Just wanted to post here, I was a member here about 8 years ago when I had terrible fissures caused by skin tag removal. I was in continual pain for well over a year while it attempted to heal. Since then, I managed to avoid fissures but I developed skin tags again, about triple the size but decided to just live with it rather than suffer all over again.
Unfortunately I've now been handed a new card, in the form of a fistula. 4 weeks ago I had a perianal abscess drained in an emergency op. In the op, they found a fistula so they also inserted a draining seton. The last month has been unbelievably miserable and stressful while I cope with post-op pain and new problems from the operation. They didn't give me any laxative when I was discharged from hospital and I had the worst constipation ever and basically ended up with new haemorrhoids and a lovely new fissure. Just perfect. However it's the fistula that worries me the most.
I spend every waking moment researching fistulas and surgery options.
I am in my twenties and can't afford to risk incontinance. In fact, in my follow-up hospital appointment, the surgeon didn't want to do any of those surgery options anyway because the fistula is quite high up. However, I was rather hoping for the option of fibrin glue to at least fill the tract, but he doesn't believe it's an effective method. He wants to do an MRI scan but says he will probably just take the seton out and leave it. This, in my opinion is a very risky move. The abscess will surely reform and cause bigger problems. I would rather leave it in.
I haven't found many stories of people having one fistula in their life, having no surgery or draining seton and being lucky enough to have no further issues. Maybe those people would like to speak up here? :)
My fistula drains constantly with no signs of reducing. Should I be expecting the amount of pus to reduce over time? Will that take weeks, months, years? Since it seems I will be leaving the seton in for a long time, I was just hoping that the amount of pus would at least diminish gradually.