The Day of Out-Patient Surgery

These are instructions for post-operative care following your outpatient rectal operation. It is important that you read and follow these instructions for best results:

1. 1. When you return home from surgery, we suggest that you consume liquids or light food (soups, Jell-O, etc.) if your stomach feels okay.
   
   
2. 2. Keep the dressing that was placed on the wound during surgery in place for 4-6 hours. Keep an ice bag on the anal area for the first 4-6 hours following surgery. This will help reduce the amount of swelling. After that time, remove the dressing.
   
   
3. 3. You may have a small amount of bleeding and/or drainage. THIS IS NORMAL. You can have some minimal bleeding up to three months after the procedure. Rarely, if the dressing is saturated with blood, place a thin pad and sit on a frozen hotdog or peas. Reexamine the area for bleeding. If you have more than a cup of clotted blood from your rectum, at any time, call me or my nurse. If you can not reach either of us go to the nearest emergency room so that we can determine if the bleeding will require additional treatment.
   
   
4. 4. If the dressing is dry or only has a few spots of blood, you may begin taking hot baths every four hours for 5 minutes per bath during the first 24-48 hours following surgery. (Dr.  McConnell encourages you not to soak the wound and would prefer you keep the area dry and use a warm compress or a frozen hotdog to control the pain.) (The only dressing needed between these baths is a Kotex mini-pad or sterile gauze.) This will help decrease the pain. If you have little or no pain, take the hot baths only after stooling to keep the area clean.
   
   
5. 5. If you do not have kidney problems or an allergy to ibuprofen, the medication you have been prescribed is Toradol. You are to take one pill every six hours until you have used all of them. You will be given a total of 12 pills. These pills are for pain and swelling. So even if you have no pain, take them every six hours.
   
   
6. 6. If you have pain, take 1-2 tablets of your other prescription pain medication every 4-6 hours. Take the first tablets as the local anesthetic wears off. DO NOT wait until the pain is severe before taking the pain medication. It is best to take the medication with food or liquids. DO NOT drink alcoholic beverages while taking the pain medication.
   
   
7. 7. If the pain is severe and not well controlled with other medications, you have been provided a prescription of either a cream preparation or a patch or possibly both prescriptions. The patch is to be used as directed and is left on for three days. The cream can be applied around the anus or near the incision up to four times per day. The cream can be purchased at the office.
   
   
8. 8. If the pain is increasing and you are having fevers, chills or sweats, call me or my nurse.
   
   
9. 9. It is important that you urinate the evening of the day of surgery. DO NOT wait until your bladder feels uncomfortably full. If you cannot urinate normally, try to do so either in the shower or bath tub. This will not hurt the wounds. DO NOT over hydrate yourself trying to urinate; drink only your usual amount of liquids.
   
   
10. 10. If you have not urinated even by sitting in the tub or any other method within six hours of your procedure, immediately call me or my nurse.

General Instructions:

1. 1. DO NOT drive if you are taking the narcotic prescriptions for pain following surgery, and DO NOT drive if you feel weak or lightheaded or are taking pain medication more often than every six hours.
   
   
2. 2. NEVER mix pain medication with alcohol.
   
   
3. 3. Except for your pain medication prescription, all medications listed above (Metamucil, Konsyl, Surfak, plain Fleet Enema, Senokot and FiberCon) are available at your local drug store without a prescription.