My Experience - 7 Weeks After Nhs Halo And Haemorrhoidectomy

Hi Bob, your experience sounds positive so far. It’s good to hear that somewhere in the world the health care system works and you can trust your surgeon.

I’ve never seen the surgeon who performed my operation (I only spoke to another one in the team at the post-op. review). My experience was a total chaos, with an overbooked day where I had to wait from morning till 5 pm – with no food or water allowed before op. then with stressed and confused nurses wheeling me around on isles towards the theatre. Once in the theatre something didn’t go to plan because one of the nurses kept saying: “this is unacceptable… this is unacceptable” - just what you don’t want to hear before you’re put to sleep and are about to be operated

When I woke up after the operation I wanted to ask questions about the procedure, there was nobody to answer apart from a clueless nurse who was terribly bad at making up answers in an attempt to keep me happy. I hot a signed report before leaving – it must have been the most rudimentary medical report ever written –my daily BM notes are far more comprehensive that that!

I’m now exactly 3 months after, fighting with a complication of some kind – I don’t know what exactly, and the surgeon who saw me recently was reluctant to talk about it but he promised to investigate it in a month time if necessary.

So, Bob, if you ever hear rumours about NHS in the UK not working very well, you can safely believe it. I know about countless negative experiences (mine and people who I know) with the NHS in the UK.

I’ll stop with this now cons it doesn’t make me feel terribly good...

Wishing you, and everyone else, a good and safe recovery.

"This is not acceptable" over and over really is the last thing you want to hear before going under! Brilliant.

I must admit they were more organized the day of my op and my surgeon came to see me every morning and once in the afternoon as well when I was in hospital.

In Australia you have a choice whether to pay for private medical insurance. I'm no expert, but based on my limited experience if you do opt for private you have access to considerably better services and doctors. 

My life these past few days is almost comically centred around the timing and quality of BM's. It does make you reflect on the phenomenal difference something small we take for granted for years can make to our health and quality of life. If I get back to full health after this if nothing else I'll certainly try to be a bit more grateful and a bit more empathetic.

Anyway I certainly hope that you don't have any sort of complication that will require more serious medical intervention mate. Have things continued to improve a bit since you've been using the cream?

Bob

Cheers Bob, yes I believe I can notice an improvement in the last week or so, but that might be because my stools have been softer and easier to pass. The cream might help, I certainly hope so, but there is no way I can verify the healing effect of the cream. My improvement can be a result of many factors (better stool balance, or just the natural course of healing). The only thing I can tell certainly about the positive effects of the cream is that it does relax my sphincter muscle. This means fewer anal spasms, which are such a nuisance. Because of all these I’m inclined to believe that it is worth the pain of applying the cream twice daily, despite the headache that it causes (literally) as a side-effect. I’ve read that this cream is also prescribed for chronic anal fissure, so yes - I’m feeling positive about using it.  

You’ve mentioned private health care – I know, but unfortunately I couldn’t afford that.

My life too has been, and still is, centred on the timing and quality of BMs – this is the challenge. Indeed people take a healthy anus for granted, as they take for granted their healthy heart, or stomach and so on.

However the upsetting difference is, while most people are aware that stomach or kidneys are important, they don’t think in the same way about their anus. The anus is seen as a fairly useless orifice that just allows the dirt to get out...

Few people know that the anus is a complex set of muscles, nerves and layers that are finely tuned to perform numerous essential contractions daily. When the anus suffers, the impact on life can be profound and debilitating.

It is definitely unfair that people underestimate so much this part of the body which is a social taboo (at least here in the UK it is, for sure) and it’s used as a swear word when people want to insult each other.

I’ve learnt two things from this experience so far: firstly it’s been an insight in human pain; any pain that I ever had before was mild in comparison. And secondly, I’ve decided to never use it for swearing again, or to think of it in a derogatory way, as most people do. The anus certainly deserves more respect.  

Hope your healing goes smoothly!

 

Brilliant news that you've noticed an improvement Alex. I really hope it continues on a positive trajectory for you.

