Recto-Vaginal Fistulas Part 6

have you thought about suing

Hi everyone, I am new here so I will go ahead and give my background and then ask my questions. Bare with me for it is a long story as you all very well know. Well August 2010 I gave birth to my beautiful son. I was never suppose to deliver naturally and I was 36 & a half weeks along. I also had preeclampsia. I woke up that morning with diarrhea, gas and a little crampy. I didn't think much of it so I sent my husband to work which is about an hour away. I had to go for NST tests once a week so I decided I would go that day since I still didn't feel better. By 7 that morning the pain had become constant with sharp shooting pains every 5 minutes. I called my doc on the way to go to the NST at the hospital and he told me to have the nurse check my cervix and if I was already dismayed they would do an emergency csection ( we had already had one scheduled for 2 weeks later because he had already discovered I was way too small to deliver naturally ). Well when I got there she hooked me up to the monitor ( which was not hooked up correctly because it was basically flat lined the entire time ) and I told er that the doc told me to tell her to check my cervix. Needless to say she did not and told me I was just having cramps and sent me home. When my doc got there he looked at the reading and didn't see anything ( because it was not hooked up correctly ) so he said to not call me back to the hospital to check me. The nurse said the reason she didn't check me to begin with was because she didn't want to put me in anymore pain or discomfort. Well instead the doc called me in brethine ( a med to stop/slow contractions ) and said to take it easy. After 2 hours I was in too much pain so I call my husband to tell him to go ahead and head to the hosital and called my mom to come take me. By this point the sharp shooting pains were exactly 3 minutes apart. While in the car they had shortened to 2 minutes (but they were just cramps ). I started pushing in the car ride to the hospital. I got there and pushed him out within 20 minutes. At this point I could nonlonger feel any pain ( and I'm talking no meds here). My doc wasn't there because he was closing on his new lake house. So an oncall doc was there. I didn't rip that much on the outside. But my son was small (5 lbs 11 oz). Thankfully he was because he would bot have fit otherwise. He obviously didn't really fit in the frst place. His head was half as long as his body. But thankfully he was fine and healthy. However about three days after being home I noticed that after a bm I had the urge to push something out of my vagina. I thought maybe it was another blood clot. To my dismay it was a brown fowl smelling blood clot ( no it wasn't a blood clot it was feces). I called my ob and he immediately saw me first thing that Monday am. He put his fingers in both exits and found a 4-5 cm tear between my rectum and vaginal wall. He immediately sent me to a general surgeon. I was put on an all liquid diet (which made me a zombie) for the first four weeks. That was hard to have no energy and try to take care of and enjoy my new born ( which had to come home on a heart monitor for a month ). I managed to get the tear down to the size of an eraser top. So I went back to eating regular and waited about 6 more months in hopes it would heal on it's own. Unfortunately it didn't so surgery was my next option. He did the surgery through the rectum pulling a flap of muscle down and sewing it all together. Well about a week and a half later I noticed a lot of blood from the rectum and a lot of itching. I called the general surgeon and before I went to see him that day some fecal matter came through the vagina. The next day I was prepped for a diverting colostomy. We waiting about 3 more months to do a sigmoidoscopy to see if maybe it healed itself after diverting my feces. Well it didn't. So the doc then decided to try a collagen plug. The day after the plug was put in place I coughed and a stitch came loose. The day after that I sneezed and the whole darn plug came out. Needless to say that didn't work. Our next step was to do another surgery. This time he went through the vaginal side. About 3 months later we did another sigmoidoscopy to find out that it did not work either. He then referred me to a colon rectal surgeon. I had three day round of testing done. The new dic found that my sphincter muscle was not damaged, I still have all my sensitivity ( that was no fun test either ), and I don't have crohn's disease or anything that would have caused the fistula besides delivery. Two weeks ago today I went for my what fifth surgery but only second one through the rectum. It was way more invasive than he had originally planned. An hour long surgery took three. He took out all the bad tissue, went above the first original tear all the way up close to my bladder and pulled down healthy tissue, and reinforced it with collagen mesh. I spent two nights in the hospital and was told not to pick up my fifteen month old son for four weeks. How do you explain to a fifteen month old sorry mommy can't hold you when he has his arms stretched out for you and crying mama :( just heart wrenching. I have had a lot of discomfort ( but who hasn't with that surgery ) and a lot of drainage from my rectum. Well now I am having drainage from my vagina ( which he did not touch the vaginal side). I have asked the nurses repeatedly and they keep telling me that all of that is normal. From both the rectum and vagina it is the same looking discharge. It doesn't look or smell like puss buy I'm not a doc. It is like a pinkish, off whitish, and somewhat clear. Although a week after the surgery a started having bad nausea, no appetite and watery poo trough my colostomy( never had a fever). I stopped taking the antibiotic they had given me because the oncall doc said it could be that causing it. It lasted all weekend and by Monday the doc sent me for test to see if I have managed to develop cdiff. Well still haven't heard back yet on if that is what it was or not or just a bug. I am thankfully no longer nauseated and my stool is still loose but not a waterfall like it was before. And at least for the most part the pai has subsided but it still gets very uncomfortable to sit after a while. Feels almost like a tampon has been shoved in my rectum. So here are my questions for those who have stuck through my long essay. Is the discharge from the vagina normal too even though he didn't go through the vagina? Aldo is it normal to have air coming through the vagina ( I forgot to say that they had packed stuff in the vagina after the surgery along with a catheter)? It isn't like it use to be though when I would feel the pressure build in my rectum and then feel it come through the vagina. Also, if the discharge is normal, how long is it suppose to last and what is it suppose to look like? And I will accept anymore suggestions or advice on what to watch for. Also is it normal to feel like you have a tampon in your rectum if you sit for too long? I have been on an amazing support group for people with ostomies, but they really don't have any suggestions for this topic. Most of them have crohn's and have had their colons removed so they can't really give me the advice I need. Please help, it will be much appreciates. Thank you, Megg