Coping With Hemorrhoidectomy

On June 26th I was in a colorectal surgeon’s office because one of my external hemorrhoids thrombosed. That had never happened before and I never wanted it to happen again as the pain was excrutiating until he removed the clot.

I was told by my OB/GYN for the past 20 years to leave the hemorrhoids alone because they only acted up occasionally and with the laser procedure there was always a chance of them coming back. The colorectal surgeon had a different take on the situation and gave me a ton of reasons why it was time to have them surgical removed, especially now that one of them had thrombosed and chances were it would happen again.

He had an opening on June 30th and I underwent the surgery. Took twilight sleep (sedation) and a local nerve block to remove all three. The surgeon said most people take an average of 2 to 3 weeks to heal and stay out of work and on pain meds for that time. I made the mistake of reading everyone’s horror stories about their recovery and I must admit I was scared to death to have the procedure even though I had no choice any longer.

Well it is 4 days post op and I truly believe that if you have a good surgeon and follow their post op directions to the letter, you can speed recovery and reduce your pain. The first 12 hours post op was very painful when the nerve block wore off. The pain was mostly from internal rectal spasms from having a dilation device up the rectum during the surgery and my muscles contracting to go back to normal.

Once those stopped the pain focused on the surgery site itself. It swelled almost like the hemorrhoids were back and in full force, and it was very uncomfortable. I took the pain meds exactly as prescribed which didn’t alleviate all the pain but made it more than tolerable. The second and last major hump was my surgeon insists that his patients have a bowel movement within 72 hours after surgery.

After reading people’s stories who have not gone in a week, etc., I see why he was so insistent and glad he was. The day after surgery he had me taking fiber daily, and Milk of Magnesia and Mineral Oil twice a day. When I still didn’t go in 48 hours I drank a bottle of Magnesium Citrate as directed.

It took about three hours of bloating and discomfort after drinking it before I actually had no other choice but to move my bowels. Everything was very soft and/or liquid. I won’t lie and say that the first bowel movement wasn’t painful, because it was very very painful and burned at the surgery site after until I got into the sitz bath.

It was more painful then anything I have ever experienced, including my hysterectomy pain years back. But once I went there was a relief as packing by the anal opening came out and there was no more pressure on the rectum..thereby relieving more surgery site pain. Each bowel movement after that was not painful other than causing a burning sensation at the surgery site which was relieved by the sitz bath and anethestic gel.

The magnesium unfortunately had me going all day yesterday until I was completely emptied out again. It was the best thing the surgeon could have had me do because the last thing I wanted was a hard bowel movement or to become constipated or impacted from the pain meds.

Today I am back on the laxitive and mineral oil and will continue that twice a day until healed. My best friend (the sitz bath) and I meet up every two to three hours which has done wonders to reduce my swelling. You can actually see the anal opening now and all the stitches where as right after the procedure you couldn’t.

I even took a slow walk around the block today with my husband because I was going stir crazy in the house. I plan on returning to work Monday even if it means taking a small dose of pain medication and probably sitting on a pillow since I am a psychologist and sit for a living. I know that 2 weeks from now I will be saying this surgery is the best thing I ever did considering there is only a 5 percent chance of them ever coming back (much better than the odds with laser procedures).

So my best advice is to follow your surgeon’s directions to the letter, make sure you go to the bathroom within a couple of days of surgery as the surgeon probably gave you a regimen to do so, take the pain meds, have the sitz bath become your best friend, and stay in a positive mind set.