Hemoroidectomy – My Honest Experience (Positive)
About me
I’m a 50-year-old woman, generally healthy. I do bootcamp and walking, but I have an office-based job so I sit a lot.
Background
I had one hemorrhoid that looked like a skin tag, located at the 11 o’clock position. It was about the size of my little fingertip (or about the size of my thumb tip when flattened). I’d had it for around 18 months and wasn’t really sure what caused it.
Over time, the itching became unbearable. It reached a point where I couldn’t sleep. The only thing that helped was an ice pack. I was waking up 3–4 times a night to change it and became completely exhausted. If I went out for any length of time, I had to take ice packs with me — even going out for dinner meant packing one. I also had some sharp pains at times. It was awful and had a huge impact on my quality of life.
Fear & delay
I was originally scheduled for surgery, but three days before the operation I made the mistake of reading online horror stories. I became absolutely terrified — couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep, and had panic attacks. I contacted the surgeon on the Monday and they suggested cancelling, which I did.
After another consultation and a few weeks of thinking, I realised I couldn’t keep living like this. I needed to go through with it. Even so, I was terrified for months beforehand. I prepared myself mentally as much as possible and promised that if I had a good experience, I would write a review to help others. Here is my experience:
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Preparation
Saturday: Moved to soft foods (mash, salmon, yoghurt). Ended up eating a large bag of crisps in the evening. I tried lactulose to keep bowel movements soft, but it seemed to bung me up, so I stopped.
Sunday: Mostly soft foods, but did eat roast chicken and mash (chewed very well).
Monday: Soft foods only.
Drank 3–4 litres of water daily.
Still had tea/coffee but switched to decaf on Sunday.
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Day of surgery – Tuesday
Arrived at 12:30pm. Surgery was around 3:30pm. Miller- Morgan surgery, note says the surgeon avoided the internal anal sphincter muscle. Not sure if that had a bearing on my recovery. Surgeon said it was an open sore about size of fingertip, mostly external with some inside. He also gave me some localised anaesthetic.
When I woke up, I was very sleepy. I could feel something had been done, but there was no pain. I ate a few bites of omelette.
I couldn’t leave until I’d passed urine, so I drank lots of water. I was nervous about this, but peeing was absolutely fine.
Got home around 9pm and took ibuprofen, dihydrocodeine, and paracetamol. Felt sick on way home but I think that was the anaesthetic .
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Recovery
Wednesday (Day 1):
Kept up all three pain meds. Set alarms in night to ensure kept up with. Very little pain — occasional discomfort when meds wore off, max 3/10.
Soft diet: yoghurt, fully blended soups, jelly, salmon and mash. A few apricots (chewed well). 4 litres of water and herbal teas.
Started Movicol twice a day.
About 3,000 steps around the house.
Nervous for first bath but was absolutely fine.
Thursday:
Same as Wednesday. Felt great. Did lots of chores and managed 5,000 steps indoors. Had a few quick baths to keep area clean. Light bleeding. Started in 3 x movical a day
Friday:
Stopped dihydrocodeine to encourage a BM. Managed fine on ibuprofen and paracetamol. Occasional discomfort, but nothing worse than the itching I had before surgery. Same diet, plus scrambled eggs and a bit of chocolate. Felt weak, dizzy, and very tired all day. In bed by 8pm.
Saturday:
First bowel movement in the morning. Very soft and no pain at all. Some mild discomfort afterwards (a little bathroom dance!) then a lovely bath. Light bleeding for the rest of the day.
Managed a 6,000-step walk outside and a hot chocolate. Still dizzy, so increased fibre and salt intake (wholemeal bread with soup and some salty crisps). Reduced water slightly.
Sunday:
Second bowel movement. Soft. Light bleeding continued. 4,000-step walk and chores around house. Some discomfort but no real pain. Reducing ibruprofen and Movical to 2 x a day.
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Daily life during recovery
Throughout recovery I got up at 7am to get my kids ready for school, cooked meals, cleaned, and managed normal daily life. I avoided sitting where possible and mostly rested lying on my side.
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This is where is am now - and can honestly say it's been 100% better than I thought.
I was absolutely terrified going into this surgery, far more than I needed to be. My recovery has been much better than expected and already feels easier than living with constant itching, ice packs, and exhaustion. Im actually sleeping! For me, it has been completely worth it.