HPV Support Group
Human papillomavirus is a diverse group of DNA-based viruses that infect the skin and mucous membranes of humans. More than 100 different human papillomavirus (HPV) types have been characterized. Some HPV types cause benign skin warts, or papillomas, for which the virus family is named. HPVs associated with the development of such "common warts" are transmitted...
Hi All,
First, please excuse any pain-med induced lack of clarity in this message; I'll try to keep it brief.
Second, thanks so much to the whole community for the support given in public messages, private ones (especially one very, very sweet and supportive member who takes time to write even through his own anxiety to bolster my spirits), and just its general existence.
I just wanted to let everyone know I'm back home this afternoon and recovering nicely so far from laser surgery to remove internal HPV-caused anal warts. Right now, as I can feel the pain of the local/block anesthesia around my anus wearing off, some pain is kicking in there, but, honestly--the worst pain so far has been the soreness in my groin/inner thigh muscles from the position they need to keep you in to do the surgery. All the female nurses were (nicely, professionally) joking that this is always what male patients mention first when coming awake from the anesthesia--men's hips aren't built for holding this position for long.
So, for any fellas, especially, going in for this: do some groin stretches for a few weeks beforehand. :-)
I am, frankly, dreading my first "real" bowel movement based on some of what I've read here. But when i related those stories to my surgeon, she said that those were not unheard of, but not the norm. So sorry for those who've experienced that. I'll let you know how it, um, goes.
Started on liquid diet (lots of protein smoothies) last night, and have already taken stool softeners, so here's hoping.....
There's been some bleeding, post-op. Not fun, but not bad. I'm trying not to be embarassed about it. My (amazing) wife asked to see the pad I'm wearing (good empathy prep for when I'm an old geezer, I guess), so she could see what I was dealing with, and said, "Oh, okay--that's really not much worse than any woman who has a heavy menstrual flow." Of course, I'll expect more after the first real bm.
Sitz baths ready to go. Liquid foods and pain meds stocked in. Spirits relatively high.
Good wishes for health to all of you out there. I hope my "post-op" journal over the coming week can be of some use to those of you weighing or about to undergo the same thing. (Also will have biopsy results in a week or so and will report...)
First, please excuse any pain-med induced lack of clarity in this message; I'll try to keep it brief.
Second, thanks so much to the whole community for the support given in public messages, private ones (especially one very, very sweet and supportive member who takes time to write even through his own anxiety to bolster my spirits), and just its general existence.
I just wanted to let everyone know I'm back home this afternoon and recovering nicely so far from laser surgery to remove internal HPV-caused anal warts. Right now, as I can feel the pain of the local/block anesthesia around my anus wearing off, some pain is kicking in there, but, honestly--the worst pain so far has been the soreness in my groin/inner thigh muscles from the position they need to keep you in to do the surgery. All the female nurses were (nicely, professionally) joking that this is always what male patients mention first when coming awake from the anesthesia--men's hips aren't built for holding this position for long.
So, for any fellas, especially, going in for this: do some groin stretches for a few weeks beforehand. :-)
I am, frankly, dreading my first "real" bowel movement based on some of what I've read here. But when i related those stories to my surgeon, she said that those were not unheard of, but not the norm. So sorry for those who've experienced that. I'll let you know how it, um, goes.
Started on liquid diet (lots of protein smoothies) last night, and have already taken stool softeners, so here's hoping.....
There's been some bleeding, post-op. Not fun, but not bad. I'm trying not to be embarassed about it. My (amazing) wife asked to see the pad I'm wearing (good empathy prep for when I'm an old geezer, I guess), so she could see what I was dealing with, and said, "Oh, okay--that's really not much worse than any woman who has a heavy menstrual flow." Of course, I'll expect more after the first real bm.
Sitz baths ready to go. Liquid foods and pain meds stocked in. Spirits relatively high.
Good wishes for health to all of you out there. I hope my "post-op" journal over the coming week can be of some use to those of you weighing or about to undergo the same thing. (Also will have biopsy results in a week or so and will report...)
Sorry to report that within a few hours after posting that last message last Friday, my first post-surgery update, things took a marked downturn.
Within a few hours, I spiked and kept a high fever (up to 102.5), had uncontrollable shivering chills, and began experiencing painful scrotal and perianal edema. By early last Saturday morning, after consulting with my doctor on the phone, I was back at the emergency room, and then shortly admitted to the hospital.