The last couple of days have been better for me as well. BM's are still pretty uncomfortable and I'm still bleeding a bit, but I haven't needed the stronger pain killers much at all. I've been able to drive for a short time and get some things done outside the house. Tomorrow I'm going to try to walk a km or 2 as a symbolic effort to start exercising again. Planning to go back to work on Monday.

I was thinking about the most useful thing I could share from my experience for others that are considering or are having a haemorrhoidectomy. In hindsight the best thing we (my wife and I) did to try to tip the odds in our favor for a good outcome was to be quite proactive in our selection of doctor. 

Although my initial doctor was ok, we reached out to people we knew in the medical community to find the best colorectal surgeon in our city. Nurses in particular really seem to know who the best doctors are and the worst ( more so than other doctors I think?). I figured doctors are no different to people in my industry or any other--there's huge variation in competence level from person to person. With something as potentially life changing as a haemorrhoidectomy I don't think you should leave this to chance and even a good GP will not always know or refer you to the best specialists. It was inconvenient and more expensive for me to switch doctors, but with the benefit of hindsight I definitely think it was worth it.

That's great if you can be active already and walk, etc, thumbs up Bob!

I went for a short walk today, it started ok but it got painful before long

The mass and grade of hemorrhoids also determines the severity of the operation and recovery time. I've had grade 4 and a large mass of internal and circumferential external hemorrhoids. Even after my second procedure, I've been told that it wasn't safe to remove all of them, so I'm still left with hemorrhoids that are considerably large and prolapsed.

I totally agree with your point on surgeon competence levels. For me it was extremely hard to get to any surgeon to operate me. In the UK getting a referral on NHS is difficult to start with, then I had to confront a clueless consultant that I needed surgery in the first place. They kept dismissing me, (as they do) and the first couple of diagnosis were useless - they kept telling me I'm fine - I might need some banding perhaps    (it's like they are trained on how to dismiss patients effectively here!). They agreed however to have a proper look by performing a sigmoidoscopy and only at that point the true severity of my hemorrhoids has been acknowledged.

At every appointment I spoke to a different consultant (don't know why) and eventually they agreed to a THD procedure which I have requested and which treats internal hemorrhoids (but not those below a certain level - nevertheless there was a chance that would have been enough). It wasn't enough, but the operation went fine, and recovery from that - although it took 3 weeks, it was a walk in the park compare with the hemorrhoidectomy, at least in terms of pain.

I don't know exactly who operated me, and I certainly couldn't choose the surgeon. It was a challenge to get to any surgeon, competent or not.

Things are much better on the private sector, for sure, but that simply was/is not an option for me.

I can only hope that I'm heading in the right direction, and that I'll be able to work one day, with a bit of luck... actually, with plenty of luck [neutral]  

Have a nice and painless walk Bob

 

Well, I managed to walk/shuffle about 750 m and had to take a pain killer and sit in a warm bath when I got home. I'm also actually quite exceptionally tired from the effort of the walk. Unbelievable. My earlier comment about 1-2 km being a "symbolic effort" seems a bit ridiculous now. I'm still going to view this as a win though given that it's the first real physical activity I've undertaken since the op. I just need to adjust my goals a touch.

You make some excellent points Alex--I know that not everyone will have the same options that were available to us with respect to selecting our surgeon. In fact I was a bit hesitant to share our experience here because of the differing health systems and people's differing financial situations (During most of my 20's this would have been very different for me: I was at uni and as poor as a Bolivian church mouse). On balance though I thought there was a chance our experience might helpful to someone. 

Maybe I'll modify the lesson from our experience to something more general. Based on our limited experience: understand your options, get independent advice if you can, and to the extent possible don't compromise once you've made an informed decision. In your case it definitely sounds like you are a very informed and proactive patient, which is all you can do. From reading through the different experiences including yours on this thread it does not sound like the UK public health system is very efficient or "patient friendly" at all frankly. That really limits what you can do from the sound of it.

I feel sure that you will get back to work Alex! You are young and obviously smart and resourceful. I think your odds are very good. You'll not only recover, but be a stronger, wiser and kinder person as a result of this experience.

Well Bob you're determined, that's for sure. You seem to be doing well at this stage though.

