Day 14

Yesterday I saw the colorectal specialist surgeon treating me. This was a follow up from two weeks ago from the initial operation. Keep in mind this is what we know:

- During the examination under anaesthesia, it was discovered I had three fistulas, as opposed to one.
- The treatment was one fistulotomy and two partial fistulotomy with seton insertions.
- A biopsy was taken to determine the presence of multiple fistulas.

Admittedly I was scared thinking that this was cancer. Let's be real, we're all human and when someone says biospy, we all go there. Thankfully nothing out of the ordinary and the CRS sad I was sweating for nothing because he would have called me in a lot earlier.

So we ruled out disease and cancer and from appearances it appeared to be healing well.

I was now told that I would receive the following:

- Week 4 post op: colonoscopy

- Week 6: Fistulotomy for fistula #2 (It turns out that the seton set in place helped to calm the inflation and it was the surgeon's opinion that I could go in for a cut.

- Week 14: Mucosal flap surgery.

Mucosal Flap surgery

In simple terms, a mucosal flaps is where a sliver of tissue surrounding the internal opening of the fistula is slice off and then folded over and stitched to allow for closing of the tract. Once healed over internally, it block's the tract's exposure to infectious material, giving it a chance to heal over, closing the tract up as quick as possible.

My surgeon would only perform this procedure after a good 12 to 14 weeks with a seton stitch in to drain. He said it was because the stitch inhibited the presence of infectious material, thus shrinking the width of that tract. Once that was done, it would be easier to removed the seton and let it close off quicker than if it was for him to simply do the flap from the beginning.

From what I've been warned, I'll need to take it easy for two weeks post this operation. That means no stress, no lifting, no butt sex, no working out and not too much walking. By limiting my movements, it'll mitigate the flap from having been pulled up from the stitch and us having to try again.

Hi SD,

Just in case you want to read some posts on flap surgery in general, some links on the forum.

search.php?keywords=Flap&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=posts&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search