Baby having anal fistula surgery. Has anyones baby been through it?

[DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou]

I can't find anyone to ask who's been through it.

I'm A&E again today and he needs surgery. The surgeon said the pain after is "Bad. Very bad."

Now want you want to hear. My baby is only 6 months and already in pain.
I'm dreading it.

Aw poor baby! Which surgery is he having? I've had anal fistula surgery - obviously I'm not a baby, but can tell you what I had if it's similar!

It's a fistulectomy (I believe that's what it's called).

Basically they 'lay open' the fistula and let it heal from the inside out.

He has constant abscesses but now he has an abscess from the internal end of the fistula which is fucking horrible.

Aw poor thing. So I had two fistulas, and one they "laid open", and the other I had to have a seton stitch (basically a really thin rubber band) to keep it open to drain it, before it can have further treatment, as it goes through too many important muscles to be laid open.

The one that was laid open was quite near the surface, and to be honest was FINE, recovery wasn't too painful, and it was healed in a week or two. Obviously I had quite strong painkillers when I woke up from surgery, but after that it was just normal ibuprofen. As long as you keep it very clean, he'll be fine. The pain after wasn't that bad, even when I was doing a poo (which I had been really worried about!). It was SO much less painful than when I had the abscess/infection before the operation.

I hope it all goes well!

THANK YOU.

I really needed to hear that.
That's actually made me cry, this has been going on for months and I've been worrying so much.

His is very near the surface as well and he's currently passing poo against an actual abscess inside, so he's already suffering.

I'm so relieved to hear that it's not agonising pain.

You poor thing, OP, and your poor baby. Why on earth would a surgeon say that to you like that?! Honestly. I don't have any experience of this, but my baby did have to have surgery when he was very small and I understand the worry so well. I hope it all goes well.

Hi! Just managed to sign in to answer this. My son had anal fistula surgery at five months for two fistula. It was absolutely fine. The cuts looked awful but the first few days he wasn’t too sore because of the anaesthetic. And then they healed quickly. Worst bit was when he pooed and we had to change the dressings and saw how deep they were but as he wasn’t sore it was all dealable with. And it has all healed up beautifully and all fine now (he is two). Please ask if you want to know anything more about our experience - honestly it was so much better than we had anticipated and I understand how worries you must be

Thank you for taking the time to sign and and leave that message.

I've been posting on forums about this for the last 5 months and you're the first person who's had a baby that's been through it and replied. I'm so pleased to hear that it's not as awful as the surgeon described.

How were your baby's poos, were they soft? Did they give a stool softener after surgery to make it easier?
Did he get very upset during the first poo?
Did they have to 'pack' the site or was it literally left open?

Again thanks so much for your help.

Oh bless you. Honestly, the pain is so much less than the abscess. He'll feel immediately better after the first day or so. It sounds like you had a really shitty doctor!!

Oh and I took lactulose (which is suitable for a baby) for the first few days or so, just to soften it all up!

He isn't he one doing the surgery thankfully. It's another doctor who we're seeing in a couple of weeks. I'm hoping she is a little more gentle with her words, I need gentle words!

He had one fistula on each side, one of them branching to form two “exits”. They laid them open and then packed them with gauze - which we had to take out the first night we were home because of a runny poo (he was still exclusively breastfeeding so the poos were v soft). Neither doing the poo nor the clean up seemed to stress him out at all; I think that luckily the anaesthetic meant he couldn’t really feel it at all. I would say he was grouchier than usual once it wore off (the anaesthetic), but by then we could see the cuts were getting better so it wasn’t too stressful.

We went to the GP once post surgery as the edges of the cuts were white and we were worried they were puss-y but they weren’t, it was healing fine and did so remarkably quickly.

We obviously bathed him LOADS. You have probably been doing loads of salt baths already? Well - more of that!

Both my sons had a perianal abscess caused by a fistula (one at five weeks and 10 weeks; one at 5 weeks). Went through a very difficult and tiring time after they were saucerised, but they are both strapping men (18 and 16) now and as unpleasant as the hospital stay and constant redressing wounds was, they healed very quickly. Make sure you feel confident in how to dress sounds if necessary - we had mostly brilliant nursing but one cow who just shouted at me until the consultant intervened (she hadn’t seen him come on to the ward and he watched her for a bit, then had a very straightforward,
‘Professional’ word with her). My gp had never seen one so was very keen to learn, which certainly helped the second time around. Good luck and take care

Wounds

@movingbackinthesummer
I bath him every night, should I do it more often?
We don't add salt. What salt should we use?

Thanks for the advice and Sarah, thank you as well. I'm finding this information very helpful.

Hm well since he first got the abscesses which developed into the fistulae we were told that bathing in salt would help dry them out.

Bit of info here: www.thewomens.org.au/health-information/vulva-vagina/vulva-vagina-problems/abscesses

I don’t know if it made any difference at all tbh but we did like three a day. Used a lot of salt...!

I hope I’ve reassured you a little; honestly, it was all so scary before the surgery but then it was done and it was all ok. And still is, fingers crossed. Good luck. Let me know if you have any other questions. We were at Chelsea and Westminster by the way, which was great

Hi! I realise that this is a relatively old post but just wondered if your LO had the surgery in the end @DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou. Our 7MO LO is due to be operated on ASAP. Glad I found this thread! xx

Can I ask how you know there is an abscess? DGD sometimes bleeds after a poo. She screams and goes rigid but as soon as she has passed the poo she is back to normal. She has lactulose to soften them but still gets in a state.

Our LO had a fluid filled lump which ultimately ended up being diagnosed as an abscess. Although it has burst it continues to weep and refills and bursts every 7-10 days which is clearly uncomfortable. We also have irritability, crying in pain when sat in the car seat / buggy, multiple night wakings etc...

Sadly our dr wasn’t quick enough to diagnose and prescribe antibiotics which has led to it becoming a fistula. Hopefully your LO hasn’t got this @deste as it’s been a complete and utter nightmare.

Thanks for getting back. Can I ask how you knew there was a lump, did you see it or did the GP find it?

It was on the outside on our LOs bottom so very visible as about half a cm in diameter x