On a different note, yeah, I’m similar to how you were in your 20’s: poor as a Bolivian church mouse - I’ve graduated from uni 2 years ago, I have student debt as graduates have these days, and my hemorrhoids have done a great job in preventing me from working and getting into my industry. I’ve been trying to sort it out ever since. The odds haven’t been much on my side so far in my life, they've been such a puta madre, as the Bolivian mouse would say. However I’m going to learn from your attitude and stay positive…

I’m glad you’ve posted here Bob, people like you perhaps make us here in the UK think more about our health care. In fact I want the UK forums of all kinds to be flooded with Australians, Canadians, Japanese - or whatever nations have decent health care. I want them to talk to us about health care, and maybe… I don’t know - just maybe we here in the UK will want a better health care more, and I mean want it badly - not just roll eyes - or otherwise it won’t happen. If we just roll our eyes about NHS, in an admirable British manner, then just put up with the misery and move on, as we’re so brilliant at doing it as a nation, this won't do much good.

Most people seem to expect politicians to sort out things by themselves, which is a little naive me thinks. Politicians never do it by themselves, why would you give a Bolivian rat’s backside about NHS when you can afford the best private care money can buy? It’s the people, collectively, who must put pressure on politicians, be proactive and make some noise... Politicians want to get elected and they pick up on what their voters are interested in. What are we interested in right now? Political parties have started to pitch for elections here, and guess what is at the top of their agenda? Health care? The NHS that is suffering from acute underfunding and chronic mismanagement? Of course that’s not the primary concern! Instead, it’s referendums on the EU, Brussels and EU work migration. These are apparently the nation’s greatest concerns right now. Because, dear friend Bob, it is so much easier to blame others for your mess than it is to blame yourself. It’s just a lot more convenient.

Very well; a society that doesn’t prioritise health care is doomed to be sick, very sick. Serious improvement on this sector is imperative, and the sooner we make it happen, the better.

So yeah, it’s good that you’ve posted Bob, we need some inspiration perhaps, we need to think more about our health care here, talk more about it, demand more political atttention, demand more funding, effective services, etc. Because things are in a right mess right now         

 

 

Well tomorrow's day 12 and I'm going to try to go back to work tomorrow. I have been weening myself off the stronger pain killers because I can't take them at work. The last couple of days have been a bit painful as a result. I will say that constant pain, even though not severe certainly makes you tired and gives you a sort of detached feeling from the world after a few hours.

I have been managing to walk longer distances (~2 km) and we've been going out for lunch and to seeing friends. The pain and the continuous slow leakage and need for bandages is inconvenient when you're trying to be normal -- we'll see how work goes tomorrow. I'm lucky that it's only office work!

Hope all is well Alex. How have you been feeling ?

Day 14. I've been at work 2 consecutive days and things are going well. I've been able to work full days with minimal pain and no real restrictions. I check in with my specialist on Thursday and will ask about starting to exercise seriously again. I've been lucky and feel very confident of a full recovery at this point, so this will be my last post on this forum. Very best of luck to you Alex and everyone else that has undergone this procedure. Stay strong and positive and I wish you the very best of luck.

Bob

Thanks Bob, it's great that you're pretty much recovered. Anyone who's looking for encouragement should better read your posts, as your experience has been a lot more successful than that of others. 

I'm not at the end of the tunnel yet myself, so I'll come back with updates.

I hope the other posters in here are better too, and if they have any updates - positive or negative - would be good to hear from you all.

Best of luck to you too Bob, your story is refreshingly positive which is a rare and encouraging thing on medical forums, so thanks for posting.   

 

Hi Bobsbob

Hope all is still well with you. I had my op almost 3 weeks ago and wonder if you would mind just answering a couple of questions that are worrying me?

Did you get a burning/slicing sensation after Bowl movements for a while, mine seem to have lessend off now but i find i am getting a bloated feeling at my rear weighing it down, and because all this was causing either tress or pain i have gone a couple of days of not eating and now find myself very tired,cold and getting stomach cramps which demand an immediate bowl movement.

Please could you let me know what your diet was 3 weeks after the op. Sorry to have to contact you but it would really help.

Many many thanks

Paul