Anybody deal with hemmies

I can never spell the whole word, but hopefully you get the meaning.

I have hemmies that every so often give me problems for a couple of days (about every 3 years). But this time, it has been miserable. Since Monday, it hurts like h%ll. I had a doctor's appointment about this Thursday afternoon. It started to bleed a few hours before the appointment and he said it was thrombosed but was probably resolving. Well, I felt great Yesterday (about 90% resolved). Unfortunately, it is back today. Doc prescribed some cortisone type cream to use. If it doesn't get better, apparently I'll have to see the colon-rectal surgeon.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, it hurt to walk, lie down, cough, etc. I hope it is not getting to that point again. Especially since I go back to work Monday and then have to drive a few hours each way for my Umich appointment!

So, anyone ever have the surgery for external hemmrhoids? From what I read that's painful.

I am also wondering if this is another late SE from the SRT. Does anyone know if that could be true (I know SRT can irritate hemmies but not sure about late effects). That's

another reason why I would like to avoid surgery in that area.

Mel

The prescription hydrocortisone suppositories are pretty effective. Oh, and stool softeners are good, too.

Mel, sorry to hear about your troubles down there -- sure makes life miserable. I have mostly internal ones that I manage, but I have to be ever vigilant. I am almost obsessive about getting enough fiber in my diet. I use moist wipes almost all the time. I even carry a couple of the small, individual wipes with me when I am out of the house so I can use them at work or elsewhere. I had this problem prior to radiation but the radiation surely did not help matters. The one upside of radiation: it forced me to be more aggressive about fiber, using moisturized wipes, etc. Compared to radiation however, chemo was much worse for me as far as constipation goes. I had to be very aggressive with fiber. And, a couple of times, I had to break out the nuclear option: magnesium citrate.

I hear the surgery is quite painful. But, if you need it, there are drugs to help with that. Surgery is probably better than non-stop suffering. Good luck!

Mel, I also have those every few years and they're no fun. They go away over six weeks or so, and I use OTC cortisone cream and Prep H to assist. If its internal I use prescription cortisone suppositories but you can only use them so long.

I've never had full surgery, I hear that's very painful. But when I was younger and had a bad external hemmie my doctor excised it by cutting into the skin of just that one hemmie and pushing the clot out. Took 10 minutes, wasn't painful, and I just went home and rested for a few hours. Unfortunately, in a few days it came back. So I went back to the doc, who said he didn't slice enough, something like that, and repeated the procedure. This time it took and it didn't come back for many years. I only had minor spotty bleeding for about a week but no pain. I've never seen another doc for that procedure and don't know if it's still done but you might ask. If you find it is done, let me know, I might be interested in the future.

I've had both radiation proctitis and hemorrhoids, the hardest to spell word in the language.
When I had the proctitis, I thought it was hemorrhoids aggravated by radiation, so I went to my primary care doc who examined me. It was NOT fun. I should have just gone to my radiation oncologist, who later assured me he would not have subjected me to that, but just prescribed the analgesic foam (which worked fine). It was proctitis, not hemorrhoids. The proctitis went away fairly rapidly. I still have hemorrhoids.

So I would try to figure out which thing is bothering you--hemorrhoids or proctitis. The former is usually a chronic condition, the latter is usually transitory.

I would NOT go for surgery unless it's absolutely necessary. I had that surgery in the 80's, and maybe things have improved by now, but my recovery was miserable for the first few days. One of the worst times of my life. The only thing that gave me relief was morphine. Of course, this was in the military, and they have their own ways...and then add in the fact that I was having trouble with hemorrhoids within a year of surgery...

Anyway, over the years I have learned to manage hemorrhoids pretty successfully by doing the things suggested by posters above--increase fiber and fluid intake being the big thing. I also find a daily piping hot sitz bath (shallow, just enough to cover the affected area) and avoiding dry toilet paper at all costs, keeps me very happy. The medicated or pre-moistened wipes work for some people--but I find the best solution is to just moisten the TP before use. Everyone carries water bottles everywhere these days, so if you're away from home, it's not a big deal. If I have a flare-up in spite of all that, I use an OTC ointment that contains Pramoxine, a powerful topical analgesic. You can find it in Tucks and Tronolane preparations in the U.S. I find Prep H to be messy, smelly, and not as effective. But maybe that's just me.

Best wishes.

Mel,

Perhaps clotrimazole and betamethasone, (Lotrisone) might help. I' 've had similar issues in the past and after a day or 2 of this cream I was fine. Takes a prescription, so check with your doc.

Jerry L