# How long is recovery time after anal fistula surgery?



## towlsmoke420 (Jul 30, 2011)

At first it was nothing, accordingly to my Gi. but recently it feels like im pooping glass. Then they told me i got a anal fistula. They prescribed me flagyl, but I experience horrible side effects: dizziness, weakness, extreme migrains, vomiting, etc... its not for sure im going to have the surgery but its looking like it.

so how long does it take recover from surgery? I am only asking because a new college semester is coming up and it would be a shame if I have to miss another semester due to crohns and its pals(arthritis,etc).

also my doctors are refusing to give me pain meds. I dont understand why, because I literally cried the other night because my butt was in extreme pain


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## beth (Jul 30, 2011)

Depends on what sort of surgery. If it's opened out then it could be a couple of weeks or more. If it's just a seton install I found it was mainly the anesthetic that was the issue - so just a couple of days.

Withholding pain meds is akin to 'cruel and unusual punishment', have they said why, do you have previous with similar drugs, or are they just b*st*ds! - in which case find another doc!


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## Mark63 (Jul 30, 2011)

All depends on what the surgery is? I'd expect them to do an Examination Under Anaesthesia (EUA) and deal with any minor matters at that time E.G. Drain an abscess, insert a seton or close a fissure. Depending on what they do it will probably vary between a couple of days and a couple of weeks before you are back to some sort of normality.

Do you take pain killers for the arthritis? I seem to recall that a lot of those are NSAIDs and are generally not a good idea in Crohn's patients. Perhaps that's why they are reluctant to give more? Anyway, tell them that you are in pain and ask them to provide something you can take when the pain gets too much. I'm afraid that in my case pain is there pretty much all the time and I just have to deal with it.

Mark


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## IAmTheWalrus (Jul 30, 2011)

I had a couple of EUA's for a perianal fistula, at first they put in a seton which was extremely painful for the first 10 days or so, so bad that I actually went to the A&E (ER) because I thought it might have gotten infected, luckily it didn't and the colo-rectal surgeon on call prescribed me Tramadol which was awesome, eventually the pain gets ALOT easier to manage, and eventually goes away to the point you don't even notice the seton. 

If it was a fistulotomy, I had that done after they removed the seton, and TBH it was a tad bit painful when I woke from surgery, but I was back in the gym 2 days afterwards with minimal pain, it was more of a minor annoyance than anything else. 

Tramadol is your friend, if your GI refuses, which seems to be the norm in North America, ask your Surgeon or GP. 

Good luck. (Oh, and hot baths are great for temporary pain relief.)


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