Perianal abscess not healing

[LT89]

Hi everyone,
My boyfriend was operated on for a perianal abscess 7 months ago. Since June he has been attending the nurse every day to get the wound packed. The nurses have seen no progress in the wound healing and have tried several different dressings.
Has anyone experienced a similar situation?
Has anyone got any treatments?
Also has anyone had their wound packed by a loved one? I have offered to learn how to do this so he can get some of his freedom back but he says he doesnt want to put me through that. Has anyone got a success story?
We need some positivity!
Hope to hear from someone soon,
LT89

 

[Abby]

I just got surgery on my perianal abscess and they put a seton in. They said it was almost always done this way, as it helps keeping the wound open without having to repack everyday.

I would try asking about the seton since I know how painful repacking can be (I had a more superficial abscess earlier)

It happened a couple of days ago, so no results yet, but something to look into for sure.

 

[Grumbletum]

Hi there folks. Sorry to here you're both having such a hard time. Have you been over here?
I've not had this type of abscess, but there are lots of good folks on the subforum who have and will be able to give you some advice that will hopefully help.
Hang in there.

 

[connecticut]

I had this. Anal fissure that was packed. Slowly leaked anal fluid and I had to change the bandages and packing daily. I had the surgery done 3 times, all of which were unsuccessful (reopened or the packing Seton came out) before I finally said "Listen, you're not putting me under the knife again if it's not working".

Went on Remicade, the entire wound closed up and healed within a month and I was symptom-less for over 2 years. If I could go back in time, I would never have even had surgery once.

 

[AlliRuns]

I can relate, I have one of my perianal fistulas for over 7 years even with 2 surgeries.

 

[KWalker]

Oh the joys of perianal abscesses. I had my first surgery on November 11th, 2011 and again on December 1st, 2011 and I'm still draining/healing today (a year later). Mine incision was quite large (7.5") so it was quite extreme, but these takes a long time to heal. Just think, every time you go to the bathroom you are basically irritating the area and stopping healing. The ideal obviously would be to stop going to the bathroom, but knowing that is impossible, it just takes patience.

My fiancee learned how to pack mine and she made things so much easier. She was actually much better than the "professional" nurses I had. Because of this, we could take as much time as needed, and when I sore there was no rush to get the packing changed so we could take breaks. This was also much better because at times I was having it changed 5x a day. At first I felt the same as him, but once she learned it made me so much more relieved.

I'm assuming if you're posting in concern for your boyfriend and wanting to help change his packing you're atleast in the late teens/early 20's or even older. I'm a 22 year old male for comparison. I know it's the last thing any guy wants to do but I actually wear female pads (for periods) because of drainage and prior to this I've had a few incidents where I was out and after sitting it now looked like I had an accident but really it was just the pressure causing drainage. As much as it sucks wearing pads, it has helped me so much by avoiding the drainage onto my pants and actually the padding helped ease pain of sitting.

I have a thread called lots of blood/pus (could be lots of pus/blood) and I think if you checked it out it could really help you guys. Feel free to pm me if you have any "graphic" questions you don't feel comfortable posting

 

[debbie261]

Please take abscesses very seriously,my oncologist told me my anal cancer was caused by so many abscesses over the 20+years I have had Crohn's.The cancer was a nightmare and I am left with colostomy which I HATE and have severe leakage problems even with 2 colostomy surgeries to try and make it better.Please have regular cancer screenings.