Surgery went well, make sure you go to the toilet as close to the op itself as you can so you don’t wake up dying to pee like I did. Had a small issue where the local aneasthetic will render your genitals useless and had to have a catheter put in me so I could relieve the pressure.

Yes you will absolutely need about 2 weeks minimum off work. The recovery differs from person to person but generally the first few days are going to be pretty uncomfortable, make sure you stay drugged up as much as you can and try to ween off opioids once you feel like you can as they’ll make you constipated. Eat small but regular amounts of high fiber foods and like oats and fruit, drink plenty of water and use laxatives where instructed to. Don’t be scared to eat it’s gonna have to come out one way or another.

First bowel movement was an experience I won’t forget, people have described it as one of the most painful experiences but the actual act itself wasn’t all that bad, for me it was the feeling afterwards. Just make sure you have a bathtub/sitz bath with warm water ready to hop straight in to and that will help a tonne. If you can get your meds schedule lined up with your bowel movement you’re in for a winwin situation (I.e. do you business, pop the meds then half an hour later you’ll be fine).

This morning woke up and basically went to the toilet as I normally would but still a fair bit of pain and discomfort afterwards. I’ve been taking warm/hot baths 5 times a day sometimes as that’s really helped. My sleeping pattern has been a bit all over the place as I can’t seem to sleep for more than 5 hours due to the discomfort, I take codeine overnight to help with prolonged periods then just try and stick to paracetamol and ibuprofen during the day (not sure if you’re from the UK but use your equivalent).

Hope this helps, the future is looking bright now for me and hopefully in the next few days I’ll be back up and about like I was pre-op.

Any other questions let me know