions, and they wheeled me into the “prep” room where I just sat until my doctor was ready to perform the surgery. They gave me general anesthetic via an IV in the hand, and started to wheel me through double doors much like you see on television when someone is about to give birth…I don’t remember falling asleep, but I remember feeling extremely loopy and drugged and I tried very hard not to say anything weird. I was knocked-out the entire surgery, which lasted around 45 minutes, so I went to sleep sitting up and woke up sitting up, having zero recollection of what actually went down in that room, which I guess I should be thankful for. I woke up to a numb bottom, zero initial pain, gauze padding the surgical site and taped to my butt cheeks, and an odd feeling of adrenaline. I felt great immediately afterwards - the nurse gave me this amazing oatmeal raisin cookie…to this day that was best cookie of my life (I was still kind of high I think), but I felt good. I did it, the surgery was over and I was hemorrhoid free!!!

RECOVERY

           To prepare, I took off 7 days from work (the doctor says this time varies with patients but is usually around 1-2 weeks), picked up tissues, a fiber supplement (Meta Mucil), and milk of magnesia (Phillip’s). The first day after surgery I ate very bland foods  - peanut butter sandwich, goldfish, crackers, etc. and then proceeded to resume my normal diet the next few days with a focus on adding in more food with fiber. I was given perception pain medication (Tramadol) but it made me nauseous, so I didn’t take any pain medications throughout my recovery time. The anesthetic the doctor used on the surgical site lasted about two days after the surgery, so I didn’t feel any real pain until the third day (and I would say I have a decently high pain threshold). It essentially felt like it did when I would have a bad flare up, so the feeling wasn’t anything super new to me – especially since I had experienced external hemorrhoids which are much more painful than internal. I kept folded tissue on the area, as there was light bleeding and discharge for a little over a week due to the healing process. I slept a lot, and made sure not to move around too much. I really didn’t move at all that first week, and when I walked, I made sure to do it carefully and slowly. The site was swollen, heavily bruised, and looked horrific. At one point, I was honestly regretting doing this surgery because the surgical site looked so awful, and I didn’t think there was any way it would ever go back to normal – convincing myself that I had made things so much worse. It will always look so much worse before it can get better, so don’t let your mind go to the dark places like mine did.

            You are supposed to have a bowel movement within 72 hours of the surgery, but I had become very constipated (possibly due to medication) and was very worried. I wasn’t sure how painful the bowel movement would be on an open wound site with stiches, swelling, and bruising. The fiber supplement made me feel extremely bloated (I was told to take this once a day to keep things flowing), and didn’t produce any bowel movements. Since that didn’t work, I went one step up and took some milk of magnesia – which worked very quickly. My stool was extremely hard, and difficult to pass. It was painful, I’m not going to lie. The first few days of bowel movements were not fun, as I’m sure is no surprise. It sucks, it hurts, and it’s scary as hell. You’re literally stretching out a site that just got stiches and is sensitive and wounded. I was worried I was going to ruin my body further, or make it worse, or keep it from healing…but everything ended up being okay. I would shower after every one because you can’t really clean the area properly with toilet paper because due to the sensitivity.

            Around day 5, the surgical site looked very swollen, pretty much exactly like my original thrombosed external hemorrhoid. I was flipping out and thought I had a new one caused by the constipation and was terrified that I went through all of this hoopla for nothing. I called my doctor crying and went in for a spur-of-the-moment appointment. He essentially told me that I had a build up of hard, scar tissue that would slowly go away over time. I wanted this surgery mainly to be ridded of the flare-ups and for a piece of mind, but almost equally so that I would not have an abnormal growth on my anus. I cried on the way home from the doctor, tired and ready to heal and wanting to go back to normal life after being trapped alone in my apartment for the past 5 days (but also so grateful I live alone). He was right, it did end up going down, and I became rational and calm once again.

             I took about 3-5 baths in warm water every day for the first week. I don’t know if this actually does anything, but it was calming and made the site less itchy and painful when submerged in water. I went back to work on day 7, did things pretty normally, and took a bath before and after work to make sure everything was clean. I didn’t feel fully healed until about two months later, but felt comfortable running and working out 40ish days after the surgery (every body heals differently so just go what you are comfortable with and be conservative on the safe side). 

POST RECOVERY

           It’s been a little over three months since my surgery, and everything is back to normal – except better, because I am hemorrhoid free! My anus still doesn’t look perfect, and there is a very small build-up of scar tissue on the site, but it is a vast improvement. I feel confident that, as long as I keep a good diet, I will never have a problem again! In my experience: this week off of work filled with worry, pain, and fear (having to learn how to be an adult and figure out insurance), and a loss of ~$5,000 after insurance for all surgical costs, was worth the peace of mind of knowing that my anus won’t ever let me down. Good luck on your surgery and recovery, and I hope that this experience has helped you in some way! 

Is this thread still open?? I'm 4 days post op, and I'm losing the battle - pain is taking its victory lap!!!!

Thanks for sharing your recovery experience as I'm now 19 days Post Op & still feeling pretty rough. I'm an Electrical Contractor & thought I'd surely be back to work by now but that hasn't been possible. I was beginning to feel there was something wrong with my recovery but this Site has helped me to better understand what to expect & to be patient & give the recovery process time.

Surely wasn't prepared for this (Dr. said 2 to 3 weeks) but hopefully I'll be able to look back at it someday & be thankful I made the decision to have surgery.

After trolling theses posts for a few weeks and entirely freaking myself out, I felt I should post myself after having the surgery today.

i had one external and two internal removed by old fashioned excision- the method that is supposed to be the most painful. I read all of the stories on here and wound up in tears when the doctor came in this morning. She assured me that I wasn't a bad case and that I will be good to go on thanksgiving (the day after tomorrow).  I've hadtwo kids,one was ten pounds, and a botched episiotomy that had to be cut out and repaired ten years after I had the baby. I'm no stranger to pain in sensitive places and my doctor did say that the patients who struggle the most with this recovery are those who have not experienced pain in this region before.

i felt better getting wheeled back. I was hooked up to an Iv and the next thing I knew I was in recovery. I was uncomfortable, but not in real pain. They gave me a Percocet and sent me home a around ten this morning. I've only had ibuprofen since, took one sitz bath, took mira lax and drank prune juice, had a nap, did some laundry. Even had a small Bm. My pain has not been above a 2 yet.

one thing I learned from my previous surgery is to bubby enormous pads, soak them in witch hazel, And freeze. instant relief!

I don't doubt the legitimate pain others report on here and I know it might get worse before it gets better (I will update!). I just wanted to give a glimmer of hope to someone who might be as scared as i was last night. Good luck everyone!