Anyone with experience??????

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pugwash69

Joined
Aug 28, 2010
Messages
4
Hi.

I am new to all this.
Also I am stuck in a Spanish speaking country and really dont understand what the surgeon has planned for me.
He did explain but i got lost after the first 2 mins and then started panicking.
OK, so I have a complicated fistula which developed after an abcess. He has said I have to solve this with an operation putting a seton
in place to get rid of it. I have read on the internet the procedure and various statistics saying how sucsessful the operations are.
That was fine but then i went on to read some posts. Wow , it seem to be like "Nightmare on Elm Street" and i am loosing my bottle.
Can someone give me good news please or just waylay my nerves.

Regards
Pugwash
 
Hi Pug, welcome to the forum!!! Are you a dog groomer? I'm sorry I can't answer your question but I bet it would give a whole new meaning to language barrier!!! Good luck! Some of the chronie pros will have good advice for you. Stick around!!
 
Hi Mark
Nope, the username relates to a cartoon series in the 60´s in the UK.
My mates gave me the name when i left them all to come out here.
Regards
Dave
 
Hi pugwash and :welcome:

I'm glad you found your way here. Sorry I can't help with your question about fistula's but I'm sure some one who can will be along. Welcome aboard!

Take care, :)
Dusty
 
hey!
you will be ok, this surgery isnt super scary. i take it your fistula is in your butt area? ive had a lot of these before, some of them able to use a seton and some not. i actually still have one chillin down there that has been there for....gosh 3+ years now i guess.
MOST LIKELY you will be completely under for this procedure. for all of my operations like this, i have been under total anesthesia, just like for any other surgery. some people have had things done under "twighlight sleep" where you feel no pain, but are semi concious and probably wont even remember what happened. like i said, you will prob be 100% under, but i really cant say for sure, i dont know how different med teams do things.
then they will take the seton, which is pretty much just a thick thread....not as thick as string but not as thin as sewing thread...somewhere in between....and slide it thru the fistula tract, leaving one end poking out of you. then, i dont know how but somehow they get the end that is INside of you, they loop it thru your rectum. ehhh does that make sense? its so freakin hard to explain....i *think* this is the situation...k so your rectum is a tube. the fistula is a smaller tube connected to a point in your rectum/colon area or something on BOTH ends. so the fistula begins and ends in your rectum. k? so therefore they can thread the seton through the fistula, bring the end thru your....butt...hahah and tie it and then you have like a loop sort of thing going on.
hope that makes sense....

anyways, so thats about it and the seton keeps the fistula tract open so that the abcess can continue to drain efficiently rather then getting trapped inside. when the abcess gets better, you can get the seton taken out and your body most likely will close the tract on its own.

in your daily life you really shouldnt notice that its even there....i have had some butt operations that resulted in painfulness....but that was when i had actual DRAINS put in my butt and those are a whole different thing. setons have never worsened the pain anymore than it already hurts as a fistula, and most often they relieve the pain/pressure.

sometimes, the little knot of where they tie the two ends together, sometimes that can be a tiny bit poke-ey and it may slide into the fistula tract a bit or more towards your bum hole and the pokes can be annoying, but its easy enough to just slide the knot to where its comfortable. since the whole thing is a loop, it really isnt actually attatched TO you anywhere inside.

meh i hope this helps, its really confusing to try to express over text lol, i need to like, draw a picture HHAHA my god...crohns has be drawing pics of butts with threads in them.

anything else, ask away!
 
hi Dave & welcome to the forum :)

thank goodness Kello was able to give such a detailed account of having a seton - i actually didn't know all this myself - but i find her experiences very reassuring, i hope you do too.

good luck for your procedure... please keep us posted how things go, and if we can help with anything, just shout :)
 
What Kello said. Seton's are okay, if a little tedious, but allow the abscess and tract to firstly drain and then heal without burrowing further into your tissue.
 
Hi Dave
and welcome (I remember Captain Pugwash!)

