Posts by Grace Martinez56

I honestly don't know how people find the mental strength to compete at that level. Seeing someone consistently hit the podium through sheer grit is honestly inspiring. Does anyone else find themselves getting sucked into following specific niche sports just for the drama of the competition?

No, I mean actual soup-based meals, not that thick, blended puree stuff.

The pureed kind can sometimes mess with your system, but you really want to be sticking to light soups, stews, and veggies. 👍

I really just want to offer a little glimmer of hope to anyone who suddenly finds themselves dealing with a massive external hemorrhoid, maybe with a few smaller ones hanging around too, because I know how much it sucks. It feels incredibly painful and uncomfortable, and you honestly start to believe they’re going to haunt you forever, but it turns out they can actually clear up if you just stay on top of things with some decent creams and keeping yourself clean more often—like, every few hours if you can manage it.
For me, this whole ordeal dragged on for about a month and a half to two months, but now? There isn't even a trace left of them, knock on wood, and honestly, I was fully prepared to go through whatever intense surgical procedure was necessary just to make the pain stop.

Even just being part of this thread helped me cope a bit better, mostly because it's pretty obvious how common this is, and there are actually some genuinely solid pieces of advice floating around here.

Chloe Gomez6 I don’t know, maybe I’m just getting older and more cynical, but does anyone else feel like we’re all just circling the drain lately? It feels like every time you turn around, there’s some new crisis or some massive corporation like Goldman Sachs making moves that somehow end up hitting our wallets directly. You look at the news and it’s just one thing after another, isn't it? Like, how are we supposed to stay sane when everything feels so volatile? I was sitting there thinking about it earlier—just staring out the window, wondering if anyone actually has a plan for this mess—and honestly, it just makes you want to retreat into a quiet little small town in the US and forget the whole circus exists. But then again, even there, you can't really escape the reach of everything, can you? It's exhausting, truly. Just constant noise and constant movement without any real direction. Is it just me, or is the whole vibe of the country just... off? I don't know, maybe I'm just getting old and cynical, but does anyone else feel like we're all just spinning our wheels lately? It feels like everything is constantly shifting under our feet, doesn't it? One day you think you've got a handle on things, and the next, the whole landscape looks different. Is it just me, or is there this general sense of exhaustion settling in everywhere? It’s hard to stay optimistic when it feels like you're constantly reacting to the latest chaos instead of actually living your life. Honestly, sometimes I wonder if we're all just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Does that make any sense, or am I just overthinking the whole mess?
Who on earth actually suggested Pilex to you? Was it someone from the local neighborhood group? Because honestly, all I’ve ever heard about Pilex comes from those obnoxious TV commercials or from some sketchy characters lurking around this forum.

So, I was chatting with someone over at Pfizer the other day, and they were giving me the lowdown on how certain medications work. They mentioned that while some people find relief almost instantly, for others, it’s like taking nothing at all—it just doesn't touch the problem. It really makes you wonder, doesn't it? Why is it that one person can take a pill and feel better in minutes, while someone else is left staring at the clock waiting for a miracle that never comes? It’s all so unpredictable.
Honestly, they just completely retreated on me, which actually caught me off guard because of how massive they were and just how many there were in total—I didn't even get a chance to reach for the Pilexa before they vanished. Still, I'm playing it safe and messing around with that FactSet ointment, just in case things decide to act up again.

William Moore142 said:...

William Moore142, you seriously need to grab some antibiotics, man—this isn't exactly the kind of thing you want to just sleep off. You’ll probably need an antibiotic cream too, but honestly, you should just get a hold of your doctor before you try anything else. And for heaven's sake, just keep washing it, over and over, with plain lukewarm water. It sounds simple, but it really is that important.

rapidraven4 said:Is there any chance that if they're just small... I mean, maybe there's some little external thing you could just get rid of so they're gone for good?
Or at least have them fade away so they aren't sticking out so much...🤣

Of course there is; I'm assuming we're talking about staying active, keeping things clean, watching what you eat, all that stuff...

