Coping With Fistulotomy

I just woke up at 4am to take another pain pill. I had my to-be-fistulotomy two days ago.

Basic info: had an abscess, twice; second time the dr. was smart enough to refer me to someone who knows what he’s doing (i.e. ‘you need surgery’). So, colonoscopy one day, fistulotomy the next. And I am embarrassed about talking about it, even though I should not be. Peri-rectal abcess and anal fistula.

The colyte prep for the colonoscopy is ridiculously bad. I have no suggestions for how to get through it; I gagged near the end and gave up.

Anyway, the other day, I had the surgery, except the doctor decided during the surgery that the fistula was too deep, so he did a fistulectomy instead of fistulotomy so instead of a wide-open tract, which involves cutting into the sphincter muscle, he just took out a huge chunk of flesh which does not involve muscle, but includes the fistula tunnel.

It’s only been 36 hours since the surgery, and I feel little pain in the actual surgery site, which is awesome, right? However, the intubation completely messed up my throat - very sore, very scratchy and bruised; hard to swallow/breath deep. Also, for some reason, my muscles hurt - I do not know if that is from the anesthesia or what. I am still trying to figure it out.

Nevertheless, these stories are meant to help people, yeah? Well, once I got the IV in, I don’t remember much about the times directly surrounding the procedures, so this entire process is mainly composed of anxiety and waiting and then healing and waiting. I have watched about 7 movies in the last 24 hours, but not many books because the pain meds make me dizzy.

I took a sitz bath today, but I did not feel any different. Maybe when I take several tomorrow, I will feel a difference.

I’ll come back after I have healed more and can sit in a chair for a longer period of time.

The stories here helped me a lot before my surgery, so I thought I would tell mine. Thanks.