I've had 3 Fistula surgeries in the last year now, and nothing seems to
work in closing these things up :(

They first went in surgically to "drain" out the mucus collecting
inside the cheeks of my butt, they put a "drain" in and a Seeton Wire
in, to help the Fistulas to drain.

it was working fine, until the doctor took the "seeton wire" out, then
the holes on the outside started to heal up, and mucus started to
collect inside my butt cheeks again :(

so then, he did another surgery called a "Flap", where they take some
of the other skin and attempt to "Flap" it over the hole inside,

again, didn't work,  don't know if the stitches came out, or what
happened, but it didn't work :(

so now, they want to put me on "remicade" which I'm a little scared
about.
Not real sure whats going to happen.

I've been on SCD for the last 3 years, and its helped my Crohns disease
so much, but yet I still have these Fistulas on the inside I guess.

I'm just not sure what to do at this point.  Remicade is "expensive"
and I'm not even sure if thats going to work or not.

anyone out there have any success getting Fistulas to close? and if so,
what did you do?

I don't know if stronger antibiotics is the answer, remicade, or
something else,

all I know is, I've been in "terrible" pain from these things, from the
mucus collecting inside the butt cheeks,  I'm pretty much despirate
now, I don't know if a Colostomy bag is the answer, or remicade,  or
what,

any ideas would be greatly appreciated

thanks,

Tom Coburn
Crohns: 9 years now
SCD:    3 years with improvement but still Fistulas problems