I was just wondering if anyone has ever had a rectovaginal fistula. I had an extreme one back in the summer of 2018, which basically was a driving force on me having my permanent stoma. I had had numerous rectal fistulas and fissures before. Had the setons put in. My surgeon said that when he went to put in the setons, I had so many fistulas he lost count. He said it looked like a watering can with all the little holes. Anyway, I was used to getting anal fistulas. I started rectally leaking for months where I had to wear sanitary pads daily.
But flash forward to 8/2018. I was on the verge of death with a horrific Crohn's flare-up. I was bedbound for two months. Meanwhile, one day I wake up, and food is coming out of my vagina!! Yep. I was so disgusted. Basically, my vagina and rectum had merged and got connected to each other. Like it formed a tunnel. So feces and whatever I ingested came out of both areas.
So here I go to the ER because I was so depleted of all my nutrients. Literally, I would be leaking out of both ends constantly. I had to hold beach towels between my legs to soak up all the leakage. So they tell me in the hospital that they have never seen such a severe case of Crohn's or a fistula that bad. I was in the hospital for 2 weeks before I finally had my surgery. My surgeon had to get his schedule lined up with a plastic surgeon as they both would be operating on me at the same time. The plastic surgeon had to fix my vaginal fistula while my rectal surgeon gave me my permanent bag. But for those two weeks before my surgery was done (my surgeon was waiting on the plastic surgeon's schedule), I was in the hospital with sheets and towels through my legs leaking all over the place. I couldn't get out of bed because I was leaking so bad. Anytime I got up, fluid just seeped out of my rectum and vagina. So I was in that hospital bed not moving for a month. The surgeon basically told me I was so sick and the fistula was so bad that the only way to repair it was with a permanent ostomy. I had been told for over ten years by my doctors that I needed a permanent bag, but I resisted. Over 86 hospitalizations later, I had no choice. That or death.
So I had my surgery. I stopped breathing during it. Woke up 12 days later in ICU. I was told that my surgeon put me in a medically induced coma because he didn't want me to feel that kind of recovery pain and like I said, I stopped breathing during surgery. I worship my colorectal surgeon (Dr. Brian Teng, Rochester, NY). This man has seen me through countless things and has gone way beyond what a normal doctor does. Sorry, getting off topic.
So THEN...I lost all mobility because of being bedbound for so long. I had to go to a rehab center to learn to walk again. I was in the hospital for over 5 months total that time. Another 37 hospitalizations later, plus the 86 before. I checked my records because I couldn't believe a person has been in the hospital that much. Thank God for insurance.
Sorry for the tangent. It just poured out. No pun intended. But I would like to know if any of you ladies out there have ever experienced that kind of fistula. It was the most disgusting horrifying thing to ever happen to me. Gross story example...Mom made me pasta salad and it had peas in it. I can remember about 15 minutes after eating, peas literally came out of my vagina! Like I said, food and poop leaked out of the vagina. Can you imagine as a woman, what that felt like?
So please let me know if anyone has ever had one of those. I am shedding light on it. It was such a random awful thing.
