Percutaneous drainage of internal fistula

[KazO]

Hi everyone,

I found out last Monday I had a fistula from my ascending colon to the retroperitoneal space (near my kidney) and an abscess had formed. Got fevers on the following Friday and got admitted for IV antibiotics and then they put a drain in my back with a bag attached....

So now I am walking around with a bag attached to my leg for the next few weeks!! Have to taper down my Predenisone so that they can do a resection to get rid of the fistula as both my gastro and surgeon have said it isn't going to heal by itself...

Has anyone else had anything like this? It is just an ongoing saga at the moment, but at least I can hide the bag and try to get on with a bit of ordinary life- despite being on heaps of pain meds....

Hope that everyone eles is doing well :0

Cheers,

Kaz

 

[kello82]

hi there

ive never had this exact situation but ive actually talked to someone who did the whole drainage pouch deal. it sounds pretty awful, i must say.

from what she said it seemed she was able to maintain her life as was usual for her, she said she wore a lot of skirts cuz they covered the pouch thing better.
how big is it? i mean would wearing leggings under your regular pants or clothing be more comfortable to kind of hold it in place or would that compress it too much? just a thought.

though i didnt ever have a drainage pouch, i have had many fistula and abcess situations over the years, but for me they were always in my buttcrack region. i did have drains placed though, but they kinda just did their thing with no pouch i guess.

are you still on both pred and anti-b's? pred makes it harder for your body to fight infection, so hopefully they will get you off that soon. also if the oral anti-b's dont seem to do enough then another option is to get a PICC line and you can do IV meds at home. i have had that a few times and while though a hassle, better than being in the hospy for something you can do at home.

i know your docs said it wont heal, but there is a chance, fistulas DO heal sometimes. it may be the location or something that they think it is unlikely to heal, not really sure.
for example a few years ago i had a rectovaginal fistula (fun times) that gave me issues, but somewhere along the way the sucker just closed itself off. so thankful that one decided to go away eesh...

good luck

 

[tpd320]

I have had three abcesses drained. The first one, they missed it when they inserted the drain. That one they had to go in and surgically remove. Boy what a relief. Pain was awful. The second and third one they were able to hit and drain pretty fast. Had the drain in for about four or five days. Hurt like he'll when they pulled em out. They were in there deep...