Stapled Haemhorroidectomy - Recovery Blog
Posted , 2 users are following.
Hello. I have suffered from piles on and off for almost 20 years. Following a hospitalisation in Feb 2017 due to them. I decided to take the plunge and have an op. This took place last Friday.
I thought I'd share my experiences of that and the recovery process here, to see how others have found it and to offer encouragement that things will improve!
I should note that this will mention bodily fluids so read on at your peril!
0 likes, 11 replies
stephenjj
Posted
The Day Of The Op.
I arrived at the hospital at 7am and was taken through to the day surgery unit soon after. After gowning up I spoke with the surgeon, who asked me whether I still wanted to proceed. I said yes, more fool me. I then had the delights of an enema, which made me bleed as much as poo and took the wind right out of my sails, not to mention leaving me in agony. I pretty much stood up for the next two hours. Finally, after midday, I went down to surgery. I now cant remember waking up in recovery and don't think I spoke to the surgeon. I remember waking up back on the unit, feeling sick (I soon was) and wobbly. Apparently I slept for hours. I was kept in overnight due to my wobbliness and at that time not being able to urinate. Pain was minimal. I slept well enough and was discharged home on Saturday morning. With paracetamol, ibuprofen, codeine and lactulose.
stephenjj
Posted
Day 1 - all was fine until 4pm when I had my first bowel movement. It was pretty much blood only which didn't surprise me considering the previous days enema. The pain was excruciating! Two paracetamol taken. The pain eased off and turned into discomfort.
stephenjj
Posted
stephenjj
Posted
stephenjj
Posted
Day 4 - The start of the problems! Another bowel movement in the early hours. Recovered and was feeling the best I had until 7pm. Lulled into a false sense of security as I then had the urge to go 4 times between then and 2am. Even more pain due to the frequency of going and didn't allow the chance for the bleeding to stop inbetween. Second night in a row where I only got a couple of hours sleep and all of that after 5am. Completely miserable and losing the will to live.
stephenjj
Posted
Day 5 - now we have caught up and we are at today. Woke up needing to go again. But held off. Going so often during the night with constant bleeding was the first time this has really scared me. So much so, that I rang the surgery helpline for reassurance. They seemed to think it was all perfectly natural and to start on the laxatives to soften the stools. Up to that point, however misguidedly, I was trying to avoid the meds that would affect my digestive system the most. For example, Codeine is likely to make you constipated. Being told to start the laxatives, which free you up to go, after a night of going so frequently, scared me even more! I broke down and cried. I steeled myself and took the lowest dosage of lactulose. I have been once today so far. We will see how I go. Not sure why I was prescribed ibuprofen as you can't take it if you are bleeding or have bowel issues! So I'm at a low ebb, is there anyone out there to show me that there is a light at the end of the tunnel? At the moment I'm regretting having the op!
teresa34100 stephenjj
Posted
i had full hemorroidecomy on 4th sept. There were times I wanted to die because I couldnt cope with the pain, sitz bath or warm baths were the only brief comfort. im not sure about the stapling method, but I’m sure the pain is the same. 5 days is not long (I was signed off for a month), I can give you light at the end of the tunnel. Everybody is different, but by day 10 onwards you should feel a lot better. Then every day a really significant improvement. Sometimes one step forward two back, but you will feel better soon. My worst time was when I got diarreah just when I was feeling better and it was awful, after any bowel movement the muscles were contracting for 3 hours after. I would never have believed at four weeks I would be back at work, no trouble sitting and in no pain (except still some when having bm) but improving every day. You will feel better Stephen, count the days down, I know each day seems like forever right now, but hang in there buddy. All the best x
stephenjj teresa34100
Posted
Thanks Teresa. That has helped hearing your advice and experience. I also got a phone appointment yesterday with a doctor who was much more reassuring than the surgery helpline person. Confirmed that the amount I was bleeding was normal and advised on what meds to focus on using over the others. I had my second dose of lactulose this morning and will probably have a second dose this evening. I had an ibuprofen after earlier BM. Thanks for pointing out it is still early days, as you say, every day feels like forever. I think the surgeon played down the speed of recovery and the amount of pain! Due to the doctor and your feedback I'm feeling more positive if only a small degree better!
teresa34100 stephenjj
Posted
stephenjj
Posted
Well from day 5 onwards, things got better for me - if very slowly. From day 5 to day 12 I was still in pain after bowel movement and still using Lactulose and painkillers. There was still blood after every bowel movement. The pain however didn't last as long.
?Then from day 12 until the end of the 4th week, I didn't bleed when I went to the bathroom although there were some traces when wiping. The pain reduced to the extent that I didn't need the painkillers. My two week course of Lactulose ended and although I was worried about the stools hardening and causing pain again when I had a BM, I've generally not had much trouble going.
?I'm now in week 5 and my bm's have gone a bit weird. Of my last 4 bm's, 2 have had blood in the toilet bowl. another was really loose and fast - but bizarrely this one was one that there wasn't any blood in the bowl. The frequency of these four have been fairly close or at least what I'm used to (although I possibly shouldn't compare to what it was like prior to the op). But despite the blood, the velocity of going or the shorter times in between, I wasn't left with any real pain and the blood stopped flowing within minutes.
?I have been wearing pads and there is a little bit of leakage after a bm and sometimes at random times after. I hope the restart of bleeding isn't anything to worry about.
I went back to work this week (after some annual leave) and am feeling a lot better than I did. Not sure I'm quite at the point where I'm glad I had it done. The recent bleeding has set my confidence back about it all.
stephenjj
Posted
It will be 11 weeks since my op tomorrow. I had my (supposedly) 6 week check back appointment today. For the past few weeks I've still been experiencing bloody stools and varying degrees of discomfort and occasional pain after BM's.
?I sometimes can want to go for a BM in fairly quick succession,
?I went to the surgeon today expecting him to say it hadn't worked. Turns out that he feels the surgery has worked but I now have a different problem - an anal fissure. Great.
?So he prescribed me some cream and will book me in to have an exploratory look under anaesthetic (as its too tender to do anything with, without the anaesthetic). This may lead to a botox injection. Apparently if none of that works there might be another op, although he said he'd try everything to avoid that.
When will this nightmare end?!