I'm new here and posting on behalf of my 14 year old son who has been dealing with a fistula and abscess for a year now. He delt with the problem by himself for about 5 months before I got him to go see a doctor, and then we still didn't find out for a few months later that he had a abscess. I initially thought he had hemorrhoid. It bothered him to sit and to walk.. I know not common for a young person but he has a lot of other problems related to his Opitz G/BBB syndrome that would not normally happen to someone his age so I thought why not... The GI looked at his rectum and said it was not hemorrhoids he just had irritated skin and had us do sitz baths and blow dry his bottom to help keep it dry. The GI sees my other son and I love him dearly, he simply wouldn't have saw this thing because of where it was since he was laying on his back during the exam and we thought the problem was in the more in the actual rectum area.
3 months later, still dealing with the irritation, my son FINALLY comes to me and shows me this bump on his buttocks right near the top and along the crack. I convince him to go to our primary doctor to get it looked at and we finally get somewhere and find out its an abscess. He has us see the local general surgeon. She cuts and drains the abscess in the OR and sees that he has a huge fistula in between the cheeks ....(sorry I don't know all these technical terms yet) Initially she says he will need another surgery and then decides after his followup that it is healing well and she thinks just heal on its own. Says to keep doing the frequent baths.
About 3 weeks later the original abscess spot swells up again and becomes very painful once more. It seems to be swelled up and oozing for about 5 or 6 days and then feels better for 5 or 6 days. I call to see the surgeon again saying I think this is infected again and they schedule us to come in a few days later and by this time it has gone down again.... and she says its not infected its healing up good. She does not give him antibiotics and wont refill his pain medication she gave him right after surgery. We have done this twice.
Surgery was in October and its now January. All this time he is doing the 5 or 6 days on and off thing. Its leaking discharge and some small amounts of blood, has foul smell, and is very painful. Yesterday he is in the shower and it starts bleeding very badly. I take him to the ER and 3 doctors look at it say he needs to get into the surgeon and have something done with this. I had thought it was blood coming out of the abscess, but it was out of the fistula.
They sent samples to the lab to test him for mrsa and some other things, and put him on bactrim for a week. They did set him up an appointment with the same surgeon he had the first procedure with.... But I'm not sure I want to see her. It really bothers me that she will not give him any pain meds. He is 14 and has had 11 surgeries in his life for his various other medical problems related to his Opitz, which is a whole other story.... Point is that he has been through more than most adults and is a really good kid who isn't faking that this is painful to get some Tylenol with codine. Taylor, my son, is a special education student and hasn't talked at all in 5 years so is really hard him to get through to us what/where/how things are bothering him.
Either way I think I am scheduling him with another surgeon at a different hospital, I'm just wondering what your experiences are. Is a general surgeon okay, or is it going to be best to go a little further to see a colorectal type surgeon?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions. I will be spending the night reading as much of this page as I can to see what other things may help him feel a little better.
3 months later, still dealing with the irritation, my son FINALLY comes to me and shows me this bump on his buttocks right near the top and along the crack. I convince him to go to our primary doctor to get it looked at and we finally get somewhere and find out its an abscess. He has us see the local general surgeon. She cuts and drains the abscess in the OR and sees that he has a huge fistula in between the cheeks ....(sorry I don't know all these technical terms yet) Initially she says he will need another surgery and then decides after his followup that it is healing well and she thinks just heal on its own. Says to keep doing the frequent baths.
About 3 weeks later the original abscess spot swells up again and becomes very painful once more. It seems to be swelled up and oozing for about 5 or 6 days and then feels better for 5 or 6 days. I call to see the surgeon again saying I think this is infected again and they schedule us to come in a few days later and by this time it has gone down again.... and she says its not infected its healing up good. She does not give him antibiotics and wont refill his pain medication she gave him right after surgery. We have done this twice.
Surgery was in October and its now January. All this time he is doing the 5 or 6 days on and off thing. Its leaking discharge and some small amounts of blood, has foul smell, and is very painful. Yesterday he is in the shower and it starts bleeding very badly. I take him to the ER and 3 doctors look at it say he needs to get into the surgeon and have something done with this. I had thought it was blood coming out of the abscess, but it was out of the fistula.
They sent samples to the lab to test him for mrsa and some other things, and put him on bactrim for a week. They did set him up an appointment with the same surgeon he had the first procedure with.... But I'm not sure I want to see her. It really bothers me that she will not give him any pain meds. He is 14 and has had 11 surgeries in his life for his various other medical problems related to his Opitz, which is a whole other story.... Point is that he has been through more than most adults and is a really good kid who isn't faking that this is painful to get some Tylenol with codine. Taylor, my son, is a special education student and hasn't talked at all in 5 years so is really hard him to get through to us what/where/how things are bothering him.
Either way I think I am scheduling him with another surgeon at a different hospital, I'm just wondering what your experiences are. Is a general surgeon okay, or is it going to be best to go a little further to see a colorectal type surgeon?
Thanks in advance for your suggestions. I will be spending the night reading as much of this page as I can to see what other things may help him feel a little better.
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