Fistulas, Abcesses, Fissures (eek!).....Tell me about yours

I don't have any advice, but I just wanted to let you know that I'm here for you. I'm so sorry that you have yet, another issue to handle. As a nurse, you also know the pitfalls. I'm so very sorry. I'll hope that it's not that severe and that you won't need surgery for this.

Ouch 😩

I have an internal J-pouch after colon cancer and live in fear of fissures and fistulae.

I hope things go better for you.

I had something very similar. My DH and sister were the lucky ones to get to pack and replace the bandaging. It was not fun and I got very raw from the tape. Mine went from the size of a bean to a golf ball in 2 days so I went in and the Dr. gave me antibiotics and sent me home, that was Friday. Sunday it felt like it was grapefruit size. I went to the ER and emergency surgery. The first ER looked and said "I'm getting the surgeon" and walked out. It was at this visit I found out morphine does nothing for me. For some perspective, they packed it with 15 yards of gauze.

I had the ER Dr, the surgeon, a head nurse and some patient liaison person all ask me about my visit on Friday. Now, I was in extreme pain and the morphine was not helping and they are all asking about my earlier visit. Found out later that antibiotics would do absolutely nothing for what I had. It should have been drained on Friday, at minimum scheduled to be drained asap.

The healing took forever because it kept healing over itself and would fester up and have to be opened again. They finally cauterized it shut.

I have never seen that scar and doubt I ever will. I am not flexible enough to see it.

I still get abcesses on a regular basis. Most are easily taken care of, but they are always in fun locations.

How did you discover that is what you had, what were the symptoms? I've had issues for a very long time and they seem to have gotten worse over the past 5-6 months.

I have fears too - if I don't know what it is maybe it will go away.  STUPID, I know.  I have hemorrhoids and the dr. explained surgery to me as an option but I want to avoid that if at all possible, especially reading your journey.

I have no advice, I just wanted to voice my support for you. I hope that things don’t progress for you so that you need that surgery again. ☹️

If I've liked your posts, it's through sympathy, not because I liked what you wrote. Poor OP and everyone. It sounds miserable.

Aw hugs. I had the tiniest little fistula many years ago, had surgery, never had any trouble since. But it wasn't comfortable at the time. Sounds as if I was very fortunate.

I hope this surgery is "uneventful", as they say. Hugs.

I hope you don’t need surgery again too! Aren’t there risks with them making you wait this long?

My only experience with these has been an abscess on my upper arm and leg due to really high blood sugar issues. And those were absolutely miserable so I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. I just had strong antibiotics and had to keep draining them and keeping them clean while they were healing. Do you know how hard it was to keep tape stuck to where my fat thighs rubbed together? The leg one was huge by the time we discovered it, she’s surprised it wasn’t excruciating but it didn’t hurt at all until the day or two before I made my appointment. And then…wow. It also didn’t completely heal though we thought it had so it popped up again months later. I only became aware of it because I now make a point to occasional palpitate the area on both legs. With both my arm and my leg the pain got to the point I had to lay in bed and stabilize them because movement hurt. How do you do that with your butt?

Here’s to your appointment going well and getting the best outcome possible.