i had a lis in may... and now dr tells me i have a fistula. i have had a bad time of the last 3 months and like to know what i can expect from the fistula surgery. dr thinks it lower and just skin. she is not the most communitive person but i think she is good surgeon. any explanations on the surgery and the after care would be appreciated. thanks.

Hi John! Welcome! I'm so sorry you are having such a rough go these days, but I think I know exactly how you feel! Your story is almost identical to mine! I had an LIS in May too, and I also developed a fistula. I had a fistulotomy done on June 27th and I'm now feeling quite good, even though I'm not quite completely healed yet. My fistula formed when the incision site from the LIS healed too quickly the wrong way - it formed a 'roof' instead of healing from the inside bed of the wound out. So, I had a superficial fistula that needed to be 'deroofed' - that is, my doc took the layer of skin at the top of the 'tunnel' off. The surgery was a breeze and the recovery was actually easier than the recovery from the LIS. You can search for my threads, but here's the one I created when I found out I had a fistula:
http://anal-fissure.org/t3074-fistula-anyone?highlight=fistula+anyone
And the thread I created just after my surgery:
http://anal-fissure.org/t3110-there-is-such-a-thing-as-a-good-surgery-experience?highlight=there+is+such+a+thing
And a very useful thread another boardie named Adam started (we had the surgery about the same time)"
http://anal-fissure.org/t3141-wow-just-found-out-i-had-an-abcess-and-fistula-and-had-surg?highlight=fistula
I hope this helps!

yes this helped very much...i kept reading about daily packing and wound care nurses and got worried. thanks.

I didn't get any packing other than just after the surgery and I haven't read about anybody here needing nurses to handle packing. A boardie named Maurice had packing in her butt for a while, but I don't think she needed nursing care. The most unpleasant part of the recovery for me was pulling the wound in my poor ass open so it would heal properly, but that wasn't too painful. The first week was a bit rough, but by the second week things started improving quite a bit. When is your surgery?

i hope this will heal with no problems...having your butt cut is terrible enough without having to do it twice. my surgery is next tuesday and its 7am so i don't have to starve all day like my first. hoping my next post will be a success story.

Man, I know what you mean! The last thing I wanted was another cut to the butt after having a fissure and an LIS!
But I'm glad I got the fistula fixed - I'm much more comfortable than I was before the fistulotomy. I'm about 11 weeks post-op now and I still bleed a bit during BMs and I can see that the wound is not quite healed, but it looks like it's healing bit by bit, and I don't have any pain - at most some mild discomfort if I have a big poop. During my check-up on Aug 31st, my doc said I was healing well, so I'm not too worried. You mentioned that you had had a rough three months. I imagine that was from the fistula swelling and draining(?) That does suck, but the fistulotomy will take care of that. I'd say in about a month you will be pretty much back to normal. This is a pretty straight-forward surgery, and if your fistula is superficial, then the complication rate is quite low. So I'd say your next op will very likely be a great success story. :D
It is good news that you don't have to starve yourself. I think you should feel good about finally getting the fistula fixed - soon you will be on your way to complete healing and this whole ordeal will become a distant memory.

How do you know if you may have a fistula?

to answer how you know...i didn't know. felt like my butt was raw and had continued leakage. i keep telling the dr something was wrong but she said everything looked ok until 31/2 months she saw the opening. thanks for the comments, can't wait for tuesday. i never thought i would look forward to another surgery but a fistula is the pits. i want to say its worse than a fissure but both are bad.

Guys! What type of fistula is that?! Anal or tailbone fistula?!