Living with a Perianal Fistula

My journey started in December 2015 a few days before Christmas Day. I basically woke one morning with a massive lump about 5cm away from the right side of my anus.

It was the size of a golf ball - I couldn’t sit, walk or stand, it was so painful. I had to lean on my left side to sit but it was very hard to deal with as I had a Kidney Cancer operation in July and I had a large surgical incision that was still raw and healing on the left side under my boob, so putting pressure on this area wasn’t easy.

I went to the local doctor and he said you need to go to the hospital immediately, you have an rectal abscess infection and it needs to be drained.

So off to the emergency department I go. They admitted me and I went into surgery to have it drained. I woke up with a drain tube in my bum which was called a Seton Drain. As it turned out I acquired a Perianal Fistula.

This drain was in situ to keep the fistula tract open to allow the infection to drain out and not form another abcess.

This is where my story begins.

To this date I have had 24 operations on the fistula, so I am still waiting to see the outcome of my last surgery has worked or failed.

It hasn’t been an easy time, but I have learnt to live with the disease and I long for the day that I can say I am “fistula free”.

To read more of my journey for the past 8 years, please visit my personal blog on the Facebook logo below.

Wendy xxx