u/FM2025UK

I need a laugh. Please 🙏🏻

I ask this as I am just struggling. I know this can’t be rushed I know. But I have been dealing with this since October 2024!

My surgeon mentioned wanting to leave the newest seton I have in for a further 6 months to a year!!!

As mine is also in my vagina, It’s causing me so much trauma. I’m going to beg him to try a lift again, as this is sphincter sparing.

So I had a colonoscopy today and funnily enough the surgeon doing it is my same surgeon dealing with my fistula, long story short I was meant to have a lay open procedure back in May, there was too much of my sphincter muscle involved so I had another seton put in.

I hate having it in. My fistula is very close to my vagina. Sex is not an option.

He very briefly brought up being able to see the Seton string from the inside whilst doing the colonoscopy.

He said very casually “ well maybe keep it in six months to a year” I sobered up so quickly from that sedation meds and said “are you joking? That has to be a joke?” He said no. I said I can’t do this and he said we will discuss it next week as I have an appointment with him.

Honestly, I’m considering getting a loan and going privately.

I can’t have this in for a year. I’ve already had a Seton in for nine months. I can’t form any real relationships. I feel so trapped by this. I wouldn’t care as much. But my stitch is so close to my vagina.

Has anyone else got this situation and ended up going private?

For all those with out of no where horrific symptoms(mine being after campylobacter food poisoning, obv that has left my system)

I am left with on and off bloating, loose stools daily, struggling to gain or keep weight on due to fear of foods and HORRIFIC WIND AND TRAPPED WIND PAIN, that is actually my most hated part of this. I can’t be around people farting every 10 minutes. It’s ruining my social life!!

Please tell me how you have navigated this once a colonoscopy has come back that you’re fine???

I had a really stressful situation in life and then on top of this contracted campylobacter food poisoning.

My cal protection was 500, went up to 687 but is now down to 9. So I know this is resolved.

But my BOWELS!!! I’ve never had great stools anyway, they’ve always been a bit more on the loose side. But now I’ve experienced things I’ve never had.

I’m getting the worst wind in the evenings. Extreme bloating on and off. Loose stools daily and if I eat certain things, I am having two or three loose stools.

I’ve lost weight this is the main one, I’m finding I can’t actually eat as much as normal but also when I’m having stomach pains, I am getting them in my upper abdomen and they completely stop my appetite, it sort of feels like a Weird butterflies feeling..

i’m having a colonoscopy Saturday. Thank God. Has anyone experienced these issues and it be IBS? I’m very scared.

Does anyone else get this gut churning anxiety feeling? Like you’re waiting for something to happen. It’s like going on a first date. Or about to go on stage or waiting for bad news.

That gut churning horrible butterflies feeling. I’m getting it all the time at the moment. As well as horrendous intrusive thoughts. These hand in hand are ruining my life currently.

Any advice on how to get past this? How people are coping? If this is even something you suffer with?

I’ve currently been going through some health issues. None of these are life-threatening just really annoying. It’s caused me to be unable to have sexual intercourse. Where I’m having health problems is located near my vagina entrance and anus. So this whole area is out of bounds.

I am single, young, and have always enjoyed having sex and intimacy with men, I’ve always been able to get the man I want and will usually get attention when out.

I’m now in a position where I cannot do anything. I have been this way for OVER A YEAR. I can’t express how frustrating this is. It stopped me dating it’s crushing my confidence and unfortunately there’s nothing I can do. I’m forced to just wait. This medical issue isn’t something that can be rushed as if it is I can become incontinent. And I do not want that, lol.

Should I just give up on dating? I don’t know who would want to date someone properly who cannot be intimate. I don’t know when I’m gonna be able to be intimate properly. At least another six months I think. I really want to try dating and I really want intimacy. I’m very down and frustrated.

I was recently diagnosed with a panic disorder and put on sertraline. I have been on sertraline for four days now, my panic is triggered by health issues and today I had a bad stomach three times, this induced the worst panic attack I’ve ever had in my whole life. I felt like I was being compressed from the head down. I was trembling my teeth were chattering. I even called an ambulance as I truly thought I was going to pass out or pass away!!

I wonder if anyone else has experienced such strong panic attacks when recently starting a medication? I also wonder if the sertraline has given me the bad stomach?

At present, I am not going to continue taking it.

Due to some health issues over the last 1.5 years (fistula), I have had to be celibate. It is honestly ruining in my life. I know that there’s so much worse things that could happen to me, but honestly, this is really taking its toll due to the length of time.

I had an operation yesterday that was hopefully meant to resolve everything but it’s just pushed everything back another 5 to 6 months! I honestly don’t know when I’m going to be able to have intercourse. I’m young? female and enjoy male attention and just can’t have it!! I’m so sick of this situation.

So I was meant to have my lay open procedure not last week the week before they postponed it due to food poisoning bacteria coming back in a result.

I had it done yesterday, now this was done by a different surgeon, this surgeon has placed another Seton instead, to be reviewed in THREE months I am absolutely devastated.

Not only is this not the outcome I wanted, but this Seton is different than my one before, it seems super tight to my skin and it is not a cutting seton. It is a draining one.

I am terrified about going to the toilet, I am curious of the amount of drainage, the pain and comfort this one will produce as my last seton it was nonstop drainage but ZERO discomfort.

I feel so robbed of so many social events this summer I had planned. Things involving being in a bikini that I can no longer fully enjoy. I’m still not dating because of this and how gross it is.

I just feel like crap, I’m sure a lot of other people can relate to this deflated. Is this ever gonna end feeling,