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How long should my abscess be left?

Hi all
I saw my consultant 10days ago now and he has now passed me on to the surgeon as my CD has esculated and and abscess has formed on my colon and my bowel has become more dieseased :( so as the consultant said have to have an urgent bowel resection :(
I have still yet to hear from the surgeon, so how long can my abscess be left??
I've been on prednisolone 30mg for weeks now, just gone down to 20mg.
Every morning I'm in agony with the pain.
Has anyone else experienced this and how long did you wait for op?
Thanks
 

DustyKat

Super Moderator
An abscess can't be left without some sort of intervention taking place.

The first consideration is your current health status and response to treatment. It would appear you are not responding to treatment and that may be why there is a need for urgent surgery but it is difficult to say without knowing the full details.

Where is your abscess located?

Do you have a fistula?

My son had a psoas abscess that resulted as a complication of Crohn's in his terminal ileum...

The abscess was drained and the drain left in place.

He then had a sinogram done to see if there was a fistula connecting the abscess to the bowel. If there had been no connection he would have continued to be treated conservatively with medication but he did have a fistula.

Because he had a fistula surgery was the only option as fistula's arising in the ileum are notoriously difficult to heal with medication.

The next step was to try and bring the inflammation down from acute to chronic. To do this he had to respond to IV steroids and antibiotics and then maintain that response when he moved to oral. If he did not respond to either mode he would require surgery during that admission as it would be too dangerous to allow the inflammatory and infective process to continue unabated.
(The reason for the desire to go from acute to chronic inflammation is there less chance of needing a temporary stoma so that less bowel needs to be removed)

As it was he did respond to treatment and so was scheduled for surgery 3 months later to allow that settling to take place. The drain and oral antibiotics remained until he had his surgery to ensure that the abscess did not reform.

Good luck! I hope you have answers and relief soon.

Dusty. xxx
 
Thanks Dusty.
My Crohns is in my sigmoid colon as and I'm not aware of a fistula as yet.
Apart from my CD I'm in good health, so let's just hope the surgeon gets back to me soon.
 

DustyKat

Super Moderator
I hope they do too! Nothing worse than waiting...my imagination is a law unto itself when left to its own devices! Ugh!

Keep us posted with how you get on. :hug:

Dusty. xxx
 
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