For the ladies: fistula questions

Hi ladies - I have read here that many of you have had either bladder-vagina or bladder-rectal fistulae. Some of those stories have been pretty scary - like how it took 10 surgeries to finally correct the problem. Well, I'm ready to join the club; I've seen my surgeon and urologist, and in 2 days I see the plastic surgeon about the tissue flap. My surgeon says they can probably take tissue from my right abdominal area, but the doc's RN says it will probably be a gracilus flap (from the leg). Help! I need some words of wisdom, encouragement, anything that can help me grapple with what's coming up (even horror stories!)

I've put this off over a year now - my fistula goes from the bladder through the vagina and into a leftover portion of the rectum below my colostomy. That's right, I pee out of all three orifices! Not pleasant. And I have a constant UTI which smells bad and makes me incontinent as hell. I really do need to get this fixed to salvage what's left of my sanity!

Thank you, sweet ladies for reading this and mulling over your comments. Love to you all!

Pinky

Dear Pinky,
I'm not going to go into great detail about what I went through, but I will say.....please, don't put it off any longer. My intestines opened up and attached themselves to every organ in my pelvic region and poo was going everywhere. I spent 6 months in the hospital, two of those in a coma. I'm quite lucky to have walked out of that place. I will send you a message if you have any questions for me personally. Take care............Gail