The Tunnel That Healed: Anal Fistula Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe anal fistula, from the first abscess to the day writers stopped thinking about it. Many were told, or told themselves, that it was a boil, piles, saddle sores or a gluteal strain, and one man heard three wrong answers before a fourth clinic said the word fistula. Writers include a bus driver, a taxi driver on twelve-hour shifts, a truck driver who owns his rig, a head chef in charge of twelve people, a junior doctor who hid it, a pastor, a woman who runs a school of nine hundred students, an autistic man who found the hospital harder than the surgery, and a single dad on a factory line. They write from Leeds to Lagos and from Tallinn to Dunedin. Treatments include setons kept for months or for good, having the tunnel opened, glue, plugs, a flap, laser, a stem cell injection for Crohn's disease, and a temporary stoma. Some had to bring down their blood sugar or weight first, manage blood thinners, or wait nine months on a public list. Writers cover the sauna, prayer and fasting, telling a new boyfriend, and fear after healing. Not every story is tidy: some needed a second or third operation, a plug came out, and one fistula came back after five years.

Who it's for

For anyone living with an abscess or fistula, or facing a seton or a second operation, and for the partners and parents who sit in the waiting room with them.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 243 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.