fistula now present from crohns surgery -- FISTULAGRAM tomorrow please help

34 year old male - crohns disease for 20 years.

Hi I'm so nervous for an exam I am to have tomorrow.o hope someone can help me out and give me some input.
I had surgery July 1st of this year mainly because a fistula from my small bowel to my bladder had just become too annoying to live with. I had the surgery at Cleveland clinic Florida.
Making a long story short they "fixed" the fistula and resected two parts of the bowel. They had to remove some of the 30+ staples to allow a small infected area around my belly Hutton to heal. The crazy thing that kept happening which has has hospitalized me three separate times is that once the open portion of the wound heals and closes up within a few days the area becomes hard like a football and ultimately opens up and fluid temporarily flows out. The surgeons at first attributed this issue to a small abcess that would hopefully clear up. This brings us to today - I am back in the hospital for the 3rd time post surgery. This past Wednesday the wound again opened up causing me to be admitted to the Clinic.

Now their telling me there HAS TO BE A NEW FISTULA causing all these problems and that I need imminent surgery to remove the new fistula and to ensure the connection of the bowel post recection was done perfectly so there's no leakage there.

As of this minute the reason on very nervous is because the scheduled me for a FISTULAGRAM tomorrow morning. Usually they diagnose the fistilae whole under general anesthesia during a colonoscopy or cystoscopy but iclve never had this fISTULAGRAM.

The current opening of the fistula at the skin is a very very small hole, about the size of a blunt end of a qtip. Can anyone give me insight as to what really this test consists of? Does it hurt? Any suggestions?

Please help I'm so nervous
Thanks
Josh

Post Edited (joshfelz) : 10/17/2010 9:34:22 AM (GMT-6)

Saw you got no responses yet. Was curious as to what you would have to go through so googled it. This is what I found and it sounds like it won't be painful. Best of luck to you!!

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/vascular/procedures/fistulagram/


During the procedure:

•You will lie on an x-ray table with machines all around you. You will have a blood pressure cuff on your arm, a clip on your finger to make sure you are getting enough oxygen, and wires on your legs and arms to check your heart rate.
•The nurse will give you pain medication and a sedative, which will help you relax, before the procedure. The nurse will give you more medication if needed. You will feel relaxed, but you will be awake so that you can follow instructions.
•The area where the doctor will be working will be cleaned and shaved. You will be covered with sterile drapes from your shoulders to your feet.
•The doctor will insert small catheters into your fistula and may inject blood thinners.
•The doctor will inject the dye. The technologists working with your doctor will take X-ray pictures.

When they checked my incision area which turned out to be a fistula prior to my fistula repair surgery I needed a test to verify where the fistula stemmed from etc...I think it was called a fistulagram but cant be 100% sure. I had to do a CT abd scan and they tracked it thru the fistula I cannot recall if they did other things but the only invasive part was the IV in my arm ( I have horrid veins) gl to you