In my experience, they've actually cleared up on their own a few times—usually because of a bout of diarrhea or just dealing with some really hard stools.

Oh, Jessica Grant56, you really have a way of making me feel better... I’m just crossing my fingers that I won't have to live with these things for too long, especially since we actually have decent medical options and decent food these days...

Thanks for the tip, really, and I did try it, but honestly? It feels like that biggest one—the one heading toward my rectum—didn't actually come from the inside, it just seems to be growing right on the skin.

Since this isn't some chronic thing for me, just a rare, occasional nuisance, I guess I'll try to stay optimistic and hope they just... dissolve? I read somewhere once that for some people, they just vanished after a month or two.
I'll just sit here patiently, chanting my little mantras while applying every ointment and compress I can find, but honestly, if they aren't gone in a few months, I'm going for that less painful removal method—just as soon as I manage to get my credit score up enough to afford it.
Tomorrow I'm heading out to pick up some Pilex; apparently, some people swear by it even if it didn't do much for you... I suppose we're all built differently, so I'll stick to the conservative stuff first. As long as the inflammation is gone, I can actually think straight again, because when they're inflamed, the pain hits your brain so hard you just want to be anesthetized from the waist up.

Did I mention that I've basically declared total war on them? ☕

I actually have a question of my own to throw into the mix here.

The very first time I dealt with hemorrhoids was right after my first child was born, though honestly, I didn't even realize that was what was happening at the time; I just assumed that excruciating pain was coming from the stitches. That first bowel movement after giving birth? It was arguably more brutal than the actual labor itself.

My entire postpartum recovery basically just boiled down to managing hemorrhoids, because everything else seemed to settle itself back into place pretty quickly.
I used some over-the-counter cream from the drugstore and managed to get rid of them within about a month. By the time my second baby came along, I was a bit wiser and stuck to taking Dulcolax, which kept things significantly more manageable.

But then, about a week ago—likely due to sitting far too long at the office (and those rushed trips to the bathroom because there’s always a kid needing something right at that exact moment 🙄)—a whole cluster of external hemorrhoids flared up on me. One of them is about the size of my upper thumb, and the other three or four are roughly the size of peas.

Now, I haven't a clue what the "normal" size range is for external hemorrhoids, but trust me, this feels massive to me. I’ve been reading some forums where people claim they can grow to the size of a tangerine, or maybe even the size of a fist... I can't even begin to imagine that nightmare.😕
The absolute worst part was the inflammation; the pain was so sharp it actually brought tears to my eyes. I couldn't sleep at night, walking was a struggle, sitting was pure torture, and yet I had to be at my desk for ten hours a day because of a sudden spike in my workload. I ended up sitting on cold compresses from CVS just to endure it. A little numbing helps, I suppose. I think one of them might have actually ruptured slightly, which brought a bit of relief, though it hasn't quite deflated yet.
I couldn't even make it in to see my doctor, so I just called her office, and she told me they were probably just inflamed. She prescribed me Claritin once a day, twice daily for a week, along with some FactSet ointment and suppositories. The inflammation subsided after two days and the pain became bearable, but there's still this lingering, uncomfortable sensation since they're still protruding.
I heard somewhere that you're supposed to manually push them back inside if you want them to actually disappear, but frankly, I'm terrified to even poke around near there.

I mean, I guess I can live with it as long as it doesn't hurt and my movements stay regular; for now, I'm just sticking to the FactSet ointment (though if they don't clear up soon, I might try some home remedies), but it really is quite unsightly having a cluster like that back there.
Has anyone else dealt with something similar, and how does that whole "pushing them back in" thing actually work? What am I supposed to use—my fingers, gauze, cotton swabs...? Or is it better to just leave them completely alone?

Or is it possible I've totally misdiagnosed myself? I was reading that rectal prolapse is also a thing, so how on earth are you supposed to tell the difference between external hemorrhoids and a prolapse?