Haemorrhoidectomy recovery

[Tuxedocatty]

Had one 7 days ago and though warned recovery would be unpleasant wasn’t quite expecting level of pain and disruption- anyone who’s had one, at what stage did life return to something like normal?

I reckon about 2 weeks in - hang in there. Get some instillagel from the chemist if you haven’t got any, it’s an anaesthetic gel and it will really help

Thanks - that’s a big help

i assume you’re already doing things like using a sitz bath too - you can use haemorrhoid cream too to help soothe your poor self in between using the gel.

its a horrible recovery and the after effects were definitely downplayed by my surgeon - I don’t feel like I was fully prepared for it at all. All of a sudden I started feeling much better after a couple of weeks so I hope you do too. Life afterwards is so much better you just gotta get through this bit!

Sorry to hear that. Fingers crossed for a quick recovery. I'm on the waiting list for the op. But having read up. I'm thinking twice now. I only have bleeding on a semi regular basis and a bunch of grapes no pain. My surgeon is definitely down playing recovery. He said two weeks then I would be more or less back to normal.

Best of luck with your recovery

I was having extreme levels of bleeding - like a period every time I went to the toilet and sometimes blood and nothing else so that really couldn’t continue. I was so incredibly anxious about it all the time

it did take about 2 weeks for me to start feeling better but those two weeks were really painful, horrible two weeks. Life is much better now because my symptoms leading to the op were so extreme but when you read about people’s experiences on the internet - mine was a pretty good and quick recovery by most accounts.

If you’re having it done on the NHS there must be a really good reason for them to want to do it. Get painkillers, get a sitz bath, get instillagel, wee in the shower if you have to and be prepared to be unable to do anything except think about your bum! If you have children get some childcare in place - I certainly couldn’t go far from the toilet for the first couple of weeks because I didn’t get much warning of needing a poo I just had to go. You have to take laxatives so it’s pretty frequent too.

it was worth it for me but I do share my experience when I see people ask because my surgeon was very much like “you’ll be back to work in a couple of days”. Errr no.

Thanks for the feedback, like @CarobyBlobs I had bleeding every single time I did a No2 , for months on end and thought well, this can’t go on. So I really hope this will end all that and be worth it. But you’re right, any notion life is back to normal in a few days is nonsense. My partner had to abandon a wfh Teams meeting yesterday cos I’d been to the loo and in their words ‘it sounded like someone was being tortured to death in the background’!!

Very true it's NHS. I'm thinking again partly because since I've been using a poo stool I've had much less bleeding only once or twice a month. Except at the moment due to a horrible tummy bug. I'm hoping the stool will continue to work and I can put up with the grapes

I’m updating this in case people read this thread in future , and am now in a better position to answer my own question. 13 days after the procedure things are much better, with sharp decrease in pain levels from day 10. Still some discomfort (rather than agony) when doing a No2 but all in all much better.

Great to hear. I was referred by my gp in January but still haven’t heard anything from the hospital. How long did it take from your gp referral, do you mind me asking? I am happy to wait as my pain has subsided now but just difficult to plan my life when I know I’ll need several weeks at home afterwards.

I had this done privately as my company offers Bupa so sorry can’t be much help on that. Hope you get your appt asap, and yes I would definitely say plan 2 weeks when you don’t need to be too far from your own loo. Best of luck when you get it done

I’m really glad you’ve turned the corner OP!