Anal Fistula Treatment #1 - Revenge Of The Drain

I had my first fistula treatment on May 23, 2017. I had no idea what I was getting into, I thought I was going to get a seton or a fistulotomy. I had recently seen Alien Covenant and I remember telling the anesthesiologist that I was hoping that I would wake up to David and not Walter. I had "twilight" anesthesia, I wish it was the kind of anesthesia that would cause "Twilight" fantasies and I'd be riding on Edward's shoulders jumping on evergreens but I just blacked out and woke up in mesh underwear complaining that my butt hurt. My CRS stopped by and she told me that they couldn't find the internal opening to the fistula, which makes everything I went through for the next four weeks totally pointless. 

I went home totally in the dark as to what happened to me. It's been my experience that doctors (or at least my CRS) downplays everything. Yeah, I guess this is not a life and death surgery, but nothing could have prepared me for the aftercare. It was a complete shock that when I first used the bathroom post surgery, a 10 inch drain uncoiled from in between my butt cheeks like a snake. This drain was placed in the fistula, which was apparently so deep that my CRS was not able to place a seton. I thought that the CRS had forgotten to remove a drain from the surgery, but this monstrosity was sutured to my skin. Next to the drain was an open wound that was as big as a gum ball - a wound meant to help heal the perianal abscess. 

Something that surgeons tell you is that you should be able to resume "normal" activity within two days. HOW? I could barely move for the first two weeks with that drain, let alone sit or just be a functioning member of society. 

The drain was the bane of my existence. The smell permeated everything it touched - a toxic mixture of dirty latex, body and infected drainage that soiled everything it touched. Every week, I had to go to the hospital for a drain check - which means, that I would lay on my stomach, they would squirt contrast into the drain and take x-rays to see if the fistula had collapsed. I thought I was miserable with the drain and open wound but nothing could have prepared me for the contact dermatitis that I got from the fucking drain. I was so itchy I wanted to rip the skin off of my butt. 

After four weeks, my CRS removed the drain and performed an anal sonogram to try to find the internal opening to the fistula. After two very painful sonograms, my CRS was able to locate the internal opening and scheduled a surgery for the next day.