Hi all,
I had the fistulagram done this morning. It was an easy prep...lol there was no prep, nice considering I have my colonoscopy next week. The proceedure was pretty fast too. The radiologist asked if the aarea was sensitive but I am use to cleaning it with a qtip and having my surgeon placing a qtip in it to determine how deep he can get it into the fistula. I figure If I can handle the qtip and after seeing the Christmas tree tip as they call it I figured that would be less painful than needles with lidocane going into it.
For those who may have to have a fistulagram it was pretty simple. As I said they use a Christmas tree tip and place that on a syringe. The fluid that they inject is the dye they use for CT scans...the dye they use in the IV part of a CT. I was afraid that the dye would sting like it does when it goes into the vein but it didnt, after a little while it did sting a bit but the fistula will bleed at times too and maybe it is that blood connection with the dye that makes it burn.
There is no needle and they just place the tip of the Christmas Tree tip into the fistula. They placed a lead marker on my skin adjacent to the opening of the fistula so that it could be seen on the rads. the radiologist had me lay on my side while injecting then he took a few xrays then had my lay on my back and he took more xrays. My fistula is right under my belly button so I was able to see the whole thing. The machine they use for the rads is the same one that they use for the SBFT.
My husband and I are wondering how qualified these docs are altely. I asked the radiologist what intestine it was that the fistula was connected too. He said small, then I said hmmm my surgeon thought it was large since the feces coming out is viscous and when I was on pentasa the beads were also coming out of the fistula. The radiologist then injected more dye into the fistula then said oh yeah it does look like large bowel. Looks like it is the transverse bowel.....Like shoot had I not brought that up and when my scope will show exact point where the CD is active when those results come in after next week, and the radiologist would say small and the scope may not get into the small can you imagine when I get opened for surgery.
So really is it my large or is it my small intestine it is coming from? The pic is magnified so you cannot really tell by size of the intestine as far as circumfrence...just gets me frustrated, my husband too. He estimates that the fistula is approx 10cm from my stomach to intestine but again the pic is magnified and it is just an estimate. The line itself was very thin no wonder when the thick stool comes out it hurts like crazy. It appeared like maybe the width of a pin head and I am unsure of the amount of magnification used. This thing will not heal though you think with the width of the fistula this thing would be closed by now. It has been flowing since September and I was even on TPN trying to get it to heal up with no luck.