As some of you know I've been dealing with an Abscess and fistula since April of this year. A small recap:

-Surgeon drained a sudden and gi-freaking-normous abscess that formed on the left side of my rectal opening in April.

-It got better but then started draining constantly, so underwent surgery at the end of May 2011 to perform a fistulotomy and insert two setons.

-Got better, surgeon removed seton's in his office in July.

-Between July-October, had cycles of a week of feeling good, then a week of pain/draining/bleeding from the fistula surgical site, rinse and repeat.

I went under again today to see why one of the fistula openings wasn't healing. The surgeon told my wife that in the first surgeon he "closed" off the main tract that was leading from my rectal wall into the abscess, hoping that would allow both inter-connected tracts to heal. One did, but one didn't (what I guess was the "lower" one). So he performed a fistulotomy to fix the remaining one, but felt that it DID NOT require another seton placement.

He seemed confident that this would resolve the issue, give my pouch is healthy and have no other health issues.

Awesome news! Congrats.

I hope it all works out for you, Chris. I recall you've been through quite a bit with those fistulas. Let us know how the fistulotomy works out - and how are you feeling after the surgery?

Feeling worse at the moment, but that's due to the gapping chasm in my ass.

I was really shocked when I changed the bandage for the first time last night. The previous fistulotomy was really shallow, so much so I could feel the raw flesh but didn't feel like a "tract". This one though, is a roughly 2 inch long, 0.5 inch deep chasm that runs from where the fistula was opening down to the anal opening.

It's stinging and burning like a @#$%^, and is really really hard to clean after a BM, but the oxy painkillers are helping for sure. But the doctor said he was confident this would heal up in no time and I'd be on my way with my life again.

Ouch!!

Sounds like you got the royal treatment. While it may be painful now, laying out the full fistula tract will probably resolve this once and for all.

Fingers crossed for you.

Jan

Thanks, Jan!

The only thing that's concerning me is keeping it clean. The tract is so deep and goes right up to the anal opening I'm worried about jabbing gauze/tissue down there to keep it clean after BM's. It hurts like a @#$%% and I don't want to be too aggressive with it.

I know it seems counterintuitive, but this isn't really something to worry too much about. Since it is layed open, infection isn't much of a concern. Rather than trying to clean with gauze, Q-tips and other "pokey" things, just clean with a squirt bottle of water and blot dry. This area is so vascular, it heals pretty quickly, or at least quick enough.

Jan

Wow - sounds painful. 1/2" deep - OMG! Hope you do indeed heal up in no time and you can put all this behind you.

Thanks Jan. That makes me feel better

The Bm's aren't painful, it's the cleanup that's painful, since I was trying to get it as clean as possible which HURTS. It's like spelunking into the Grand Canyon or something!

Jan, do you know how long the tract will be bleeding?

I'm working from home today and tomorrow but would like to return to work on Monday, but it's still bleeding so much I have to use a ton of gauze to soak it up, and I can't easily dispose/change that at work.

My surgeon didn't need to see me again until the 25th, so I'm not sure how long I should be expecting the bleeding from the laid open area.