I wanted to give everybody an update about my progress. I don’t know if anybody cares, but I cared to hear about other peoples progress to know whether my situation was unique or par for course when I was going through this difficult recovery. My surgery was April 12, 2022. I had multiple large external hemorrhoids removed. My course was, at the beginning, mostly like everybody else’s experience. Extreme pain for the first two weeks. I was in still significant pain up until 5 weeks. I saw my surgeon about a month after the surgery and I was worried because I was still having such significant pain with stooling. I just gave it another week and my pain improved pretty quickly over a few days after about the five week mark. I still have pain now but it’s definitely a lot more tolerable and I can actually have somewhat normal bowel movements. I take Metamucil daily, docusate twice daily, 220 mg of Aleve twice daily. I stay away from processed foods, which I normally do anyway, cut out dairy products.

A sitz bath is a must to keep yourself clean and also to help improve pain.

The only thing that really helped my pain significantly during the first two weeks was to sit in semi-scalding water in the bathtub.

Semi standing/squatting over the toilet also made it easier to stool and have less pain.

I was given the go ahead to use topical lidocaine 5% cream and also a waterbase lubricant that I could put in and around my anus before I stooled which seemed to help a lot.

Feel free to ask me any questions

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