My name is Moira and I am from Ohio, USA. I travelled to India on September 2nd 2017 to receive Kshar Sutra treatment from Dr. Ramesh Bhat of Bangalore. On December 20th 2017 I returned home, back to the USA, FISTULA FREE!
My journey began many years ago as a simple nagging but unidentifiable pain in my right hip. My lifestyle had always been a healthy one and was at the time enjoying a 7 day a week yoga practice. The pain in my hip worsened over a few months, eventually making formally easy yoga posture become very difficult. At the time I made an assumption that the pain was hormone related as it seemed to worsen with my menstrual cycles. That pain progressed over the years to tailbone pain and eventually became debilitating. One day I noticed a swelling or spasm of tissue overlying the painful area of my tailbone and buttock which radiated all over my abdomen and down my legs. At that point my doctor diagnosed me with a softball sized abscess under my glutes which required major surgery to remove. After 4 days in the hospital I expected a short recovery period of 4 or 5 weeks at home and then looked forward to returning to my normal life.
What followed was very different from my expectations. My surgical wound which required painful packing many times a day simply refused to heal. This is when we began to suspect a fistula and in January, 5 months after my initial surgery I was finally diagnosed.
As many people know, the process of discovering and examining for a fistula often is a very depressing and painful experience. We are trained to expect a doctor to have solutions for every problem. So being told by colorectal specialists after my second surgery that my fistula would be very difficult to fix, would require many more surgeries, would probably lead to incontinence but all I can do is “let them try” is a very hard thing to process. After the shock wore off I went home and began researching statistics, cure rates and alternative solutions. It was then that I discovered a document showing that India had the highest permanent cure rate in the world. It made me wonder “what are they doing in India that they don’t do anywhere else?”
This is how, by the grace of God I discovered Kshar Sutra. I was already fairly informed on the basics of Ayurvedic medicine and so was excited to learn that this was an exclusively Ayurvedic technique. I spent a few weeks researching the option before I began sending emails all over India in the hunt for the right doctor to handle my fistula. I contacted every Kshar Sutra doctor who had an email address and sent each of them details and lists of questions. I also took comfort in reading the many blog posts and YouTube videos available online.
Eventually I had narrowed my doctor choice down to 3 or 4 doctors who I felt had the right kind of experience to treat my complex, very wide and horseshoe shaped fistula successfully. I even gave my list of doctor names to friends throughout India in hopes that they would help me to screen out any doctors that would be a bad fit.
I was particularly impressed with the feedback I heard about Dr. Ramesh Bhat. I was told “he is a humble physician who does not draw attention to himself but he has an incredible reputation and has the highest level of training”. This impression was confirmed for me when I spoke with him later that evening by phone. His simple and kind words to me were: “Please come, let me help you.” And that’s exactly what I did.
My treatment with Dr. Bhat went beautifully. Upon arrival in his office he told me to give the fistula problem to him. “This fistula he said “is easy for me to fix. In the West this is very difficult to fix but for me this is easy. You relax, enjoy India, enjoy feeling well and I will take care of this problem. It is not your problem anymore.”
He then went on to explain that fixing the fistula is the easy part, that his greatest concern is creating perfect, supple and strong scar tissue. This is why he will not rush the healing. When he sends me home back to the US I will be completely healed and there will be nothing to worry about.
Because of his preference for strong scar tissue, Dr. Bhat chose to surgically remove the unhealthy tissue from previous surgeries and lay the Kshar Sutra thread through one branch of my fistula tract. In the other short, thick fistula branch he packed a medicated paste instead of using thread. This was all done under spinal anesthesia. During the first few weeks of recovery, Dr. Bhat wanted himself or his nurses to see and care for the wound daily. This daily care allowed him to make regular observations, adjust medications, apply medicated oils and also manage my wellbeing in all other areas. Traffic in Bangalore is terrible but I did not mind travelling to and from his clinic daily to receive such a high level of care.
Dr. Bhat moved the thread only when he felt the tissue behind it had healed completely and perfectly. Sometimes this meant receiving two thread changes in one week and sometimes it meant waiting 2 weeks or more in between changes. It was easy to trust his judgement however. There was sometimes pain during dressing and thread changes and sometimes not. I did experience discomfort but it was much less than the pain of the fistula prior to Kshar Sutra treatment. I was able to swim, hike and explore Bangalore even on the days when the pain was a little strong. Eventually I was able to go longer stretches of time without visiting the clinic and could explore South India on 4 or 5 day road trips.
I loved my time exploring India and getting to know the people there. I was fortunate to have my two youngest children with me during my travels and they also loved the rich and fascinating experience.
It took almost 3 months before Dr. Bhat announced that I was officially fistula free and he asked me to stick around for 4 additional weeks so that he could provide daily wound care and medicated oils treatments.
Because of this prolonged care I was able to return home before Christmas with no need for any additional healing. My fistula is gone and my tissue is closed, strong and comfortable. I could not be happier with my decision to come to India, try Kshar Sutra and become healed.
If you are curious about Kshar Sutra treatment, have had Kshar Sutra treatment and would like to share your experience, or are undergoing Kshar Sutra, please request to join the closed, confidential Kshar Sutra support group on Facebook. You must answer all entry questions for entry into this group.
