by Jonathan » 08 Jan 2018, 16:51
I had an abscess. I feel that it is necessary to say I received it after beginning mountain biking. I didn’t wear a chamois at the time.
There was a lot of pain in my butt. I felt around and felt a huge pimple (how i described it to my girlfriend). I decided the pimple needed to be popped so I went mountain biking more.
One night the pain reached a peak and popped in the shower. I was freaked out.
I told my girlfriend what happened and she was concerned. I tried to empty the pocket manually just as I would have done with a zit. The pain was gone. I was happy.
The hole healed over. YAY. But the build happened again. And again. And then there was a hole that formed. After some research I found out that it was an abscess that fistulated. There is no stool.
I went to a colon specialist that was versed in fistulas. He put me on an antibiotic. It did nothing except for mess up my skin for about 6 months. I think biofilm is to blame here. Antibiotics have a hard time with biofilm and it needs to be manually removed.
I felt hopeless. Got depressed. I would go in to a stall and pretend I was pooping so that I could put some toilet paper between my cheeks to collect the discharge. I avoided sex for a bit. Avoided being seen naked, doing things with friends, going to massage, going swimming. I went swimming at a party once and forgot to take out the TP. I was horrified and grossed out and didn’t get in another pool (swimming is one of my favorite sports). Any time I felt moisture I basically dropped everything and went to pretend to take a poop. Most of the time a false alarm. There was no pain. I continued MTBing.
I talked to people about the issue. A couple coworkers that opened up about health issues they had. Friends. Family. I wanted to share so that others didn’t need to deal with this.
I changed my diet. Tried different alternative remedies. I became my own test subject. I can attest that my body produces more discharge when I eat more carbs. So I went KETO but became obsessed and had to just do a basic low carb diet. Minimizing bread, sweets, chips, yada yada.
After a year and a half I told my parents that this issue persists and they insisted on paying for the procedure claiming that it was affecting me in ways that I did not know. I denied this claim but knew it was true. I denied their gesture and after some pressure from my father decided to get the procedure as a Christmas present.
I decided to get a second opinion and went to another colon rectal specialist who didn’t just shove their lubed up finger in my butt like the previous one. He seemed sympathetic and his team was very nice so I scheduled a procedure with him.
I was told that they wouldn’t know what to do until I was under.
I have a hard time with needles and blacked out. Went to 40 BPM. Common for young men. I am 26. I decided not to do the procedure and changed my mind and went under.
I woke up and talked to the doctor and he said that they could not find an entry point in the anal canal and that he cleared out the existing infection using knife and a laser cauterizer. There was another, smaller fistula that he fixed up. Neither received stitches and were laid open to heal. Three times a day, every day for the last two weeks I take a shower to remove all grime from my body and then take a warm water bath with no additives. Twice I added tea tree oil but it seems to agitate the site more than I am willing to deal with. So warm water only. I have opted to use a shower head to rinse after pooping in place of the bath three times.
I am now two weeks post. I have returned to my normal daily routine except it still hurts to sit and I only go for walks and easy hikes. I don’t drive if it hurts and I’ve noticed that if i had a particularly active day or do a lot of sitting the next day i basically just sleep and hurt. No biking, swimming, nor running yet.
I took the Percocet for the first 4 days.
I woke up in a fever like sweat on night 3 and 4 and called the doc. He said i could come in but everything sounded okay. I did some research on fever like cold sweats after surgery and found that some people get it after general anesthesia.
It still hurts and regularly take ibuprophen. It was difficult to go to sleep last night due to pain. Not sure why it hurts more but am trusting that it’s part of the healing process.
My gauze has been a yellowish fiberous discharge with clear/yellowish fluid. I had a lot of discharge one day about a week in. Discharge has reduced in severity every day since. I have used approximately 100+ 4x3 gauze pads. Changing them for every bathing sequence and sometimes just throughout the day to keep the site dry.
Today my bum is itching like a wound does when it heals. A very promising sensation for my healing experience.
My internal wound seems rather large and I think the doc made a large wound in his exploration for a connection from the fistula to the anal canal.
I have taken my extra time to build a new wheel for mtb. Rebuild some stuff and can’t wait to get to get back out.
I see the doc tomorrow for the first follow-up.