Hemroids grow at different speeds and to different sizes
For example, and it is my own personal example of how FAST hemroids can grow:
Wednesday – just prior to Easter – went to toilet at 7am, everything normal and fine, no straining that I recall. No problem experienced at the time, but by 10am a 4cm long, massively swollen hemroid, when there had been none before, causing some significant disconcerting level of pain.
Thursday, the hemroid hadn’t grown any bigger but hadn’t shrunk at all. So I applied apple cider vinegar briefly and used the wife’s old hemroid cream with a pain deadening ingredient and hydrocortisone – the apple cider vinegar helped more than the cream, stung a bit for a few minutes, but then the relief set in. Later applied it on a rang out cotton ball, and left it in place for 30 minutes and it was quite relieving.
Friday, the hemroid had shrunk in length by 1/3, so applied the apple cider vinegar on the cotton ball again and left it in place again, but accidentally left it on for an hour.
Saturday, no change in size of the hemroid, though it felt less full to the touch. BUT, the hemroid symptoms expanded quickly. The blood loss quickly escalated to about 100ml in the toilet bowel – I just watched and could feel all this stuff (blood and clots) just pouring out for about five minutes – not dripping, a flowing stream of blood – if that weren’t enough, the external hemroid also started profusely bleeding.
Sunday, bleed through into clothes and through clothing resulted in several changes of clothing, using the wife’s pad on the undies caught much of it, but some still leaked through.
Sunday night, the hemroid is less painful, it isn’t bleeding as much tonight as it was earlier, and I am trying to avoid moving as much as possible to allow the area to heal. Getting by with less pain killers and no hemroid pain cream on Thursday. Hemroid is feeling damaged to the touch, it is bleeding still, still enough to bleed through, but lessening as well, and it is feeling less swollen though it’s length has not reduced. no blood loss when sitting on toilet, except during a bowel motion.
Still causing some level of discomfort after 1 week, but completely gone and healed by the end of the second week. Amazingly fast growing and amazingly fast healing.
There was another symptom too that I experienced, minor back pain for a very short time, as well as some bottom cheek pain.
So you can see, hemroids and hemroid symptoms can grow very, very fast.
Hemroids can also grow very slowly.
When I have had hemroids before, they have been much slower growing, much smaller, and bleeding was never like that. Even the thrombosed hemroid, although more painful, was much less trouble. Internal hemroids normally take a while to grow through the opening so to speak, and external hemroids normally appear as tiny lumps, and if looked after grow no bigger and may go away of their own accord – same for internal hemroids, but they can also sprout and grow like the dickens!
So, no hard and fast rule, except look after yourself and avoid aggravating the area as much as possible.
What did the doctors say:
The doctor said the symptoms came and went far too quickly and that the blood loss I experienced from inside was far from normal and referred me to a surgeon for a colonoscopy. It was about 7 months before the surgeon did the procedure – and although he believed it was either hemorrhoids or possible cancerous polyps – when he looked he found a perfectly healthy colon. So yes, doing what I did had incredible healing results for my hemorrhoids, but because they cleared up so well and so fast and the symptoms had been so remarkable and out of the ordinary, I still had to have a colonoscopy just to make sure. And Yes, I am well pleased to have had the colonoscopy and had all the nasties ruled out.
I’ll be adding more on colonoscopy to this site, so stay tuned as they say. In a nutshell:
The colonoscopy for polyps and hemroids
First day very restricted foods: low calorie plain yoghurt, eggs, clear fruit juice, water, low calorie lemonade, skim milk, black tea or coffee.
Second day: Clear fluids only eg apple juice, pear juice, white grape juice, low calorie lemonade, black coffee, black tea, water and follow directions for taking the bowels cleansing treatments – in my case 1 blue sachet in one glass water, a yellow sachet in 1 litre of water and a blue sachet again in one glass of water – all spaced about 2 hours apart.
Third day, fasting – no fluids, no foods, nothing. Prior to going to hospital use the given chemicals for washing every crease and fold and all of of your body. As arranged previously, go to hospital, get booked in, wait. Get interviewed then get changed into surgery clothing, wait again, get taken to waiting ward, get asked same questions again, wait again. Get wheeled into surgical theatre, get injection and immediately asleep. They then inflate the bowel with air, the tube with camera is then moved up through the back area until the doctor is satisfied he has seen what is to see. If he sees something out of the ordinary, he will take a sample – if he sees hemroids he will band or inject them. You then are taken to a holding place to wake up, then to the recovery room where you are offered food and drink and eventually you are released after the doctor has given you his findings. However, after a colonoscopy you are not allowed to drive for the rest of the day nor the following day and they wont do the colonoscopy unless a responsible adult is able to drive you home and look after you over that time. If you don’t have a responsible adult, you are given the opportunity to arrange for a ‘hospital nominated’ carer to take you their place until the recovery period is fully over.
During this colonoscopy process, most of the people you meet will be nice. So if you are feeling cold ask for blanket, if the robe doesn’t have a tie ask for one. Honestly, the blanket serves not ony to keep you warm but to cover you in your see through apparel when sitting down. If you cant do the knot and bow in the back of the surgical gown, ask a nurse to do it for you – if you put it on back to front, you will have to take it off and put it back on correctly while waiting outside the surgery room. I got one bad nurse looking after me for a tiny part – she was obviously disgruntled by her antagonistic manner to another staff person and although she and another nurse pushed the trolley into the surgery ward, she still managed to bang the rear of my trolley into the door rather hard and the other nurse asked her what did you do, and she replied the door was not open right – in other words she wasn’t looking where she was going. Even thought she may have done it deliberate and been wondering should I sue her and the hospital for assault. Anyway, the anaesthetist was very nice and the surgeon I believe was competent. In the recovery room I saw a side of hospital life I didn’t like. Doctor and nurse flirting, one gave her phone number and made a comment about expecting something back and the doctor quibbed a bottle of whiskey.
So in terms of professionalism, the hospital obviously lost points, but still had some really nice dedicated staff that made you feel nearly ok in spite of the unprofessionalism. Would love to report the bad, but if I needed hospital treatment, being in a country town with only 1 hospital, well, not a great idea. Instead I’ll wait for natural justice to prevail. Sooner or later these unprofessionals will be noticed and sanctioned or sued.
Donald S. Urquhart, non-practising psychologist (registered, but retired)
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