by saskiamom » 28 Feb 2012, 12:16
Hi everyone, will try to answer all your questions.
"Guest," this whole ordeal started with an abscess for me, not sure how the abscess came to be exactly...but that's what got me to go see a Dr initially. First doc gave me antibiotics out the kazoo...nothing helped and I went to see a different primary care dr. out at Mayo clinic who then referred me to a colorectal surgeon.
"Sterlingbird," I know that seton's are not comfortable, some people on other forums have said that after a while they don't know they are there, lol! My experience has always been that I'm always a little aware of their presence, ha ha. My best advice is to really take the time to do at least three 15 minute long, hot sits baths daily (as hot as you can tolerate, don't go scalding anything though!) I had this set placed 1/27 and they hadn't been bothering me too badly till I went on a "girls getaway' trip with a friend this weekend, then of course, they started hurting like all get out. I just took hot showers to try to relieve the discomfort as I was stuck in a hotel but when I got home and started up the sits baths again, I feel much better. I use 6.5 inch gauze pads over the setons every day to catch drainage, etc.....I change them every time I go to the bathroom. It's crazy, if you'd have told me a year ago I'd be walking around with gauze pads tucked into my tush everyday I would have laughed, but they don't bother me too much anymore, at least not as much as the setons do, in fact they make the setons more bearable IMO. After this weekend, I've decided not to forgo the LIFT procedure, I called and told the doctor's office Monday that I felt I'd made a huge mistake asking to wait and they scheduled me to do the LIFT 3/15....so I'm going to get this thing over with, please pray that it works!!!
Fistulaproblems, wow, I feel your pain, I really do, this isn't easy to fix is it? Never ending surgeries it seems! : ( Have you had a cutting seton placed or a draining seton? My setons have always been temporary measures simply to keep things open and from getting further abcesses until the next surgical maneuver, so I really don't have an answer as to how long one would take to work per se....as mine were never actually meant as a real "treatment." My surgeon did say this current set had to be in place for six weeks prior to this LIFT procedure if that helps any?
Anyway, hang in there, I am confident there is an end to all this, just have to keep plugging away until we find the solution that works for us individually. Good luck everyone and yes, I'll keep you posted. 3/15 isn't too far off. If anyone has had the LIFT procedure, either successfully or not I'd love to hear your experience. I wonder what it feels like if it's failing, if you get another abscess or just never stop draining, etc...how long it takes to heal....all the stuff you want to know but your surgeon doesn't seem to have the answers to lol! ; )