http://www.democraticunderground.com/1147796Oh my.
auntAgonist (16,367 posts)
After months of trying every remedy in the book, 3 different doctors and a 6 day stint in the hospital I FINALLY had surgery yesterday (22nd).
I had lost so much blood I required iron infusions and IV potassium and mineral drips. When everything failed to help my general surgeon who didn't feel comfortable operating on me sent me to a Colorectal surgeon.
He performed a sphincterotomy because the fissures were getting bigger and not healing causing unbearable pain. I also had a partial pro-lapsed rectum so he removed tissue and tucked and stitched the rest high up where it belonged. He banded some internal hemorrhoids.
I'm taking percocet and diazepam (Valium) for pain and sedation, they work well when I keep up on it but if I go longer than the prescribed time it's so bad ..
8 months it took to find a Dr who would believe how horrible this was. I almost lost my job for having to take more than my 40hrs allotted sick time. I used all of what vacation time I had as well. I'm off work for one week, unpaid time more if I need it. Thank the gods I have a husband who works full time and we can manage.
Okay, franksolich thinks this is not quite the truth, and is willing to bet the bank on it.
The primitive was just too shy to let a physician look up her nether region, which is why the problem went on for so long, and got worse. Or she liked the drugs he gave her.
Even a blind physician can see rectal fissures....if the patient allows him to look up into the nether region.
More on this later; first, the other primitives (there's CalPig, not worth quoting, and then the defrocked warped primitive, who's meaner and uglier than a snake):
Warpy (64,308 posts)
3. OUCH
that first BM is going to feel like rusty razor blades, barbed wire and broken bottles but you should heal pretty quickly after that. Just take those stool softeners and take a laxative if it's offered. They do make it easier but it will still suck the first time.
The worst thing about all this, you realize, is that you're not going to be able to show anyone your scar unless you dislike them enough to moon them.
I always gave out pain medicine on time around the clock for the first two days and then made it as needed. I wish doctors would write it this way. You don't need to be awakened for sleeping pills but you do need to be awakened for pain medication.
You had a lot of damage in there. Congratulations on being able to avoid a colostomy, not the end of the world but just another pain in the neck to deal with.
auntAgonist (16,367 posts)
4. I'm really thankful for a specialized surgeon. He does have me taking miralax so that when I do 'go' it won't be as bad as it could be (I hope)
He wrote my percocet as 1 every 3 hours for the first 3 days post op so I'm trying to stick to that. Through the night I woke up and my pills were downstairs so i didn't go get them bad move!
I just want it to be done with.
KC (1,319 posts)
5. Do make sure to take the Miralax because the Percocet can sure cause constipation and you sure don't want or need that right now!
Okay, franksolich has a story to tell.
When franksolich was 18 years old, he developed haemorrhoids. Haemorrhoids ran in my family, and I was concerned about it. I'd seen how it made the parents, and brothers and sisters, all whiny and grouchy.
I didn't want to have anything to do with haemorrhoids; I wanted them out of there.
I was a freshman/sophomore at the University of Nebraska at the time, and went to the student health center where a physician, after looking up in there, told me to take Preparation H and because it was rather bad, also prescribed Darvon.
I threw the Darvon into the trash can outside the student health center as I left; Darvon's just a pain-killer, and I was interested in getting rid of the haemorrhoids, not in alleviating any pain. The pain after all would go away after one got rid of the problem.
Well, the problem was still there, even after copious doses of Preparation H, both the cream and the bullets.
The physician at the student health center told me to keep using the Preparation H, and since the pain looked pretty intense, this time prescribed not mere Percocet, but the stronger Percodan. I thew the bottle of Percodan into the trash can as I left the building; it was just a pain-killer, and I was more interested in getting rid of the haemorrhoids, which had now fissured.
Finally I went to see the old country physician out in the Sandhills, who'd treated me since childhood.
He told me to drop my pants, bend over, and then he looked in there.
He said I was all fissured up in there, and instructed me to stay in the position I was.
And then he jammed in a glass rod, dipped in either silver nitrate or nitric acid (I dunno which it was).
Problem solved; fissures sealed up, haemorrhoids gone. Immediate relief.
He told me to put lots of fiber and roughage--the more, the better--into the diet, and I wouldn't have to deal with the problem any more, the rest of my life.
He was right; that was thirty years ago, and even though at times I've had jobs conducive to the development of haemorrhoids (governmental desk-sitting jobs), that remains the one and only time in my life I've had to deal with them.
I suspect the antagonistic primitive let the problem go on because she's shy and wouldn't let a physician look up there, or liked getting those drugs.
