Hello everyone I am new on here. I am having fistula surgery next Tuesday and am scared about it. I have had reoccurant abscesses and they lance them to let them drain but they never go away first time was about 6 years ago and it lasted a few weeks and never came back until 2 months ago had to lance 2 different time and this time it has drained and been swollen the whole time. I went to colo rectal doctor today he used a prob and said its a fistula and want to do surgery on Tuesday. He mentioned a couple different surgeries because he didnt want to do it all at once and then he said I might end up with a rubberband or something hanging out so I am guessing he dont know what kind of surgery he will end up doing until he opens it up I was a little confused and the nurse told me that there would be another surgery to sew the flap over it so I guess I will find out Tuesday I am thinking he probably wont know if its bad or not until he gets in there but the part I am scared about is recovery time I cant afford to miss a whole lot of work since I dont get paid for being off can someone give me a little advise I dont know of anyone personally who has had anything like this.

one more thing i had hemmorhoid surgery 10 years ago and it was very painful the first 2 days wondering if this is a lot more painful then that was??

Hi till
I had the same 'i had botox and it blocked an anal glan
3 weeks later it become an abscess which formed a fistula -i had the fist op to clear out the abscess and infection 'i then had a Seton rubber band put in the fistula tract to help drain the infection out '2 months later the infection had settled and I had an op to open the site a laying open mine went though my internal sphincter a bit so they had to be care full it heals from the bottom up it takes a long while to get there 'its all healed now but I do get some ash's and twinges I hope these will settle as time goes by'

thanks for the reply I am still a nervous wreck trying not to be but the thaught of what they may do scares me

Tll
Don't worry I was so scared before my surgery thinking all the time but thr r amazing people here who helped me thru once u get the surgery done u will be the happiest person I had my surgery July 17 had abcess in 2008 n so glad got my fistulotomy.

U will do good just follow the things they want us to do after surgery good luck

If u need anything plz post here everyone here r so helpful
Kathy

Thanks that makes me feel better i am just ready to get this over with and be on the road to recovery

Tll,
I can assure you from what I've read and researched here, that fistula surgery is not at all as painful as hemmorhoid surgery. Having also had a superficial fistula, which was deroofed and left to heal naturally, I found the recovery was very smooth and a year on or so, there are no signs I ever experienced this issue.
The full recovery took about 2 months and I did not have a Seton place, such as Rich described above, but posts advise that although a little uncomfortable, they are not painful & it is just a case of slight adjustment to them.
The main thing is, the surgery is not really painful, recovery is generally very good and recurrence low for Fistula sufferers.
I chose to take about 10 days off work post op, but at a push, probably could have been back sooner.
You will feel so much better a few weeks post op & not having to worry about any of the horrible stuff you are right now because it will all clear up.......Just pop back anytime for any reassurance & it's great to read Kathy's post above because I have followed her progress from the start to hopefully, pretty much nearly the end & she sounds like she is in a so much better place these days!!
Just get it over & done with & you really will be on the road to recovery. Wishing you all the very best :)

thank you I am having it tomorrow and just ready to get it over like you said

So how did it go? Hope all is well!

well I went in to have the surgery done yesterday and laid there for 5 hours and the doctor had to end up canceling mine and the person ahead of me surgeries because he had another surgery that wasn't going to well apparently the anthestesiologist not sure the spelling came in and said the doctor had to call in another surgeon that it was taking a lot longer to do the procedure than they thought so never had it done