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Bowel to bladder fistula

crohns4ever

crohns4ever

I really need help with a stupid question I have had crohns for 13 years but now I have got a bowel to bladder fistula. My question is when my GI gave some antibotics it went away, with in a week after taking all of them I started having air come out after I pee. did it try to heal and then came back? And can I live a life with a bowel to bladder fistula without surgery? :(
also have a anal fistula it has been draining for the last 3 months now on remicade but it really seems not to heal as fast as my others have done in the past. Crohns really sucks!
 
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guitarjamie03

guitarjamie03

Hi crohns4ever!

I had a bowel to bladder fistula and I agree, it was awful! I had the same problem, but I kept getting UTIs that wound not go away with antibiotics. I had a UTI for almost a year and I could not take the discomfort anymore, so I had surgery. Are you on a biologic? (I.e Humira or Remicade)? Biologics can close fistulas, but not in every case. I am so glad that I had the surgery and I have not had another problem sense then! They were also able to resection my colon at the same time. They also found a second fistula going to my small intestine while they were in there. The good news is that once they remove them, they don't come back!

Good luck to you!
 
crohns4ever

crohns4ever

Yes I am on remicade now but in 1999 I had 3 foot of my colon removed due to crohns and I rember the pain was bad the doc keep me in a medicated coma for three weeks after the bowel resection. So now when this all started I was going to have my anal abscess fix with surgey but after I told hime about the other issue he said you have a bowel to bladder fistula and give me some antibiotics and the UTI went away and the air just stoped and lastnight it just started again. If all you have is air coming out I guess I could just deal with it along with UTI. Did you have any stool to come out? that is what I am worried about. I am new to this site sorry if I do things wrong
 
Grumbletum

Grumbletum

Hi crohns4rever and a big welcome to the forum, glad you could join us but sorry it's because you are having issues. Like guitarjamie, I had a resection, mainly to deal with a bowel to bladder fistula and other inflammation that they found when they went in to fix the fistula.
Mine started with UTIs and passing air and I was treated several times with antibiotics, would get a little relief, but never a complete clearing of the symptoms. I think it did eventually heal for a while after I'd been on Azathioprine and had three infusions of Remicade.
But about 6 months after the final infusion, the symptoms started coming back and I also started to pass stool through the fistula.
My surgeon said to me that the danger from the constant UTIs was of damage to the kidneys. I had surgery just over a year ago and cannot describe the relief it has given me.
 
PsychoJane

PsychoJane

Moderator
I never had bowel to bladder fistula but I've dealt with enterocutanneous ones. Antibiotics always do wonder for the time they are taken and then, with the greatest deception, the fistula always ends up acting up once the treatment is over. Rarely, they remain closed but this is a rare occurrence.

Like you said, air is not so much of an issue in itself, but your bladder, most likely, won't deal well with the output (cause if it is not feces, their is generally some mucus or pus that gets drained). These can very well cause other UTIs. That being said, if you don't deal with new onset of UTI then you can possibly cope with it but it is a possibility that the fistula will grow in size and eventually allow feces to pass... Needless to say, at that point, you will probably wish for the surgery to happen.

For me It was 2 years of trying to fix the fistulas with medication before they agreed on surgery and even though I hate the recovery time and all that comes with a surgery, also brought me the best results. It's nice not suffering from them anymore and pleasant to know that these ones do not exist anymore.
 
crohns4ever

crohns4ever

My surgeon said hopefully with some antibiotics and remicade hopefully both would heal. Many years ago I had a really bad one under my belly button and with just remicade it really did heal and did not return. I just never had one to my bladder befour, just going a little crazy I guess cause this is new to me. I get so down and out thinking what all I have been through with crohns.
 
guitarjamie03

guitarjamie03

Yes, I was passing stool through the bladder, and it was super gross. I did not want to admit it then because it was embarrassing, but I will admit it now that I don't have a fistula any more.
 
crohns4ever

crohns4ever

A big thank you to Grumbletum, guitarjamie03, and psychojane for your information about this weird problem that am going through right now.]But one last thing did you all have air or gas come out all the time or just sometimes? Ounce again thank you all.
 
PsychoJane

PsychoJane

Moderator
Mine was only occasionally passing air and in my case (was it because of the nature of the enterocutanneous fistula), it was hurting quite a bit prior to each occurrence. :S
 
guitarjamie03

guitarjamie03

crohns4ever said:
A big thank you to Grumbletum, guitarjamie03, and psychojane for your information about this weird problem that am going through right now.]But one last thing did you all have air or gas come out all the time or just sometimes? Ounce again thank you all.
Click to expand...
You are welcome! :)

Yes, I did have air/gas come out too and it was almost every time I went to the bathroom. It was the weirdest feeling!

Hoping things get better for you!
 
Grumbletum

Grumbletum

At first I passed air mainly when having a pee but just before surgery I was having spasms in my pelvis several times a day and passing a little stool with each cramp.
 
J

Jandk

I have been searching for a while and this is the closest forum I can find to the topic I would like to talk about. I really hope someone helps me out with some info. My girlfriend has been dealing with serious Crohn's disease since she was about 17 and she will be 25 in February. She has had a rectal fistula she now has a bladder fistula pretty bad that she is urinating feces. It calmed down in the past week. We went today for them to put a camera up her bladder and find where the fistula is. Before doing the operation they gave her a urine test and she came back positive being pregnant and it was confirmed with a blood test. We hope to have a healthy baby and understand that there is a risk, and pretty much a mandatory C-section. If anyone has this problem and has had a baby while having a bladder fistula can you please tell us what happened and how the baby is now. We are really nervous and would just like to hear some hopefully positive stories!
 
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