Sorry I'm not familiar with this, but wanted to welcome you and say that there's lots of support and friends here for you.
lotsa luv
Joan xxx
 
kello82 said:
hey!
you will be ok, this surgery isnt super scary. i take it your fistula is in your butt area? ive had a lot of these before, some of them able to use a seton and some not. i actually still have one chillin down there that has been there for....gosh 3+ years now i guess.
MOST LIKELY you will be completely under for this procedure. for all of my operations like this, i have been under total anesthesia, just like for any other surgery. some people have had things done under "twighlight sleep" where you feel no pain, but are semi concious and probably wont even remember what happened. like i said, you will prob be 100% under, but i really cant say for sure, i dont know how different med teams do things.
then they will take the seton, which is pretty much just a thick thread....not as thick as string but not as thin as sewing thread...somewhere in between....and slide it thru the fistula tract, leaving one end poking out of you. then, i dont know how but somehow they get the end that is INside of you, they loop it thru your rectum. ehhh does that make sense? its so freakin hard to explain....i *think* this is the situation...k so your rectum is a tube. the fistula is a smaller tube connected to a point in your rectum/colon area or something on BOTH ends. so the fistula begins and ends in your rectum. k? so therefore they can thread the seton through the fistula, bring the end thru your....butt...hahah and tie it and then you have like a loop sort of thing going on.
hope that makes sense....

anyways, so thats about it and the seton keeps the fistula tract open so that the abcess can continue to drain efficiently rather then getting trapped inside. when the abcess gets better, you can get the seton taken out and your body most likely will close the tract on its own.

in your daily life you really shouldnt notice that its even there....i have had some butt operations that resulted in painfulness....but that was when i had actual DRAINS put in my butt and those are a whole different thing. setons have never worsened the pain anymore than it already hurts as a fistula, and most often they relieve the pain/pressure.

sometimes, the little knot of where they tie the two ends together, sometimes that can be a tiny bit poke-ey and it may slide into the fistula tract a bit or more towards your bum hole and the pokes can be annoying, but its easy enough to just slide the knot to where its comfortable. since the whole thing is a loop, it really isnt actually attatched TO you anywhere inside.

meh i hope this helps, its really confusing to try to express over text lol, i need to like, draw a picture HHAHA my god...crohns has be drawing pics of butts with threads in them.

anything else, ask away!
Click to expand...

@Kello....I have to say I admire you for being able to handle all of this so well. I am 38 and have been dealing with this disease for 3 yrs now and feel like :ybatty: beating my self in the head sometimes. Your a much bigger girl than me.
 
Thanks Kello and everyone that has replied.

What panicked me was some accounts I read on the internet which were horrendous.
What I think ( I am still not sure ) that the surgeon plans is to put a cutting seton in place. Its to close a fistular that developed after the first abcess i had and also cause the second.
At the moment I am only in mental anguish and my butt does not hurt at all. The trouble is that I cant take the risk of going to work away, if the fistula gets infected again - I would be screwed if another absess developed when I was working.
So, the surgeon says this is the only way to treat it.
Well. I will certainly keep you people up to date and can only thank you again cause its not nice living in a foreign country, speaking a foreign language but getting so confused that I was even toiling with going back to the uk - not that the doctors are any better there!
Have a good weekend , whats left of it

Regards:
 
operation

Well, i had the operation monday night, and was allowed home tuesday.
The surgeon says there is a rubber Seton in my butt.
anyway, and again, thanks to your replies, i had the courage to go through with all this. - Before i just didnt understand anything.
 
Welcome back and congrats on your surgery, I have not had your type of surgery but have had 2 resections and it is overwhelming before during and after. Kello is amazing with alot of help she is young and has been through alot. Make sure you rest, and speedy recovery!
 
yay! glad to hear from you....i have wondered what ended up happening.

oooo one of the rubber ones? i have had those too....they arent as easy to maneuvar as the thread ones.....like if the knot pokes you its a little harder to slide it around, but again they still never bothered me much.

plus they are fun colors. ive had blue, yellow, and pink. hahah!!

best of luck with your recovery!
 
pugwash69 said:
Hi Mark
Nope, the username relates to a cartoon series in the 60´s in the UK.
My mates gave me the name when i left them all to come out here.
Regards
Dave
Click to expand...

Captain Pugwash!

What fond memories, was more in the Danger Mouse era myself!

Hope every thing has gone ok for you xxx
 

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