cutting seton- OUCH!

I had my seton tightened for the first time on Monday and it HURTS.

For those of you who have had one of these, how many days can I expect to feel like this? I'm trying to work but just want to go home and curl up on the couch with a blanket... ibuprofin is not really helping.

Help :(

jesflr337 I feel your pain, it's not easy is it? I know you've probably heard it a thousand times before, but warm salt baths regularly will help soften things up and keep things numb, even if its just temporarily. Thank god that seton is in there clearing up the area. My butt is still very scarred from my mushroom drain and seton but nobody sees it so I consider it an OK place to have a big, messed up scar :)

When I had my seton in at work i brought in a giant, bright stripey pillow, gentle for my bottom, and sat on it sort of 'sideways' so that i was putting pressure on the cheek that didn't have the seton. It helped a lot. And in my lunch breaks I would take naps and avoid walking as much as possible. If you subtly let people know what is happening, they might be more considerate and make it so you don't have to move around much.

I know what you mean about the 'healing' pain; its much more pleasant than the other, sharp, intense, infected pain. Wishing you a speedy recovery!! :)

I have had great success with setons/mushroom drains and that was with severe colo-rectal crohn's, so I am optimistic you will do fine :)

Glad you have a good surgeon too, it really does make all the difference!

Oh hun, I know that feeling, I know it so well. One morning after I'd had my 2nd mushroom catheter surgery for a branching abscess, I was at work and I read something on the forum that just upset me so much, something to the affect of this disease changing my life forever, and I just lost it, I ran into a conference room (empty) and burst into tears. I rang my dad and asked "do you think this is going to be my life??" - i was so desperately miserable and it did feel like it was never going to end.

Don't get me wrong; it did take months and months and months to heal, and at the time it felt like I would never again sit down properly. I used to look at people in Ikea, sitting away, slamming their butts onto chairs without giving it a second thought, when sitting down/getting up, into and out of cars was agony for me.... but I am confident that if you have a good surgeon and setons in place, things can only get better for you. Straight after surgery is the worst time, it can only get better from here. It will be slow and steady, but it will happen. My Mushroom was put in in June/July, and the scars are still healing, but I don't look 'back there' all that often any more, because I know the fistula is healing up nicely.... I can feel it (or NOT feel it) ;)

soon you won't even feel those setons, they will just be sitting there, doing their job - by the time mine was ready to be taken out with a little snip, I didn't mind it being there at all!

Hi Ashton, I happened by and saw your post.

I have only good news to share today :) I had the cutting seton about a year ago, it finally fell out on its own. That incision healed up nicely but I still felt (even in this thread I was feeling it) that there was something else going on down there. I still had a lump and was having a small amount of drainage. Went back to my excellent surgeon and had another surgery in July of last year. This time I didn't get a cutting seton, just a nice large incision I had to pack and keep clean. I followed up with my surgeon every few weeks to manage the healing and was discharged about October of last year!! He's still a bit baffled by my case and the length of time it took to figure me out, and we're still not sure if I have Crohn's or not. I've not had any symptoms recently, although for awhile there around the holidays I was worried something was flaring up. He thinks it was my nerves regenerating. At least I know what to expect and who to go to if something happens again. We're on our way to starting a family and hoping everything stays stable. Good luck to you! My seton was the most painful in the days after the surgery, and the day of tightening, but that tissue healed remarkably well in my case.

Hi Harley! Very coincidentally I had two setons placed last night. I don't completely understand the situation, but I can share what happened so far, and check back as I get used to the setons. I had 2 abscesses, one on each side, which were originally treated with drainage tubes which just hung from my bottom. One I cleaned by myself and had for a month, the other was placed Saturday, but upon evaluation on Sunday it seemed like neither drain was working really well. I believe you are usually put under anesthesia for this kind of surgery, but I'm pregnant, so I was just given a spinal block. The surgery itself took about 45 minutes, but again, I had two. They used some kind of air pump and a probe to find out if my abscesses had fistulas, which they were forming from. They actually found out I have a horseshoe fistula which is feeding both abscesses. I don't know if you have an abscess or any pain, but initially after the surgery I felt better than I had before. There were some rough spots, where I had a lot of pain, but they did give me pain medicine to manage the pain. I think they would probably give a non-pregnant person more pain meds than I got. Initially I had a lot of swelling, and there's still a lot of drainage, but the swelling's gone down and it's not even 24 hours after the surgery. There are little tail like things sticking off the setons where they are tied, which is a little weird. I'm still in the hospital finishing up a round of IV antibiotics. If you have any questions, let me know, and I'll answer any questions I can. I'm still learning, so I'll be interested in the conversation on this board. Keep us posted!

Hey Harley, thanks for the congratulations! I'm sorry to hear you're going through this. A seton is strung in a loop, so my loop is through my abscess, through the fistula, and back out my rectum where it is tied. If yours was the same way as mine (which I don't really know) it would seem they would loop through your rectum, through the fistula, and back out your vagina. I don't know if it would be different though. I can see the seton bands, I have two due to the two abscesses, and can feel them right now, and they are painful at this point. However, my surgeon told me that this is the absolute best kind of drain to have, it is what he would want if he were to need the procedure. He said once it heals that I won't even know it's there. It should require little care, just cleaning after a bowel movement, which he said to do in the shower or with a wet towel. Seton's can stay in indefinitely, but I do think there are different situations with them. I read earlier in this post that someone said their seton needed to be tightened. I asked my dr. today and he said that that is not my situation. Mine can stay until they are ready to be cut out. It is certainly less of a procedure than a colostomy. I was awake for my surgery, under a spinal block. Our disease is awful, and there are often a lot of unpleasant decisions to be made. I'm still in the hospital and adjusting to my setons, but I do feel this is the right decision, in the end I'm told I'll be able to resume all normal activities with the setons in place. Keep me posted, Harley. I'll be thinking about you.

Jesflr337-Did your cutting seton cut by being tightened? Or was that just the nature of the band? I feel like I don't have all the answers about mine, so reading your post was really helpful :) The squeeze bottle sounds like a good idea! Did you use just water, or some kind of sterilizing solution? Did your seton fall out because it untied, or because it cut all the way through your fistula and abscess? Thanks for posting your story!

Thank you both so much for your responses. I am headed for my EUA next Tuesday. Still nervous but willing to do anything to avoid having a colostomy. I have one last question. Do any of you know if having a seton placement for a RV fistula would cause any intimacy issues? In my head I am assuming that it would be placed in the vaginal area and I am imagining that the end would be exposed out of the vaginal area? Thanks again for your help :)