Bleeding Setons

Not sure how many of you read the mini-vent thread but I posted a little vent the other day about my setons. It's now gone from a mini-vent to a legit concern so I wanted to run it by everyone. I'm just going to copy and paste the original post I made to make it a little easier.

This rant is a tad graphic. I think we're all fairly used to that on this forum though so here I go. This past year has been HORRIBLE. 4 surgeries on my butt for a fistula. Then they came to the conclusion that I was having such intense pain because there must be nerve damage from the surgeries. I started seeing a pain management specialist who has been great with everything. But the stuff I'm on leaves me unable to drive and where I live you have to drive to get to ANYTHING. Read this as, I've had no life for the past year. I'm getting really tired of it so I've decided just to start scheduling a few fun things and deal with the pain later. My first fun night out was on Saturday for a Bruce Hornsby concert with my Dad. The concert was sooo good and we had a great time. The seats though were old auditorium, solid wood seats. I made sure I had a jacket to sit on the whole time but it was a three hour concert and it wasn't the type of concert people were standing up for. So here I am, Monday night, my ass is still bleeding. I'm talking..my bandages look like they're covering gunshot wounds or something. And the pain has been so bad. I guess it just makes me SO mad that my body is being punished for having one night out. I'm going to a halloween party and a steeler game at the end of the month. Tickets are purchased for both so I can't back out. Guess I'll just schedule in a week with my bed afterwards.

Now we're at Wednesday and I'm still having major bleeding from the seton. I've had blood here and there before but this is bleeding through bandages twice a day. When I'm having a bowel movement, the toilet water is completely red from blood dripping. I know the sitting was basically trauma to the area but I'm starting to get a little worried. I'm going to have my Mom check it out tonight (thank God for moms, right?). The seton isn't even new or anything. One has been in since Feb. 2010 and the other was Aug. 2011. I was just wondering if anyone else has had a problem with bleeding after something like this? At what point would you start to worry and contact your surgeon?

it sounds like something isn't right, maybe with one of the setons. I'd contact the surgeon now.

Hi Annak,

Im so sorry you are going through all of this. I know how hard it is to want to do normal activities with the pain.
Do you know which seton is bleeding, the older one or the recent one? Is it possible that you have a fissure too? I have 2 of them and they bleed a lot, especially after a bathroom visit.

I have a tip for viewing the situation. I put a camping head light on my head and hold a hand mirror down by my butt so my hands are free to look and pull the skin back. If its the older one maybe it is cutting into you somehow and that's why it hurts so much. I would call your surgeon to have them take a look.

Mine normally bleeds a little bit every day but only about the size of a quarter on the gauze pad. I would call the doc for any large amounts of bleeding just to be safe. Maybe you can get some lidocaine gel/spray/cream to put down there before you go to the football game so its less painful to sit or bring a little pillow. I hope you feel better.

Could the blood not more likely be an abcess draining?

Hi Anna,

That much blood and for this long is not "normal" go and get it checked out. It may be bloody puss, that's typical of what I see most days, but the amount is small.

Mark

I agree that you should get it checked right away - something isn't right. I also get a little blood with discharge. Dripping blood means it is bleeding a lot. Maybe some vasculation got damaged from the seton pressing on it while sitting?

My first BM after having my seton put in I was dripping blood and it wouldn't stop. So I had to go to the ER - an experience I hope to forget about......

Take care.

Thanks so much for the replies!

The blood was definitely fresh blood. The bright red color of it made me pretty certain that it wasn't from an abscess or just regular drainage. I had my Mom take a look around it on Wednesday night. She said it looked puffy and swollen and she could see the dried blood but that the seton wasn't pulled weird or anything. The bleeding finally slowed down yesterday. Back to my normal blood/discharge amount. I didn't call the surgeon because of what my Mom saw. And I'm also on an "on" week for Cipro and Flagyl so I figured it probably wasn't something abscess wise. Since the seton was where it should have been, I didn't really think there would be anything he could do besides tell me to wait it out. I might send him a quick email just to let him know what was going on so I know in the future if I should just wait it out or call him.

I really appreciate all of your responses and concerns!