My mum had her reversal 12 days ago and has been finding stool in her vagina. The doctors think it might be a rectovaginal fistula.
IGGIE
Jul 13, 2025 10:26 am
That sounds correct. I hope they are going to fix it as soon as possible.
IGGIE
Audrey Warren
Jul 13, 2025 12:06 pm
My mother had that in 1990, and it's truly distressing. She had lung cancer and had radiation. No gastro problems. An operation fixed it. Good luck.
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Karliegirl33
Jul 13, 2025 12:25 pm
I agree with IGGIE. Sounds like a rectovaginal fistula.
Have her surgeon order a CT to confirm.
I had this issue and now have a colostomy, which fixed the problem, though my fistula still causes drainage as it will not heal on its own, but the drainage is clear now.
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SusanT
Jul 13, 2025 4:26 pm
I had a rectovaginal fistula as well as a rectal bladder fistula before my surgery. Stool was making its way out both passages where it did not belong. This is truly miserable. I'm so sorry she is going through this.
In my case, the problem was fixed by my permanent colostomy, and the fistula issues truly made the permanent ostomies much easier to accept. But they should be able to fix her problem without resorting to such drastic measures.
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deehopson74
Jul 13, 2025 10:00 pm
I had a colonoscopy in October of 2024. The doctor found a large polyp and removed it; in doing so, he perforated my bowel unintentionally. I ended up in the hospital for 9 days. They did an emergency exploratory surgery but couldn't find the leak. I went home and was home for 5 days. I sat up in the morning waking up and had a gush of fluid like I had wet myself. I went to the bathroom, and this is graphic, it looked like someone had dumped gravy in my pants!! I noticed there was stool when I wiped, so I went back to the emergency room. I ended up back in the hospital for another 7 days with a rectovaginal fistula. The doctor told me the reason they couldn't find the leak the first time I was there was that my bowel contents hadn't leaked into my abdominal cavity; they had taken the path of least resistance, which was scar tissue from my hysterectomy, and gone down into my rectum and caused an abscess, which caused a fistula. When I had my colectomy, my surgeon fixed the fistula. I'm sorry this is happening; it's no picnic. You have my prayers and thoughts. ❤️🤗🙏🏽