Coping With Fistulotomy

The date is July 3, 2009 and I notice that I can hardly sit down. I have been keeping my weight off of my right butt cheek for a while without even noticing it. I’ve always sat with one foot tucked under me and when I tucked my left foot underneath my right butt cheek that’s when I felt like I was going to scream. I have had trouble with constipation and hemhorrhoids (spelling) most of my life so I thought I was just having another flare up. I had previously had 2 (count them 2) surgeries for hemhorrhoids and a couple in the office taken care of that were thrombosed (on the outside). Well that particular day I started feeling real bad (flu like symptoms) and my hiney had this red hard knot on it! I called my “Butt Doctor” and of course it was the day before a holiday AND it was after hours when all this happened, but he was a trooper and met me at his office and informed my husband and I that I needed immediate surgery because I had an abcess that was caused from an ulcerated fissure (from the last hemhorrhoid surgery that didn’t heal well). BTW, it was a different doctor! I stayed overnight and went home the next day and ended right back at the hospital 3 days later with an impaction from the pain meds. They put me back to sleep to clean me out. Talk about a nightmare!! Two months later I had a colonoscopy and the next day they removed the drains from my anus and buttcheek and put in a “plug”. On December 22I was in tremendous pain and called his office and told them that I believed it was beginning to abcess again. After his examination I checked in the hospital on December 23 for surgery. He removed the plug and put the drains back in. He told my husband that there was a pocked about the size of a thimble that kept getting infected. So yesterday (1/11/10) after meeting with my doctor and his associate they have decided to perform a procedure that has been around a few years called “The Lift”. With my being a female, they’re trying to save as much anal muscle as possible. So, my next and hopefully final surgery is scheduled for 1/27/10. My prayer is that this one works because the alternative is to cut it and lay it open to just heal from the inside out with the possibility of incontinence! I live on Miralax every morning, plenty of fluids throughout the day, vegetables, and stool softeners every night. Not clogging up these pipes again!! I hope my story can help someone out there :})