I had a superficial fistulotomy and fissurectomy on Thursday. the pain has been much more manageable than anticipated and I haven’t needed more than ibuprofen/tylenol. even BMs aren’t that bad. despite the pain not being too bad, I’m still feeling anxious and discourage about the recovery and the cleaning and the drainage, etc. It’s just kind of gross and sucks. I am also wondering how clean I need to keep things down there. after a BM I use a peri bottle, then take a sitz bath and then either peri bottle again or shower. should I be trying to look with a mirror to make sure its clean enough? I can’t even see most of the fistulotomy wound. maybe just 5mm of the end of it, so I don’t even know how I would tell if it’s clean enough. just feeling a little paranoid and want to make sure I can do everything possible to make my healing process go smoothly. when should I expect drainage to decrease? it decreased a little after the first day or two but has been stable since then.
u/Jealous-Gap-2389
I am one day post op from a superficial fistulotomy. fistula resulted from a chronic fissure. the doctor said that no internal sphincter muscle was affected and less tban 25% of superficial external sphincter. I have had minimal pain so far. Literally zero pain after getting home from hospital due to local anesthesia. that has since worn off and now pain is a 2-3/10. I havent needed the oxycodone yet. my biggest concern is that I just had my first BM, and I barely made it to toilet. now I’m worried about incontinence but maybe this is typical after surgery due to the inflammation? it was also very loose, likely From the mirlax I’ve been taking to try to prevent constipation, so I guess I will stop that. Good news is there was no real increase in pain involved but now I’m feeling paranoid About incontinence and having trouble holding it. Did anyone experience something similar?