Hi everyone! Like the title says, I wanted to come here and give an update now that it’s been 4-5 months since my operation.
Background: I’m a female in her early 20s with no IBD. Fistula first came February 2023 and I’ve had a seton, the LIFT procedure, another seton, the FLAP procedure, and then a seton again before finally having a fistulotomy. I switched to a new crs for the fistulotomy. Although my fistula is transsphincteric, it involved less than 30% (?) of muscle so the surgeon felt comfortable performing the operation.
Since my fistula is more complex than a typical one that would receive a fistulotomy, the wound was pretty deep. I’m not going to lie, the first 1-2 weeks were very painful but I got through it. I only took the prescribed oxy 2 or 3 times since I was so scared of being constipated. Friends and family were huge, as recovery is often as mentally draining as it is physically.
By week 3 I felt significantly better, although my wound was still pretty large and draining a lot. It drained pretty consistently for at least the first 2.5 months. My surgeon recommended sitz baths so I did those religiously for about the first 3 weeks, and then slowly started to fall off (probably sooner than I should’ve). I made sure to wash well in the shower, and I also use a bidet which helped a LOT!
I started having sex again about a month after my operation. I did still have the wound, but with no pain so my doctor said it was fine. His general advice was “if it hurts you probably shouldn’t be doing it”. I have a long term partner, so it helped me feel less self conscious and I just made sure to clean very well before and after.
By month 2 the pain was pretty much gone, just drainage that was pretty annoying. I started slowly working out again but kept everything pretty low impact. No weights, mostly just light cardio.
Wound healed pretty fast at first and slowed down significantly the past 2 months. I had scar tissue so I had about 4-5 (?) applications of silver nitrate every 2 weeks or so. He told me there was a chance I’d need another operation to clear out some of it, but at my last appointment he said it actually has healed a good deal and applied some more silver nitrate and told me to come back in 2 months. I have pretty minimal drainage, and don’t use gauze most days. No pain, but sometimes an itch. It’s still not fully healed, but it’s only a very small bit compared to the original wound. He’s cleared me to go back to life as normal! Fingers crossed that I will be officially healed my next appointment