Hi everyone,

I have been fairly active on the fistula/abscess portion of this forum previously. Luckily for me (and thanks to my skilled surgeon) my fistulotomy wound healed exactly 2 years ago to this day and I have had no further fistula/abscess issues. Unfortunately, I created a new monster of my own doing about 10 days ago.

I usually have 2-4 bowel movements per day (depending on how much I eat, whether I'm bulking and how much fiber I'm having)...this number of BMs began annoying me so I decided to try a new OCD medication (I currently take Prozac and have for 16 years) called Anafranil in the hopes that my BMs would become once per day rather than 2-4 per day. This was a huge mistake and error in judgement on my part.

The Anafranil caused me to go two days without a bowel movement and when I finally did have one it was like passing a tree trunk through my bum. I felt a moderate sharp pain and there was some blood. I assumed hemorrhoids. Now 10 days later I have gone to my proctologist. It doesn't bleed at all with bowel movements anymore but I still get some stinging and some swelling. I was terrified that I caused another fistula, but my doctor took one look and said that I caused a small tear in the scar tissue (it is, afterall, weaker than regular tissue) and he said it was basically a small fissure. He said it is a 1 in 50,000 chance that it would infect and become an abscess, but I'm still terrified.

Any recommendations on how to heal quickly? He says it is very small and prescribed me some muscle relaxing ointment. Anyone with experience with a fissure years AFTER a fistulotomy?

My old fistulotomy scar fissured frequently. Much thinner skin I guess. I just ended up with a new fistula in same general area and had surgery. I don't know it it is from old surgery or from the tear or what- but I have had issues w/tearing for years and this is first time this happened. I bet you are fine. Frustrating that the meds we take to help with all of this make things worse :-( Zoloft was giving me D and backing off makes things too slow...

Hi zinnia,

Sorry to hear about a new fistula...do they think it is a recurrence of the old one or a completely new fistula? How long ago did you have your first fistula? Are you otherwise healthy? My main goal is to avoid any future fistula/abscess. I don't have Crohn's or anything like that so my hopes are high.

i didn't hear much coming out of surgery- post-op next week. My feeling is is connected to old surgery which is over 20 years old. I originally had a lump of old scar tissue removed but they saw no fistula- then mri and ultrasound caught it.
I don't have Crohn's either- just a series of unfortunate events!

Well it's great to know you don't have Crohn's....at least that means that everything will almost certainly heal without complication (not to mention all of the other horrible issues). Did your doctors put you on any specific meds for your fissures over the years?

i have only used calmaseptine- that helped a lot. I will be curious what new scar looks like as it it over old one... I am just 5 days out of surgery, so just feel like I have a grand canyon back there :-(