Recto-Vaginal Fistulas - Part 5

Upset, I had already planned the surgery and was promised that even if it failed it would not get bigger...It was still there just easier to deal with pinsized. Then I had the surgery and it got BIG, that is why I have the ostomy. Yes, I have heard women on sites say that they got repaired without an ostomy. Yes, there are women who only have to have one surgery.... Everyone is so different. How are you doing????

Bea and Penny-hey, ladies...B

Upset/Guest,
When you have an ostomy I don't think a diet change would do much as nothing reaches your colon, everything comes out ahead of time. My second surgeon didn't recommend the silver nitrate but I know my first one used it on another patient.
How is everyone doing? I am in for a busy weekend, giving my tolerance for the unknown a test. I'm never sure how my day will be. Work seems to go well. If I do a lot of sitting and have easy access to a bathroom I'm fine. If I'm walking a lot with no bathroom in sight I get nervous. I think I need to do more of that and open my horizons!
Thinking of you all. How are you doing Bea? B?
Penny

Hi all,

Thanks for the answers to my questions.
I'm sorry Penny-i guess i must be confusing...i meant diet chenges prior to ostomy, as in trying to make stools firmer so that they bypass the fistula (if it is only small, ie pin size) or maybe even positional changes to avoid stool/gas passing. Why did your CRS not recommend silver nitrate?
I'm guessing my fistual is approx pin sized currently-its seems from the site that more often that not things dont get corrected on first go so thats why i want to try everything before surgery. I am doing ok considering thanks B.
I know its kinda not an immediate concern, but i am missing being sexually intimate with my husband-its been almost a year since we had sex, initially because of some potential concerns with bleeding during pregnancy now this. My husband says he doesnt mind either way, but I know its affecting our relationship.
I am just curious if anyone did/does have sex with a small fistula, if it made any changes to the fistula, and whether your CRS has said anything about it. My CRS said its upto me, and doesnt know whether it would make a difference to the fistula-so that just makes me think no...
erggggggggghhhhhhh...sorry to all for the complaining! Anyway, hope everyone is doing well and having a good weekend!!

Upset,

Talk to your Dr., but I believe you should not have any problem with sex, you just have to get past feeling uncomfortable about it. I understand what you mean about not having sex and the way it strains your relationship. It is real tough--I can't still...so I hope that I can get the refersal and move on. Any question you have, ask, please. This whole thing stinks.... we know...

Penny and Bea, hey...had a great day! went starwberry picking, animal petting zoo, had a great meal with friends, life is good. However strawberrys are not so good with the ostomy, ha.

Be good ladies, B

Hi. I'm so thankful that I found this site. I gave birth to my daughter 3 months ago and have been having gas passed through my vagina ever since. Like others have shared I attributed this to probably being normal since I just gave birth. It started out happening every once in a while and now it seems to be happening more often and when I am in certain positions like others have described. I am incredibly embarrassed by this and haven't discussed this problem with anyone. I even waited for my husband to go out of town before I looked anything up on the computer because I didn't want him to see. I actually got on the computer to google this expecting to find out that it is a common side effect of childbirth and will go away soon. I had no idea I was going to find anything about fistulas. I had never heard of them before. So far I haven't had anything but air pass through so I'm guessing it must be small.
I have just spent hours reading every one of these posts and a lot of the questions I have had have already been answered but, I do still have one question that I haven't heard anyone else mention so I'm not sure if it's a separate issue or not.
After giving birth my husband and I waited 7 weeks before trying to have sex. It was very painful. So we didn't try again until 12 weeks after giving birth. The problem is not what I would describe as normal discomfort. The pain is on the vaginal wall and is in one spot. It feels as though something is sticking out and getting scraped. I do not feel this at all doing normal everyday things. The first time I felt it was when the ob did an exam at my 6 week check up and it literally felt like she had a ring on scraping me. Does this sound like a side effect of the fistula? Or are the fistulas painless and this is probably something else?
Thank you in advance.
Emily

Hi everyone,
I was recommended by my CRS not to have sex until the fistula resolved itself. I guess the alternative is to find creative ways to meet your sexual needs. I suppose you could look at it like a challenge but I know how you feel and it is frustrating all around. Oh, and the GYN that was supposed to fix the fistula vaginally said I should have lots of sex because it had been so long since having sex I was very sensitive to his examination and he thought it would help me in the long run. Crazy making. I had an ostomy shortly after having the fistula which was constantly allowing material through day and night so there was no change in diet. My CRS, though, was talking about living with a fistula if it only bothered me when I had diahrea. I think that could be an option for some people.
B, glad you had a good weekend. Things have been going pretty well for me. Always good to see my daughter.
Penny

Hi all,
Just checking in. Emily - sorry to hear your story but glad the forum has helped. I am not sure about the sex question. When my fistual was not too bad I used to have sex no problem and no-one has ever told me not apart from after surgery. However my fistula the result of an bartolin cyst so it maybe different it it arises from childbirth. It sounds as though you do need it checked out though if it feels strange. It may be nothing to do with the fistula but you might worry otherwise.

Penny and B, I have heard from the hospital - my next repair is on 10 August. glad for the date so I can plan. I had another BM yesterday - not too much through the fistula but it bled a lot - I don't understand the bleeding it never did that before and I worry it is tearing ..... anyone any ideas?
Bea

Hey Emily, Glad you found this, but sorry for your troubles. Go see a CRS and see what is happening. Most likely, if you go back to your gyno. they will deny anything-

Penny-hey, are you off soon for the summer? I have two weeks left. YEAH...

