Abscess/Fistula

eliz31 said:

same problem

my husband is in the hospital now with a fistula and today we learned the fhe cancer had spread. he had surgery last year and we were told that they got all the cancer. he has had trouble with fluid building up in his stomach since then. has has had 6 or seven drains in his left side and thursday he had surgery  and removed a mass. found out it was cancer.

Dear Eliz31,

I'm so sorry to hear of your husband's recurrence! When they removed the new mass, were they also able to remove the fistula, or cure it?  What stage did your husband have last year when first dx?  Again, I'm so sorry to hear of this and I'm hoping for a speedy recovery for him. 

danker said:

fistula

When I had my resection I required  a Ileostomy.  Six weeks later when my Ileo was reversed I developed a fistula where my stoma was. Probably a loose staple in the ileo reversal.  So I continued to need a bag over the stoma opening.  It was six weeks later when my surgeon scheduled the fistula fix..  When I showed up at her office I just had a 4x4 gauze pad where the bag was. She was truely surprised.  The fistula had healed itself from the inside-out.  So no more surgery !!! Hope you get the same results. Just be patient and hope for the best.  Good luck !!!

PS

I've been NED ever since. Over three years.

That's such wonderful news! I hope you are NED forever!!!! Just reading posts and articles here, there and everywhere....it really makes me wonder. Why do some abscesses/fistulas heal and some don't? Sigh. 

We actually did get a 2nd opinion. The new surgeon did an outpatient surgery on him a week ago and he suctioned all of the fluid out and scraped out some scar tissue. He then sent my hubby to wound care everyday to get the wound cleaned and packed. He said my hubby should feel A LOT better, but he really doesn't   He can eat a "little" bit better, but he's still in a lot of pain and the pain gets worse when he eats, so he tends to eat very little (still)  The Dr. said "hmmmm, he should feel a lot better"  I don't think anyone knows what's going on. This new Dr. tends to think there is a good possibility that it's going to heal up, but that's hard to believe when my hubby never, ever feels better. I know the 1st Dr/Surgeon checked the fluid for cancer and it was negative. I am going to ask this new Dr. if he checked fluid when he had the outpatient surgery. I'm sure hoping he did....after all he suctioned out "a lot" of it according to him. I should have been proactive and  told him we wanted it tested but this surgery was kind of scheduled right away because he had a cancellation and we just went with it, so I didn't have time to think I guess. So, hoping he was responsible and had it tested. Someone mentioned peritoneal fluid and I believe that is where the fistula is. 

lp1964 said:

Dear Friend,

You have to push harder for answers. If he had an infection with a fistula he would be really sick with a high fever. You can tell the difference between pus and peritoneal fluid from a mile. They have to really figure this out. This is no game.

Best of luck,

Laz

When they first discovered this, they said it was a fistula/abscess in the peritoneum (sp?)  They said the "opening" which I guess is the fistula, which they described as a canal like thing that is not supposed to be there is very tiny. They call the fluid coming out "pus" This "fistula" thing is just so hard for me to understand. 

So what should I ask the Dr? 

How can we tell the difference between pus and peritoneal fluid?  (you  said can tell from a mile) 

Which is worse? 

Thank for your help  

lp1964 said:

Dear Friend,

The fistula is like a tube through which the infection finds its way to the surface.

Pus is a thick greenish, yellowish liquid that smells pretty bad because it consist bacteria and dead cells. This would probably cause fever and weakness. Peritoneal liquid I suppose is a thinner, clear liquid in larger quantity. Some people here had that so they could tell you more. 

You have to ask the doctors to distinguish the two because the treatment is entirely different.

I hope this gets resolved for you fast.

Laz

Thank you so much for commenting. Hopefully some more people that have had this will come along and let me know of their experiences....

By the way you are descrbing it, between the two kinds of pus/fluid, it's weird, but it seems like my hubby has either or both kinds...his fluid is yellowish, but not smelly,  it's kind of thick and it's a lot. I'll be sure to ask the Dr. which one he has....hopefully he knows. Sigh. Oh and he has fatigue, but no fever. I think the fatigue is from not eating much because afterwards he gets a lot of pain. Also the fatigue comes from just being depressed because he never, ever feels good and he's tired of feeling so much pain all time.......