So let me tell you my story. It's going to be looong... but I've kept it in for too long and I just need to share or I'll just break down.
In July 2012 I became crazy about getting slim and fit, going to the gym every day, eating lots of fruit and veg and protein and all was hunky-dory until one day when I experienced really bad pain on pooping with blood aka the anal fissure. I still had some meds from the last time that I had it, so I just took that. A couple of weeks later I went to my GP because I felt a painful lump underneath the skin just adjacent to my anus - but she said it was an external haemorrhoid and nothing to worry about, so I went for holiday for a month and had good and bad days on and off. When I got back the lump has become much bigger and much more painful, but my GP still kept saying it was nothing to worry about, but she'll refer me to CRS to have a look. And so she did... but the waiting list was so long that my appointment was scheduled for November! I thought I could do it, I could wait it out... took full dose paracetamol and ibuprofen a day, put countless amounts of various creams and suppositories up my bum and still just could not focus on my studies because I had this awful, pulsating pain near my anus that prevented me from sitting down comfortably, turning in bed, doing sports, having sex, you name it... So one day I went to the GP again and she, eureka, said it was an abscess that needs draining. It was on 11th of October.
Oh My God I was so happy that something will finally be done! My op was scheduled for 13th of Oct and I had the best time having the general anaesthetic. I had my abscess lanced and the horror began... the wound was not big, 3 cm deep, but it just did not want to heal...kept draining yellow/green pus. NOBODY listened to me. It got to 8 weeks of thoughtless packing the wound that was still 2cm deep when I cried in the nursing office and said that I'm not leaving until someone makes a decision about what to do with me. So I got referred back to the CRS, but with waiting times again I could not expect to be seen until Jan 2013... In the meanwhile I developed really bad infection down there, and started passing stool matter through the wound, which to me meant it was a fistula.
So in the clinic the CRS said that yes indeed it was a fistula (eureka again) and it needs fixing. He scheduled the op to be on 11th Feb, which is the day before yesterday...
I had seton drain put in because the fistula turned out to be transsphincteric. He laid open some of the fistula tract, about 1.5cm and put the seton drain around the external sphincter (I think). Now I have a horrendous looking wound down below, with green thick stitch coming out from it that drains yellow ?pus and blood. I also have haemorrhoids, which add to the picture... It looks like a slaugherhouse there, I'm not even joking. I couldn't go to the loo yesterday so I took laxative last night and this morning I went three times... It didn't hurt, but made me paranoid about cleanliness, I spent about 1 hr and 30 min in the loo pooping and having a salt bath over and over...
How am I ever going to heal?!?!
I have a few questions. Please help if you can...
1. Have you had a seton drain put in? What did it look like initially, and what did it look like after a few weeks time? Did the gaping hole heal at least a bit?
2. Did you have the wound packed when you had the seton in? The surgeon said not to pack it but it is a cavity wound so I don't know if it should be packed or not?
3. I do salt baths twice a day (one after BM and one in the evening), is that enough? I'm so paranoid about cleanliness around that area, how do I prevent infection?! I spray the wound with an antiseptic which is used for surgical wounds in Europe and I'm hoping that this will maybe make healing faster and maybe prevent infection at least a bit...
4. If you had a fistula and seton drain put in...have you ever healed completely? I'm losing hope...
The only upside is that it's not really painful. I am a medical student and I comfortably went to a tutorial yesterday, which was one day after my operation. I don't lay around and do nothing, I can't do that or I'll just go crazy. The thought that I will need another 2 or 3 operations to get this fixed properly is just overwhelming, I don't know how am I going to fit this around my studies and I am just desperate for some consolation...
Thank you for reading this, I hope your day started better than mine.