I want to stress to everyone here that what happened to me, and what I'm about to describe, is NOT a result of HPV itself. It is not, even, a statistically significant risk for an adverse outcome for the HPV laser wart removal surgery of perianal warts. It is, simply, a risk of surgery in general. As with having contracted HPV in the first place, the odds just ran against me. So while those of you considering laser removal for anal warts should weigh the types of things I experienced into your decision, I URGE you not to weigh it too heavily. Just be sure you go over all the risks of surgery in general with your doctors and make your own informed decisions.
The only thing that was noticeably odd during the surgery, and that perhaps I could have affected, was an unexpectedly high level of bleeding at the sites of several of the wart removals, causing the surgeon to continue to stop and clean up/cauterize more often than she says is normally the case. It's POSSIBLE, that the Fish-Oil/Omega 3 supplements I had been taking for months, up until a week before the surgery, when I stopped all supplements and meds, as directed, had an impact on my bleeding and clotting rates. Fish-Oil and Vitamin E are both known to have this effect. (News to me.) If you're considering surgery, be sure to stop everything that could make you bleed more easily, longer, etc. This includes (especially) aspirin and all ibuprofen products (e.g. Advil, Motrin), and also things like Vitamin E (supplements, topical oil, etc.)
Also be sure that your system is a clear as you can possibly know it to be of any/all bacterial infections. If you (and/or your partner) has had digestive issues, yeast infections, other candida, athlete's foot, jock itch, whatever--you may want to talk to your doctor about rescheduling.
What seems to have happened to me--we'll never know for sure--is that I picked up a "transient bacterial infection" either during or just after surgery. Something I could have brought in with my on my skin or in my gut, something that I could have picked up at the hospital (of course, this is my theory, and it is common), something I got right away in the few hours I was home. Whatever it was, it took advantage of my having just had surgery and struck my system hard and fast.
I spent four nights/five days in the hospital, getting excellent care, hooked up to more or less round-the-clock IV cycles of three different broad spectrum antibiotics (Cipro, Flagyl, Vanco), and on Oxycodone, Tylenol, stool softeners, and mild laxatives.
Before the antibiotics began to beat it back, the scrotal/perianal swelling had gotten so severe that you could say without any exaggeration that my scrotum was the size of a large grapefruit. Walking was out of the question for more than day; standing was tough, moving was always painful. Urination was nearly impossible at times, but we managed not to have to insert a catheter.
In addition to the effects of the perianal swelling, the constipating effects of Oxy made moving my bowels--already a concern for me after the surgery itself--something that both my body and mind were keeping very much off the agenda for a few days. Ultimately, yes, nature must take its course, pain or no, and things moved. Painfully. Very painfully. But, ultimately, survivable.
Can't stress enough the importance of starting on the stool softeners and upping your fluid intake well before the surgery, folks. Even if all goes well for you, as it should, you'll thank me.
Was discharged home two days ago and am recovering, now, very quickly--from the post-surgery complications and from the surgery itself. Still not very mobile, but in far less pain. Having a support system--spouse, partner, friend(s), family members--will be absolutely essential to anyone's recovery: you will NOT be able to look after yourself at first.
The prognosis on the surgery site itself continue to be good. Best of all, the biopsy results are in and I do not appear to have the strains of HPV that are higher-risk for cancer. (And all other blood tests come back gram negative for the truly scary bacterials like MRSA.)
Would I do this over again? Yes. I would, of course, try to take a few more precautions against infection and against surgical bleeding. But there's very little I really could have done on those, just as there was very little I could of done beyond what I already did in terms of safer sex to avoid getting HPV in the first place.
I'm also struck by the fact that as awful as what I went through was, it is the kind of thing that many, many people go through every week, over and over, dealing with chronic conditions and surgeries, from various kinds of cancer to chronic pain conditions, to digestive ailments, etc. I was going through it because of bad odds in a procedure being used to treat a TREATABLE (even, arguably, "curable") condition. HPV isn't going to kill me. And, in all likelihood, this time next year or the year after I'll be essentially done with it. I was reminded this week just how hard it must be to have an actually serious, chronic, debilitating illness or condition--with no sense of a cure really in sight, and/or with one's life on the life.
We are, here in this HPV community, so, so lucky. We are not in those categories. We can handle this.
Questions?--I'll do my best. Thanks for the good thoughts.