I need some advice.. I am new to this forum because no one I know has never even heard of a seton or fistula for that matter... I have had it in place for almost a year now. Its driving me up a wall! I feel like my fistula will NEVER heal as long as its in. The more bm's I take I feel that some stool gets in there, it hurts on a daily basis! I can't stand it. In 1 week I will have my 3rd surgery and my surgeon doesn't even know why its happening. She swears I have crohns, but all the millions of tests came up negative! I need some advice or just some comforting words! Will I ever get this damn thing taken out of my butt? Has anyone ever had a seton that worked and healed the fistula and had it taken out?
~J.
I found the medications made things worse, particularly antibiotics ironically. I had them pretty bad. The worst enemy is loose stools and gas.
Here's what I did.
It's tough, but if you can find a way when you have a bowel movement to prevent stuff from getting through the hole (by putting pressure externally to plug up that exit while things are happening) that will probably go a long way to helping at least prevent further deterioration and help it stay cleaner, it might be able to start to heal itself.
I had 3 (have 3 scars now) that I healed myself.
This next part might sound weird but it worked for me. Depending where in your backside internally it's originating from, if you can eat foods that will plug you up just a little if you have the runs or loose stools, and are really careful about what you eat when, you might be able to prevent the more liquidy stuff and gas from leaking through. That goes a long way to allowing your body to be able to heal it.
I would have an empty stomach (well empty gut really), eat something that would plug me up a bit and sit in my colon, then eat my normal food. The result would be a bit of hard stool, but just a bit that was a little difficult to pass, but passing a little bit of hard and then the rest, was actually less detrimental to the fistula, because instead of a constant source of stool and gas and liquid that could leak through, the last mile was plugged and dry by a constipating food. Then during a bowel movement it would hurt a little bit, but that little stress during a bowel movement and whatever tearing might happen, instead of constantly having stool that could leak through allowed it time to heal itself free of new sources of infection and contamination.
Hard to give specific advice it depends where they originate from, internally. Usually it's somewhere in the last several inches though that is the source in your guts, due to the combination of ulceration and the stress of crapping.
Loose stools, gas and stuff passing through it or sitting in it is your enemy. Keeping things clean and stopping the passage of stuff will help. Ironically lots of medications and those liquid diets and antibiotics cause loose stools and gas.
You also need to consider the source, and pus, and if you start to block it off, where do things escape to. It's also important to treat the disease at the same time, and diet is great for that because it hits at the root of the disease.
It's a tough boat and I wish you luck. Use your mind and get creative. You are looking at 2 things you need to deal with. The physical aspect of the hole, and the biological aspect of the germs in the area. Dr's might give you antibiotics to try to kill of every organism in your body, but it usually doesn't kill everything off, and it does nothing to deal with the physical aspect. To them, that physical aspect involves them and a knife. But your body is powerful and it's made to heal itself, that's why we can make scar tissue.
Experiment and be careful.
