Hello!
I thought I'd share my experience. I'm 26 and have suffered from external and internal hemorrhoids for the past 20 years. Due to a lot of difficult external piles and some thrombose-ing, I developed skin tags over 10 years ago.
Keeping clean has been an issue (not to mention looking like a little exploded flower down there) so over a month ago I finally had a hemorrhoidectomy which removed 2/3 of the piles. I live in Seattle with many excellent surgeons so the process from diagnosis to surgery was less than a month.
I thought two weeks would be enough for a recovery, but I developed complications with fissures (yes, the most painful thing of my life and I've had tons of health problems) after surgery and needed to be on bed rest for 3 weeks.
I'm a health freak and did everything right, but please remember to stay on a liquid diet after surgery and take stool softeners right away.
Not trying to scare anyone, but the first 5-10 bowel movements had me screaming even on Percocet and Tylenol. I learned Ibuprofen slowed down healing for me... Anyway...
I had to go back and forth from hospital because of the extreme fissures (splitting skin) I developed from the inside to the outside of my anus. Not fun. This is also very uncommon.
Unfortunately, my bum hole looks horrible now with two giant skin tags that redeveloped two weeks after surgery when I finally had the nerve to feel the area in the tub and then examine myself in the mirror. Not gonna lie, I cried a lot when I saw how things were healing. I knew it wasn't the last procedure I would need.
I've come to terms with how things look now that it's been well over a month and the fissures have finally almost totally healed so I can go without gauze for most of the day and am only in 3/10 pain during BM's (still some bleeding).
At my last doctor post op appointment I had three different surgeons surrounding my butt (I was cracking jokes the whole time because heck, what else can you do). The new doctor I saw told me that he would be able to BAND the excess skin that's leftover on the outside. What?! At the time he sounded very confident and said he's had wonderful results with minimal pain this way (my primary surgeon who is amazing backed this up). I am skeptical after scouring the interwebs trying to find anyone who has had any experience with this and came up with nothing.
My primary surgeon said another surgery under general to remove the tags might result in the same thing all over again, as well as has a further risk of incontinence (joy). The only catch with banding is I've had to wait for the fissures to heal or else I would be in too much pain. I know all about pain...
I can say that with every horrible and agonizing experience in my life once you get through it our minds have a wonderful way of blurring out the memory. I would go through this again just to know that me bum hole won't bloom with swelling and pain due to hemorrhoids every time I do the slightest irritating thing to them. I didn't look pretty there before, I sure don't now, but every partner I've been with hasn't cared at all. Hope that gives some people comfort. I did the surgery for me and am determined to have a somewhat flat anus that's easy to keep clean and doesn't trigger UTIs. So forward we go... I will update again after this banding, which terrifies me a bit but hey, I've been through hell once and survived.
Tips for recovery:
-Prunes! I like these better than over the counter crap that has dyes which made me feel icky.
-PURE ALOE VERA JUICE ON GAUZE!!!! This saved my life and I still use it to soothe the area even now. I've heard of people making ice packs for their bums, I bet freezing the gauze would be a God send for the first week after operation.
- Keep lots of gauze on hand, way more than you think you need. I kept little stations around the house, by the bed and the toilet and pre cut lots of strips but wish I had more ready because running errands sucks.
-Try a grocery delivery service - I had a two week free trial for InstaCart and honestly cried from the relief of having groceries sent to my door.
-Take your pain killers on a schedule. Don't wait until it hurts or you'll need twice as much.
-Tylenol was way better than ibuprofen for me.
-White Tiger Balm for headaches. I get headaches from OTC and opioid pain medication but had to take it, so this helps.
-STAY OFF COFFEE. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. Worst mistake I made when I was constipated day 1 after surgery from the anesthesia. Instead I absolutely loved Yerba Mate Tea which helped with the caffeine withdrawal migraines I got. Win win. It helps with mood and healing.
-Keep 10+ bottles of juice or fizzy mineral water around to stay hydrated (I mixed my fizzy water with a natural anti inflammatory tonic of Tart Cherry, Ginger, and Tumeric from Amazon and it was the best part of my day and really helped with the nausea from Percocet)
-Epsom Salt and Lavender Oil in the bath for pain
-Don't be afraid to call your doctor if you're in a lot of pain after week two like I was... better to catch complications early and the appointment I made with him at that point saved me. He prescribed a cream for my fissure pain spasms that's allowed me to heal and sent me home with extra pain medicine and no judgement which I got from requesting refills over the phone. 100% worth it.
Good luck! I will update when I have news.
YOU ARE NOT ALONE! #ForeverEnviousOfNormalButtHoles