Anybody who has ever had to deal with hemorrhoids knows that it’s no picnic. The discomfort, itching and sometimes pain involved, all in a very private and embarrassing place is certainly nothing to be taken lightly. Sometimes hemorrhoids get worse and people find themselves with little choice but to have them removed surgically, or sometimes, people just get tired of dealing with the problem and opt for elective removal. Either way, having this procedure done requires giving up the life you have known for several months as you heal.
Hemorrhoids are basically just blood veins that have become enlarged, and they are almost exactly the same thing as varicose veins. The only difference is hemorrhoids happen to your anus instead of your legs. For the most part, most hemorrhoids happen on the outside of the anus, and thus can be removed rather easily. Some however, do occur inside and take a little more work by the surgeon. In either case, because the surgery takes place in a part of the body that has a lot of nerves, there is a lot of pain, discomfort and itching involved. Much more so than before the surgery; but at least once it heals it will be gone for good. Well, unless it happens to you again at some point, but that is less likely if you follow your doctor’s instructions.
At any rate, for a hemorrhoidectomy, they put you to sleep, and when you wake up, you don’t feel a thing do to the pain killer meds they shoot right into your body while you are asleep. Once those meds wear off though, be prepared, because there is going to be some serious pain. Be sure you have your prescription pain killers filled out before they put you under, and take some of them before the other kind wears off. Also, if they don’t mention it, get in the bathtub and fill it up with the hottest water you can stand; that instantly mutes the pain by about ninety percent. They will tell you to take a bath three times a day, or sitz-baths, if you don’t have a bathtub.
Don’t take this talk about pain lightly; the pain from a hemorrhoidectomy is likely to be stronger, more intense and just more all consuming than anything else you’ve likely encountered. It’s enough to have you screaming, running around in tears. Seriously, it is bad. But if you take your pain pills ahead of time, and get into that bath tub when it’s bad, you should make it through.
Also, there is going to be some blood and seepage, since you can’t really bandage that part of your anatomy due to the need to defecate on a pretty regular basis.
And speaking of defecating, the smartest thing you can do is not eat for a couple of days before the surgery so you won’t have to defecate until your rectum has had some time to heal, which is good thing, because you can only imagine the pain that will occur if you have something pushing its way out of you in a place with millions of nerves were messed with and have stitches.
Fortunately, the horrible pain only lasts for about a day and a half or two days. After that it calms down dramatically. And then, after that it will be like a low throbbing pain, which is bearable. This will go on for several days, perhaps even as long as a week. After that, the itching will start as the wound tries to close. But they give you cream for that, so it’s not that bad.
And then, after that, you will just feel sensitive down there, especially after using the bathroom. This will go on for as long as a year or more, but again, it’s not that big of a problem, certainly not as bad as the hemorrhoids were, so count your blessings.
But fear not, there will eventually come a day when the whole affair will be a distant unpleasant memory, and you will have your life back once again.
