Fistula Surgery?

Has anyone experienced fistula surgery? I just had an "analscope" and they found one connecting my anus to my small intestine. Seems like surgery will be the only solution.

This explains my surgery complications. Must have been left over from my last abscess!

Don't have any idea what to expect for this. Please share your experience with me!

Wow Bev! Seems like you had your fill too!

I didn't start having fistulas until after surgery. I'm not sure what came first the abscess or the fistula! My first abscess was about 2 weeks post-op. It was drained then I immediately felt it coming back. They tried to treat it with double antibiotics...one being levoquin which activated the tendentious in my wrists. I was worried about the drug to as it interfere with steroids and I was also still on Predinsone. Of course "most" doctors never listen and whammy...both wrist went dead and left both hand tingling and useless! It hurt to type! And that was only after 3 days!

Well after treatment I went about 1.5 months and was feeling horrible in my pelvic area. Had an MRI and was told to immediately go to the ER! I had an even bigger abscess and it was starting to find it's way out through my anus. They did a fistula study and found one in the lower part of my small bowel. It healed while I was draining again for three weeks. You would have thought they would have check for fistula through my anus too as I had drainage through there.

Started exercising and felt discomfort in the anus area after power walking 2 mile for 30 minutes. Went to the ER when I saw drips of blood from my anus and the surgeon just wrote it off as Crohn's and told me to see my GI!

I've been diagnosed with UC and all tests always came back as UC....even the biggest biopsy (my entire colon) was diagnosed as UC. It just didn't add up! Luckily my GI is one of the few doctor who listens to the patient and I had a particle colonoscopy yesterday and he found about fistula at the dead end of my anus. I spoke with my surgeon's nurse and was was mentioning that the anus may now have to be removed which will be VERY painful. I still think that would be better than Remicade. I don't even know how Remicade would heal a fistula if it's not immune related. I was hoping they could just fix the fistula but then what happens if it another one come back?

Apparently there's fluid left over that my body isn't absorbing and it's tunneling it's way out causing the anal fistula. I think the first fistula was due to the drain being taken out. They could have nipped my small intestine on the way out.

Ohhh...the complications from surgery! It seem to have a domino effect on me.

So Bev how did fistula surgery wind up with getting an ileostomy? Were some of them in your colon that couldn't be fixed by surgery? Did they remove your anus too? My surgeon left mine in so I could have a j-pouch if I wanted. I guess that's out of the question if I got this anal issue!