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My first abscess

Hi yall
wanted to share my store thus far

I am currently 25 living by myself a few provinces away from my family.
I was diagnosed with crohns-colitis in 2006, i havent had many complications just a few flare ups.
Now, a year a go i noticed a small cyst in my peri anal area and after a few rounds of antibiotics I decided to just let it be as it was barely even noticeable.
flash forward to now, I just started taking Humira, and in the span of a week I had to go to ER to have my abscess drained.

Right now I am not feeling so hot having to deal with the healing process and the fear of it becoming a fistula.

I am just over all upset and unsure. I feel very far away from my support ( family and friends) and that scares me. I am trying to remain calm for the sake of healing but I am finding myself just become numb and depressed.

Does anyone have any advice? also what happens with the abscess heals? how do i know if it has healed or if any complications like fistulas form?

Thanks for taking the time to read this, it was almost therapeutic to let it out.
Take care y'all.
 
Welcome to the forum!
Sounds like you are going through a hard time. If it helps there are some of us on here who have gone through a similar thing.
I had an abscess drained from emergency surgery a year ago, which unfortunately was connected to a fistula and I have had further surgery. I'm doing OK at the moment though. Starting infliximab on Monday.
The only way you will know if fistulas have formed is if you have an MRI scan so see. Or if you have an examination under anesthetic for a surgeon to see, but the MRI will give a clearer picture.
 

sawdust

Moderator
Location
Pennsylvania
As if the Crohn's Colitis wasn't enough, right? :( Sorry to hear you're having a rough time. Welcome to the forum. You're in the right place! This is a great group of people, who (un)fortunately have alot of experience with abscesses/fistulae, and can certainly understand and relate. I had a abscess a few years ago, that, like LMV, turned out to have a fistula that was unknown at the time of exam under anesthesia.
 

KWalker

Moderator
Hello and welcome from St Catharines! I'll be 23 in April and also dealing with abscesses. After an abscess is drained it can take a little while to stop draining and heal up completely so don't get too worried if it isn't gone in a week. I had a very serious abscess drained back in 2011 and it is still healing today, so while I'm not saying yours will be the same, people have gone up to a year with less severe abscesses still draining.

Since you're in the same boat I'll tell you that sometimes I have to wear female pads to stop the drainage from leaking through my pants and it would be embarrassing if anybody knew but it saves me from a lot of embarrassment with leaking through my clothes and making it look like I had an accident as well.

You said you're a few provinces away from family so if you don't mind, what are you doing in Milton? I don't have much of a relationship with my family anyways but I moved from Windsor to St Catharines a few years ago and moved away from family so I could go to school so I do know what you mean when you say it feels like you don't have a lot of support.

Even as bad as my abscess was I never developed a fistula. I don't know what determines if you will or not, but even still there are a lot of people who have had fistulas for years and don't even do anything about it because they don't really cause problems most of the times. I've heard of some that cause pain, but I've also heard of others that just leave them because the most they do is drain here and there but don't cause any discomfort.

I don't know if Humira would be my first choice to treat the abscess because it's kind of known not to work for abscesses, but my guess would be you're on humira for other reasons. I would suggest talking to your doctor about getting on Cipro and Flagyl because those can be very effective sometimes to help healing
 
Hello and welcome from St Catharines! I'll be 23 in April and also dealing with abscesses. After an abscess is drained it can take a little while to stop draining and heal up completely so don't get too worried if it isn't gone in a week. I had a very serious abscess drained back in 2011 and it is still healing today, so while I'm not saying yours will be the same, people have gone up to a year with less severe abscesses still draining.

Since you're in the same boat I'll tell you that sometimes I have to wear female pads to stop the drainage from leaking through my pants and it would be embarrassing if anybody knew but it saves me from a lot of embarrassment with leaking through my clothes and making it look like I had an accident as well.

You said you're a few provinces away from family so if you don't mind, what are you doing in Milton? I don't have much of a relationship with my family anyways but I moved from Windsor to St Catharines a few years ago and moved away from family so I could go to school so I do know what you mean when you say it feels like you don't have a lot of support.

Even as bad as my abscess was I never developed a fistula. I don't know what determines if you will or not, but even still there are a lot of people who have had fistulas for years and don't even do anything about it because they don't really cause problems most of the times. I've heard of some that cause pain, but I've also heard of others that just leave them because the most they do is drain here and there but don't cause any discomfort.

I don't know if Humira would be my first choice to treat the abscess because it's kind of known not to work for abscesses, but my guess would be you're on humira for other reasons. I would suggest talking to your doctor about getting on Cipro and Flagyl because those can be very effective sometimes to help healing
Hi Karen,

I just had the abscess drained and to be honest it hasn't been too bad. I think I am more annoyed with the up keep and emotionally upset about the healing time. But so far I haven't had much drainage except for blood from the wound.

So what happened was last year I decided to move to NS from Milton as I felt it was time to spread my wings, get inspired and do some Me things, maybe school , ect. if that makes sense.

At the moment I came home for a visit and thats when it all went haywire and I had to go to the ER to have the abscess drained. I am really nervous to go back home to NS though as I will feel very alone.

I am on cipro/flagyl right now for the abscess but I don't think I can stay on it for any more longer , it makes me so sick its sad. My GI put me on Humira before this happened and the doctor who did the draining suggested I go back to Remicade but ultimately it will be up to my GI which route we take. I'll pretty much do anything to try and keep this under control at the moment.

Do you have crohns Kwalker? I do and therefore was told I have a high chance of it turning into a fistula which sort of scares me but knowing you said yours didn't I guess its just up in the air as to what happens.
 
Thank you LMV and Sawdust for the replies too xo I feel awful saying this like truly awful but It does bring comfort knowing I am not going through this alone.
 
Location
Ontario
Welcome to the forum. Abscesses and Fistulas are stubborn, but you are definitely not alone.

Milton is our stop through place on the way to visit hubby's parents in London (I live in Kingston), I'm also a fellow east coaster, Newfoundland.
 

KWalker

Moderator
It's Kyle lol, but no worries. You wouldn't be the first person to give me a different name haha. Yes I do have crohn's. I was diagnosed with crohns when I was two so I've lived with this my whole life. My abscess was extreme too. I had two surgeries in a 3 week period where I spent 10 days in the hospital and had a 7.5" incision where they cut my abscess
 
It's Kyle lol, but no worries. You wouldn't be the first person to give me a different name haha. Yes I do have crohn's. I was diagnosed with crohns when I was two so I've lived with this my whole life. My abscess was extreme too. I had two surgeries in a 3 week period where I spent 10 days in the hospital and had a 7.5" incision where they cut my abscess
My bad Kyle,

I am not sure how big my incision is , but I know its almost 2 cms deep and take 28cm of packing tape. ugh.

I have some SCD questions, do you think I can message you ?
 
The SCD diet has peaked my interest but I don't know If I am strong enough or have enough will power to do so. Wondering how you went about it?
 
Hi Eric
I know how your feeling, I think the only advice I can give is to go and see your GI and get a CRS referral for the surgeon to look at it under EUA. Unfortunately no one can predict if you will or won't develop a fistula, this horrid disease makes its own choices. Good luck.

Maybe you should stay back home until you get the situation sorted.
 
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