Fistula Surgery Thursday, help please

Okay a brief summary. I'm 17 years old and i was having pain in my rectal area last year in December, after so much pain I went to the ER and they told me I have a perirectal abscess, so they drained and packed it. I was good after about 3 days but I was bleeding like crazy, I went to a follow up but I was told it didn't look like it was healing, I ended up seeing a surgeon and he told me it was healing, and to come back in 3-4 weeks to examine it. I was still draining and I had blood in my underwear, I wasn't having pain for a while but then the pain came back, so I thought the abscess was back so I was too ready to see the surgeon again But because hospitals wouldn't take our insurance I didn't see the surgeon again until a week ago, I was told i might have a fistulant, but he assured me I didn't have Crohn's disease which was a relief. He said surgery was needed, so I'm going to the OR this upcoming Thursday, how long will I be out of school for this? Is it a chance the fistulant will return? This has been bothering me for a while

A couple of questions:
1) why did the surgeon say that you don't have Crohn's? Honestly, surgeons suck at deciding that. You need a GI to go through the testing process (colonoscopy, etc). The reason I say that is that surgeries aren't the most successful

2) did the surgeon ever talk to you about packing the area of the abscess after it was drained? If not, you may want to talk to him about it.

3) is this a general surgeon or a colo-rectal surgeon? My general surgeon won't touch my abscesses or fistulae with a 10 foot pole. He once told me when I was moving to another state that if another general surgeon tries to convince me that these are easy surgeries, to run away as fast as I can and find a different one.

As for answers to your question about school, etc., it all depends on the kind of surgery that you're going to have.

aimz said...
Hi Rustic, your situation sounds remarkably similar to mine, though after my abscess I waited for 8 years before going back with the symptoms - it was an awful 8 years!
I had a fistulectomy - the tissue was cut away to leave an open wound which healed up (I didn't have a seton as some people did). I was house bound for a week, and very (over) cautious about the wound. IT was dressed daily - luckily my mum is a nurse so she did it, I would have a shower after a BM and she would pop round from work and clean/dress the wound. I was out and walking after a week with no pain (still dressing the wound daily) and was 'fine' after three weeks. I had a little over-granulation but that was my own healing issue rather than anything surgery related.
Do you know what kind of surgery you are having? As with many things the thought of it is worse than the actual event, and the worst bit for me was actually the GA!
If you stay as positive as you can and try not to worry I'm sure it will all go smoothly

I'm sorry I'm still trying to get used to how to work this forum, plus I've been out of it for several days, but I had a fistulotomy. They placed a seton in the area, so I've been in pain