oh man, don't even get me started on FIstulas.. hehe
I've had 5 surgeries so far on this Fistula, and nothing seems to be working.
My original surgeon put me on a combination of Citpro, and FLagyl, for like 2 years, but never did anything but give me diarrhea and enduced flaires.. I found out later, from another surgeon, thats because antibiotics "throw off" the bodys natural bacteria levels, by killing off both GOOD and BAD bacteria in the body.. Doctors have known that for years, but what they don't know about are probiotics that are used to replenish the body of good bacteria that antibiotics rob the body of...
anyway, I've tried it all, I had a seton in for years and still had to be poaked from the outside just as if I never had a seton placement to start with, so taht didn't work,
they drain the thing about once a week now, otherwise it abscesses into a big baseball and has to be surgically drained with a drain put in for a few weeks afterwards, so to avoid that, I go in to my surgeon about once a week to have the area poaked with a 13 inch long needle with a ball on the end of it that blows air in it to get all the pussy stuff collecting out.. Seton's don't help with that at all..
like yours, it started out being a small tree branch, but has since branched off into several branches.. Normally, he says, they do a FIstulotomy to fix that (cutting off the part of the rectum where the fistula is at) but they can't do that with me because of where the Fistula is located, its right thru the spincter muscle, and if they cut that, that would mean, loss of BM control the rest of my life, meaning adult diapers, which I am way too young for that, I'd rather have a colostomy bag then go thru all that, but my doctor won't do that either, because he says a colostomy won't fix the problem, although I don't see why a temporary colostomy couldn't hurt? you'd think it would have a better chance of closing up if BM wasn't running thru it all the time, wouldn't ya think? but my surgeon doesn't seem to think so...
anyway, this is the surgery I had done most reciently.
Surgesis Anal Fistula Plug
in this procedure, if you read the article, they take living tissue from pigs I guess, and implant it into the FIstula area, using it as a plug... It had an 87% success rate, so my doctor decided to try it.. and so far its not working too well for me, but it is working better then the Seton placement did.. I am thinking what happened, is the plug came out, so I'm thinking if they try it again, but this time keep me in the hospital afterwards for a few days to make sure it doesn't come out before the outside stitching heals up, it might have a better chance of working...
but instead, the doctor sent me right back to work the following day right after surgery, and it wasn't even 2 days later where I started to feel the plug coming out, but once it says in there its supposed to take the place of human skin, which is a really cool idea for these i think..
