Question for blueglass or others with perineal wound that didn't heal

Blueglass I noticed in your signature that you had additional surgery for your perineal wound that wouldn't heal. Was this the wound from them removing the rectum and anus!? What kind of surgery did they do?

Mine is not fully closing and I'm still seeing my surgeon about it. I see him again in 2 weeks. My CT last month showed no infection. I am still seeing drainage so assuming it is still not closed all the way. He mentioned briefly if it didn't heal sending me to a plastic surgeon and doing something with muscle from my inner thigh. Kind of freaked me out.

I'm 5 months post op. So when I see him again I will be close to 6 months. He didn't tell me how long we would wait before more surgery, he mentioned it and then said we will worry about that later I will see you in 4 more weeks.

I know someone who it took 12 months to heaal and others mentioned seeing a wound nurse. I just keep seeing my surgeon at 4 week intervals. He never mentioned having me see the wound nurse. He did a couple things to me that were a little uncomfortable last time so I was hoping that would close it but 2 weeks later still draining!!

I am in zero pain or discomfort though so not complaining! Just tired of seeing the Dr!

I'm definitely not rushing into more surgery. That's why his comment didn't sit well with me. I feel very lucky to have made it through 3 surgeries with no infections or major complications so I don't want to test my luck!

The area is very small and I don't even know if I could get anything in there.

My rectal inflammation was so bad at surgery I had some vaginal, cervical, and bladder issues. All were inflamed plus the fistula. Last time he mentioned he was looking for any vaginal complication or connection to the open wound. So I kind of felt like he feels better with him keeping an eye on it than a nurse. Who knows!!

He did burn it with some silver nitrate last time and it has improved since then, but still not quite closed yet. That was 2 weeks ago.

Yes, the wound that didn't heal was from removal of my anus. I was working with a nurse, and we tried a bunch of things -- wound vac, different dressings and packing methods etc. My surgeon got a plastic surgeon involved, and he had me trying silvadene creme etc, and then one day he looked at it and said he could see perineum, and they said I needed to have surgery within a few weeks -- this was about 7 months after my original surgery. It turned out that I had a fluid pocket that was blocking the wound from healing, and there's nothing the nurse could have done that would have made it heal.

I had had an abscess a few days after I went home from my proctocolectomy surgery, where I had to go back to the ER and my surgeon came in at night to tear open some of my stitches and drain it. She said that if I hadn't been on prednisone and so sick, this would have been an outpatient thing, but I spiked a fever very quickly and it became a big deal. This abscess may or may not have been related to the wound not healing.

For the surgery on the wound, the colorectal surgeon fixed the internal issue and the plastic surgeon sewed it up in a fancy way. His protocol was no sitting or bending until it healed, and that was very difficult -- took three more months after some of the outer stitches popped. The wound didn't fully close for about two more years. We had been talking about another surgery, when my nurse tried a new product -- endoform, which was like a miracle -- the wound half closed in about two days after I tried it (after being the same for over a year) and then finished up in a month or so. Endoform works on particular forms of chronic wounds... .I was the first person she'd tried it on a butt wound, and so we were very pleased, but for some people it does nothing, depends on what the problem is (but it's cheap and worth a try).

In any case, if you haven't tried endoform yet, it's worth talking to your nurse about. Hang in -- it's a complicated place to heal a wound, but it definitely can heal, even if it lingers for a long time.

Saw my surgeon today for a 4 week follow up and he said my wound was definitely smaller than last time and very shallow. He wanted to try to burn it a litte again like last time because it appears that helped. it didn't hurt near as much and he said that was because it had closed more and wasn't as deep.

He is at a new hospital and the wound nurses in that practice recommend Medihoney. He said they never used it at the hospital where I had my surgery but they had a lot of success with it in this practice.

So I got some to see if it will help the last little bit heal!

Well I put the MediHoney gel on it 3 nights in a row and today is the first day that it has not drained at all. It's totally dry back there!!

Not sure if it was the silver nitrate on Friday or the MediHoney or timing but I'm happy!

I had never heard of Medihoney gel either. My brother works in Medical sales and I asked him about it. He said the wound doctors and wound clinics he works with swear by it. It heals all kinds of wounds quickly. After a little research seems like a good thing to have in the medicine cabinet. It is OTC but usually only found at Medical Supply stores or Hospital pharmacies.

Still doing good. I had stopped the Medihoney and then it felt a tiny bit sensitive again so back to using the honey and no issues. I think I will keep using it for a bit as it's easy and my bottom is doing the best since surgery! Thanks for asking!

Doing great! Thanks for asking. MediHoney seems to have healed the area completely now. I'm on vacation at the shore and have had no issues.

Awesome that you're healed now! Congrats. Aurum, hope the mediHoney works for you too -- you can also try endoform (see earlier) if you need another option.