Bea, How are you?

Be good all. B

Hi all,

Penny-Thanks...thats encouraging that your CRS said surgery may not be necessary...so occasional stool passing via vagina may not pose a long term health threat?
I am going to have a consultation with another CRS in the UK and will ask her some of these questions and see what she says.
Emily-I'm sorry you're in the same boat as us but yes this forum is great for getting support and some answers! I havent noticed any pain from the fistula (either through the day or on obs/gyn/CRS exam, though i havent had sex yet since). The pain may possibly depend on how high the vagina the fistula is.
Again, thanks all for some answers.
Hope everyone is doing as well as can be.

Penny, wow, I can't believe that your GYN said that! Are you still going back to him or are you going to a different one now? Also, just out of curiosity, when you say creative, did you have an ideas you could share? :)

Hi Bea, just to be a bit nosy, have you talked to your doctor about taking something aside from morphine? I think that it's a pretty heavy duty painkiller and that they've got other options if you don't like the effects.

Hello all,
Emily, I've never heard of anything like you mentioned having to do with a fistula before. It sounds like you need more information to make sure all is well or if not what to do next.
Upset, I'm not sure whether or not I was clear with my last post. I had a flap surgery that wasn't successful, then I was in line for a vaginal repair and somehow, on the way, the fistula closed so I never had the second surgery. I did have an ostomy that needed to be reversed. I don't think having stool passing through vaginally will result in infection, necessarily.
Bea, I'm glad you have a new date to look forward to. I hope this is your last. You have been through so much already.
B, I don't have the summer off unfortunately. I have 2 weeks I'm taking though to visit my daughter in CA. REally looking forward to that. I just went to a conference with some school adjustment counselors and they were all talking about vacation. How long before your reversal? That will deserve some celebration!
Penny

Penny-the end of July! But I am still nervous it is there...I wonder if like you, it would resolve if unattended to and given time to heal...(if there) so I hope I won't get another surgery and wake up with the ostomy still...but I am just waiting....
I went to grad school in CA, are you biking...my garden is looking great, by the way! and I only have about a week left. YEAH! SUMMER!

Bea-Yeah for August!

Ladies, be good!!!!!!!

Hi there
I'm new to this list - thanks Penny for telling me about it! I've been active at the I Survived Sphincteroplasty site for about a month now.

Quickly here's my story:
I gave birth to my baby girl in November 2008. She was 7 lbs 10 oz and I had a fourth degree episiotomy. I immediately developed an RV fistula, and had a sphincteroplasty to fix both a torn sphincter and the fistula at the same time. Prior to surgery, I was passing gas and stool through my vagina. The hole was pretty large - the doctors could put their whole fingers through, and I was passing stool the size of very large olives. Since the surgery, I have resumed passing gas and stool through my vagina, so all signs point to the surgery not having worked. My CRS said I'd have to wait until November before she could go back in to do a flap repair, and she put me on a course of antibiotics for now in case the fistula reopened due to an infection. I'm praying that this was the case and that the infection will heal and the fistula will close on its own. Not common, I know, but I'm praying for a miracle.

The good news is that the sphincteroplasty seems to have been successful, and the poo that does come through the fistula is much more of a fluid quality (regardless of my bm consistency), leading me to think that the fistula is at least smaller than it was before. Also, there is now a slight delay in bm leakage through the vagina - it seems to come out once I've stood up from the toilet, whereas it just came out at the same time as my bum before.

Anyways, my question is: what does the flap repair entail? Will the doctor have to cut me open through my perineum again, or is this something they can do by knocking me out and just going in through my bum? And how long is the healing for the flap?

I'm catching up on all the previous threads, and have one comment about the sex question. My OB said not to put ANYTHING into my vagina until the fistula is healed. My CRS said that I could have sex with the fistula, provided I position myself in such a way that there wouldn't be penetration through it. I'm inclined to lean towards my OB's position if you are leaking stool through the vagina, as I just envision any bm and its bacteria just being jammed up the vaginal canal. I don't know though. I really like my CRS, but wonder how much she really understands the emotional side of all this. I haven't had sex with my husband in almost a year due to a difficult pregnancy followed by all this garbage. While I would really like to resume that part of our relationship (for his sake as well as mine), I just can't divorce my head from thinking about the danger of further infection with sex.

Looking forward to hearing from you, and I'm so glad I found you all. It's nice to know I'm not alone.
Stay strong,
RLWmom

rlw,

welcome....sorry you had to find us.... but am glad you did. i had a flap repair and I am sure you read my info, under beegirl.... I am glad youe spinctroplasty worked. This is such a long process, getting fixed. I am getting close to the two year mark, who would have dreamed? The flap repair, mmmm ask your dr. to explain the technical again. There are dif. approaches. As you may know, mine did not work-they did it rectally. It actually made mine much bigger (not trying to scare you-this is not something that usually happens-i don't think-) but it can and it did for me.... the good news is that mine is getting better if not maybe, gone. I had an ostomy and another surgery.... vaginal layered approach.... I am up for another surgery at the end of the july (maybe, cross my fingers a reversal) we'll see, I think I may have to heal more. but it is better...

relationships can be difficult with this...I don't have much insight. I hear many things....not sure thye truth, but think you can if you are healed.... best, b