Posted 1/4/2012 4:04 AM (GMT 0)
Hi, my dad has had a cutting seton in place for about 3 months now and is completely unsure what is normal and what isn't. The surgeon that placed it is very rude and doesn't like to answer any sort of questions and the last time he followed up with him was probably 2 months ago or so and the only thing he could say is that it wouldn't be in for a year...but not much else...
He's in complete agony every single day. He takes about 4 sitz baths a day and is trying to only use Tylenol and maybe Aleve when needed as he was taking hydromorphone but didn't want to get used to taking it as he has been on painkillers this entire year since March 2011 as he first had flesh eating disease and long story short, now has a cutting seton in place to drain an anal fistula. The doctor said it was in very deep soft tissue so I realize that it will be painful, but doing some research online about this, some people say that you'll be in pain for a few days, and others have it for a lot longer. I also read that some setons just fall out, and I read that a cutting seton specifically will fall out over time when it gets close to the skin? He's never had to go in to get this tightened and I've also read that people have needed to get that done, but my dad has never been told to come in and get it tightened...does it tighten on its own while it's healing? In the beginning he noticed quite a bit of draining as well, but he said that it's not draining nearly as much now...I'm thinking that maybe it's close to healing, but he made it sound like it's to high up to be close to the skin yet so I have no idea what's normal and what's not. The doctor hasn't scheduled another followup and just said to come see him only if there are problems, but this sort of thing is so foreign to all of us that it's hard to say what's a problem and what isn't. about a month or so ago he had to go in and get an abscess drained as he had noticed some swelling but that's only been the one time. He doesn't seem to be swelling now.
Lastly, he's started to notice some bruising around the area and maybe two or three areas of hardened almost cysts..that doesn't sound normal to me, but he's having plastic surgery in 3 days and doesn't want it to get delayed any further as he has been so uncomfortable this whole time.
I guess my question is has anyone else had anything like this? Can bruising be common sometimes with a seton? There's very minimal information about this sort of stuff online at least from what I can see and any info would help greatly!
Thanks