seton drain

Hi Egommie - Sorry you are having to deal with this. Does your CR have any clues as to what has caused you abscess? I would tend to agree with you and think that healing would be much faster in a person that does not have an active disease perpetuating the abscess/fistula. Those types of surgeries are typically not very successful with people with IBD because they do not address the main cause behind the fistulae and abscesses. I have a peri-rectal abscess at the moment and have chosen to just let it be as opposed to surgery because of that reason. Fortunately for me, it does not really hurt and I don't notice it at all during intercourse. Does your hurt? Do you have any other symptoms? If the MRI is showing a collection that is draining, I don't think there is much you can do externally to speed recovery. Have you tried antibiotics? Technically, you have an infection in your body that is draining, so I think you need to address the infection.

I'm sorry I can't offer any more. Congratulations on the birth of your son and I hope for a speedy recovery! If I were you I would persist in finding out what caused the abscess and screen for any other diseases that cause them just in case.

The fissure and constipation would make a lot of sense with regards to the cause of the abscess. Although, it is weird to not be taking an antibiotic at least to prevent it from reforming.

As with regards to intimacy, what has your CR surgeon said? I had a recto-vaginal fistula (still do, actually). The seton thread through and came out both sides and tied off in a loop on the outside. I had it for probably two years, getting it just a few months after I got married. Sometimes it would ache during intimacy, but not too badly. I waited until after the pain of the surgery itself went down a lot. But it really didn't hurt anything to be intimate; my surgeon reiterated numerous time that it was okay to be intimate. I'm glad your husband is patient! Mine is too, and I am so grateful for that.

I totally get feeling depressed about all of this. I was doing pretty well with my health until about 3 months after I got married. Then I started flaring, got the abscess that turned into the RV fistula, got pancreatitis, was on a feeding tube, and got c. diff. a few times. 13 hospitalizations in my first 10 months of marriage! Then I got pregnant a couple of months later (surprise, the pill doesn't work for me!). The pregnancy went pretty well, but when my daughter was 3 months old, everything went crazy again. I was hospitalized 10 times from when she was 3-8 months old. Talk about depressing! There was a woman in my church group who was practically raising my daughter while my husband worked (he'd only been at this new job for about 6 months), and I was just stuck in the hospital: c. diff., abscess, pancreatitis, I went septic twice, influenza, you name it!

So I really, really totally get how frustrating and hard this is! For me, my faith helped a lot. I can share more about that if you want, but I get that not everyone wants that answer and I don't want to push it. :)

So by the time we started Remicade (which is supposed to help fistulae heal), we took out the seton but I kept getting c. diff., and it never closed. We stuck the seton back in for a year and half, and last year when I was healthy and in remission, we took it out again and tried a plug surgery to stimulate growth. Unfortunately, by that time, the skin around it had all healed, so it's a lot like a pierced ear. So now I just deal with it! It's really, honestly not that bad at all. The only time I notice it's there is if I try to hold back gas and it comes out my vagina instead, lol.

I know when it hurts and is there, it's hard to be able to relax about it. The decision I've come to about my health is this: I can't change it. It's there, and I'm just going to assume it's going to be this way the rest of my life. So I can either be depressed about it, or I can choose to be happy. Neither attitude will change the circumstances, so I'd rather just be happy. It's not easy some days, but that's what I try to hang onto.

You may also want to talk to your OB - it is super common to get postpartum depression, and people with hard conditions can also struggle with situational depression. There is NOTHING to be ashamed of or embarrassed about either (or both).

I totally get it. I'm a clean freak, too. I'm also pretty private, so to have all this happen was really mortifying. However, with the second abscess (which was near the vaginal and anal openings), they sent me home with packing still in and it needed to be packed every morning and afternoon so that it wouldn't turn into a fistula. The problem was, it was painful and in a place I couldn't see or reach, so my husband had to do it. Nothing is much more humbling than having your husband have to pack your wound for you down there!

I don't share this with you to make you feel like you don't have it all that bad at all - rather, so you know that you're not alone in this! There are people who get it.

Are you exercising at all? I've found that putting my daughter in a stroller and going for a nice walk (so nothing intensive or aggravating) really helps improve my mood. I don't want to do it most days, but I notice a huge difference when I do. I also listen to uplifting and classical music while I do it, or even listen to scriptures.

If you'd like, I can send you an email with some more perspective that I've found that helps with (from a faith basis). Again, not trying to push, but I know it's helped me a whole lot to view things the way that I do. I just don't feel completely comfortable sharing it in an open forum, since not everyone has the same beliefs and I don't want to come across as pushy or anything.

:) You do not sound like a drama queen!

I understand, when I was first married and got sick, I was glad when my husband wasn't there for check-ups, etc. By this point, though, I guess I am just really used to it.

What is your email address?

Sent you an email! I don''t know much about the LIFT procedure, I'm sorry. And teething babies are rough! You can alternate ibuprofen and tylenol every 3 hours; that was the only thing that helped my daughter when she was teething (and still is, actually, ugh).