TMI ALERT - Hemorroid AND diarrhea at 34 weeks... heeeelp!

[PrincessWinnie]

Ugh, so from about week 10 until week 28, I had some minor constipation. Not nearly as bad as some poor ladies on here, but enough where I had to VERY carefully watch my fiber and water intake for the first time in my life or.... well, you know.

Then from week 28 until early this week (I'm 34 weeks), everything went normal.... PHEW.... but I noticed some pain and swelling in my rear and realized I had a small hemorroid.

On Monday morning I started having some diarrhea twice a day, and yesterday it was just once. So between the hemorroid and the diarrhea it's literally a HUGE pain in the rear. I started using the Tucks pads and bought some cream yesterday to help things out. I started eating bananas, coconut water, and a glass of Kefir each day and am also taking a probiotic by mouth. It's *okay* but a not a huge amount of improvement. I'm resigned to dealing with this for the next 6 weeks since I know it's pretty rare for hemorroids to go away this late in pregnancy but more likely will go away post-partum. However if there's ANYthing else I can do to relieve the pressure and pain, PLUS help with the diarrhea I'd feel a little more positive. The baby is sitting low and the pressure down there has been considerable on my bladder and perineum anyway so I figured things are just getting crowded and the blood flow is making things go a little crazy.

Anyone have any experience with this or have any advice??

[greenmulberry]

When the pain gets really bad and you just can't think of anything else, hold an ice cube on it for as long as you can stand (this is not pleasant either). It shrinks the roid and will give you some relief. (I advise sitting on the toilet for this)

There was a time when I had to do this every night just to be able to get some sleep. My roid seems to mostly have gone away by by now, but it was driving me insane for a while.

[lillymonster]

B-6, if you are not taking it. I had severe hemmoriods from zofran. I went off the zofran, but I had to have surgery to have one removed at 20 weeks - it was pretty bad because they really can't give you pain medication. Then I kept rupturing the site. Ugh not fun....but all my reading I found 100 mg of b-6 for a few weeks will help them. Also I think I read to take Vit C and E for healing and strengthening. I am 37 weeks and haven't had a hemmoroid in weeks and the incision area is finally healing up. Most of the sites I found mentioning it were more home remedy sites, but I found some medical sites that said it could be lack of b-6 or b complex vitamins and I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.

[myk]

i have a gargantuan hemorrhoid after having two rounds of Clostridium difficile infection (nasty nasty gut bug) and the resulting diarrhea. tucks/witch hazel pads helped a little bit, but not much. i got Anusol Plus hemorrhoid ointment - it contains something to help shrink the hemorrhoid and something to numb the area. it helped much more. if it's a hemorrhoid that normally would be located inside, but has prolapsed (come out through the anus), you can apply the ointment and gently push the hemorrhoid back into the rectum where it belongs, where it will feel a hundred times better, i guarantee it. also, a sitz bath - a specially designed bowl that hangs on your toilet, you fill it with warm water and sit in it for a while, it helps with circulation (also good for postpartum relief). ice cubes either make things better (by reducing inflammation) or worse, i'm not sure why. a warm tub with epsom salts is almost as good as a sitz bath.

mine actually got so bad that i went to the doctor for prescription ointments. there's one that's pretty similar to Anusol but has hydrocortisone in it to act as an anti-inflammatory.

and i eat a lot of oatmeal - the soluble fibre soaks up a lot of the excess water in the stool, so instead of liquidy it became more like oatmeal-textured, and along with the diarrhea cramps improved tremendously. some people say oatmeal makes them worse, but in my case, oatmeal helps both constipation and diarrhea. it makes things more normal either way. \

hope you feel better!

[PrincessWinnie]

So the 100 mg dosage of B6 is not an issue in late pregnancy? I'm ready to try anything, and this is not the first account I've heard of b6 making a dramatic improvement.

Originally Posted by lillymonster 

B-6, if you are not taking it. I had severe hemmoriods from zofran. I went off the zofran, but I had to have surgery to have one removed at 20 weeks - it was pretty bad because they really can't give you pain medication. Then I kept rupturing the site. Ugh not fun....but all my reading I found 100 mg of b-6 for a few weeks will help them. Also I think I read to take Vit C and E for healing and strengthening. I am 37 weeks and haven't had a hemmoroid in weeks and the incision area is finally healing up. Most of the sites I found mentioning it were more home remedy sites, but I found some medical sites that said it could be lack of b-6 or b complex vitamins and I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.

[lillymonster]

My midwife said not to go above 200 mg. I know b-6 is a treatment for hypermesis and I was taking it for that, and some women have it their entire pregnancy. Usually the amount for hypermesis is around 75mg. I have also read 50 mg is enough, I plan one more week on 100mg, then going down to 50 mg.

Originally Posted by PrincessWinnie 

So the 100 mg dosage of B6 is not an issue in late pregnancy? I'm ready to try anything, and this is not the first account I've heard of b6 making a dramatic improvement.

Originally Posted by lillymonster 

B-6, if you are not taking it. I had severe hemmoriods from zofran. I went off the zofran, but I had to have surgery to have one removed at 20 weeks - it was pretty bad because they really can't give you pain medication. Then I kept rupturing the site. Ugh not fun....but all my reading I found 100 mg of b-6 for a few weeks will help them. Also I think I read to take Vit C and E for healing and strengthening. I am 37 weeks and haven't had a hemmoroid in weeks and the incision area is finally healing up. Most of the sites I found mentioning it were more home remedy sites, but I found some medical sites that said it could be lack of b-6 or b complex vitamins and I figured it wouldn't hurt to try it.