On Aug 20 of this year I had a hemmerhoidectomy, which was incredibly painful and left me with a few complications. I developed an infection during the recovery for it (2 weeks in) and was given a weeks worth of antibiotics, which seemed to take care of it.
About a month into the recovery, I noticed a new kind of pain developing several hours after having bowel movements in the morning. It was a sharp stinging right at the top of my rectum. On inspection, I had a very small white dot right on the top left corner of my butt hole that looked just like a face pimple that was ready to pop. It was small enough that to the touch, you couldn't even feel the bump, I had to see it in a mirror to realize. With some pressure applied around it, it popped and released a bit of puss. Doing that completely relieved me of the pain for a couple days until I noticed it fill up again until it was popped. This basically has repeated for about a month. Every 2 days or so, I need to pop it and then I feel great until it swells up again.
I went back to the surgeon who did my 1st operation, who did an office exam and ordered a CT scan with contrast. A fistula didn't show up on it, but she did see the dot and suspected at least a perianal abscess. I was then booked for what will essentially be exploratory surgery tomorrow at 4pm. Depending on the location and what they find, I may wake up with a seton or a laid open fistula. I think that just because of how close this is to the hole and how high up it is, that they will likely need to do a seton.
My big fears going into it are like many others. I worry about losing continence from cutting sphincter muscle mainly. Going back into that operation room after my ordeal with the hemorrhoid surgery is also a worst nightmare come true.
I'll update this again when I come too tomorrow and figure out what's been done to me but in the meantime, any pro tips on fistula surgery are very welcome. I had a lot of information going into the hemorrhoid one, but I am really going in blind here...