# Bursting cycts (TMI)
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [August 10, 2005, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409 "2005-08-10T05:52:23Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/1 "2005-08-10T05:52:23Z")
One of my co-workers has a case of perpetual acne: essentially, he’s a 38 year old teenager.
Aside from a case of serious pizza-face, he also has an egg-sized sebaceous cyst on the nape of his neck.
Lately, the sebaceous material inside got infected and the cyct became a boil/carbuncle.
Tonight, as he was pushing a dead car to the end of the valet pit, the cyst BURST.
Green, smelly, GOO
covered his collar, and he was sent to the nurses’ office.
I just had to share that with you. 😉
---
### Author:  [@Incubus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Incubus)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/2 "2005-08-10T05:56:16Z")
I can just imagine the guy straining to push the car, with the cyst getting bigger, and bigger and bigger. Maybe there’s an audience involved in this whole ordeal…taking bets and whatnot.
---
### Author:  [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/3 "2005-08-10T06:51:14Z")
Is that what a cyst is? A pus pocket?
Disgusting.
Why didn’t he go to the doctor and get it lanced?
---
### Author:  [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/4 "2005-08-10T07:24:09Z")
Oh dear Gawd. I’m battling one at the moment, too. on my ARM. Imagine. Anyway, I went to the doc. It wasn’t ‘ready’ to be lanced, she said (personally, I think she’s just chicken to do it!). I’m on a course of antibiotics…Keflex…for a week. Then I’m scheduled to go back. Maybe she’ll lance the damned thing then. It’s huge, too. It looks like I’m trying to grow a tit or something. Hideous.
---
### Author:  [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/5 "2005-08-10T10:41:14Z")
Does it hurt? What color is it?
[sub]Sorry, curiosity got the best of me. [/sub]
---
### Author:  [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 10:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/6 "2005-08-10T10:59:56Z")
Yeah, Marge, your curiosity is amazing!
The cyst is huge. Maybe the size of a golf ball. The cyst itself is very red and also bruised looking. Very red all around the area of thing, too.
I’m not scheduled to go back to the doctor until Friday, so I’ve got a few more days to deal with it.
Maybe THEN she’ll lance the damn thing. I don’t know. I hope she does, because wearing long sleeves in this heat is just hell. I won’t leave the house without it being covered with clothing. It looks hideous. Simply hideous.
Oh…Yes. It hurts. It’s painful as hell, actually. I have to be careful that I don’t whack it on the doorway or whatnot. I’m clumsy that way, you know.
---
### Author:  [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/7 "2005-08-10T11:11:49Z")
I’m sorry **nonacetone** , that sounds awful. ☹ Only a few more days till Friday …
---
### Author:  [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/8 "2005-08-10T11:17:43Z")
Thanks, Marge. I’m VERY ready for Friday to get here! It can’t come soon enough.
---
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/9 "2005-08-10T14:13:29Z")
> [@nonacetone](#):
>
> Yeah, Marge, your curiosity is amazing!
>
> The cyst is huge. Maybe the size of a golf ball. The cyst itself is very red and also bruised looking. Very red all around the area of thing, too.
> I’m not scheduled to go back to the doctor until Friday, so I’ve got a few more days to deal with it.
> Maybe THEN she’ll lance the damn thing. I don’t know. I hope she does, because wearing long sleeves in this heat is just hell. I won’t leave the house without it being covered with clothing. It looks hideous. Simply hideous.
> Oh…Yes. It hurts. It’s painful as hell, actually. I have to be careful that I don’t whack it on the doorway or whatnot. I’m clumsy that way, you know.
You’ve got a lot more self control than me. If I had something like that on my body (that I could get to) I’d have been after it with a bottle of isopropyl and a big needle while it was in it’s infancy.
---
### Author:  [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/10 "2005-08-10T14:16:56Z")
Yeah, but if you could feel how bad it hurts, you wouldn’t be so quick to want to stick a needle into the thing! Actually, there is no sign of any pus that I can see. It’s apparently a deep one. I don’t know. All I know is that the Dr. said it wasn’t ready to lance, as of last Friday, and today it looks exactly the same as it did then.
_shrugs_
---
### Author:  [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/11 "2005-08-10T17:22:30Z")
Maybe you could try applying gentle, moist heat to the boil to get it to come to a head more. Works for pimples.
**Enola** , thanks for sharing. Opening threads like this is just about the definition of morbid curiosity.
---
### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/12 "2005-08-10T17:50:17Z")
I’ve mentioned this story in other “pus related” stories.
When I was in basic training we got a number of shots with one of those air-pressure guns. One of mine got infected. At first it was a small red spot, then the read area began to spread and swell. A tiny white spot appeared in the center.
I wasn’t the most accomplished of recruits and was afraid my drill sergeant would think I was malingering if I went on sick call. So I decided to treat it myself. By this time it was about a quarter inch high, and it hurt to raise my arm. (It was high on my shoulder)
I went to the bathroom with a needle, rags, band-aids, soap, and a lit candle. I “sterilized” the needle in the flame. When I barely poked the little white spot this nasty green, black, and yellowish pus started to drain down my arm. I just kind of stared at it in wonder, then started squeezing until blood ran red and clean looking. Washed it off, slapped a band-aid on, and the thing felt immensely better. But the girl at the next sink took one look and literally screamed!
Next morning at roll call my drill sergeant wanted to see my arm. Guess the other gal had reported it. But it didn’t look bad then, so Sgt. Ogg just gave me some Phisohex for cleansing. It did start to swell again a little, but this time I treated myself with nobody else around and it went away again, never to return.
---
### Author:  [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/13 "2005-08-10T17:59:20Z")
We have a neighbor that had a goiter on his neck for the first oooohhhhh…6 years they were here ( It’s been at least 8 years now, I think.) and I swear to god all we could do was stare at this _thing_ on his neck like it was a second head. It was about the size of a half a golf ball. Completely distracting.
He finally had it removed.
---
### Author:  [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/14 "2005-08-10T18:12:47Z")
I’ve been dealing with intermittent acne for years, and it got bad this summer, as detailed elsewhere. I guess one of them started deep, on my arm, as i had a painful lump there for a week. Fortunately, the topical antibiotic seemed to work the same on it as the others.
I’m another that can’t resist self-surgery on painful zits - might leave a worse scar, but it sure seems to heal them faster.
---
### Author:  [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/15 "2005-08-10T18:15:05Z")
> [@nonacetone](#):
>
> It wasn’t ‘ready’ to be lanced, she said (personally, I think she’s just chicken to do it!).
If you lance a cyst, it will eventually come back. The only sure cure is to have it surgically removed. I had a cyst removed from my back about two years ago after it got infected. I think they like to wait until the antibiotics take care of the infection before removing the cyst, if possible, just because it’s so much easier to remove a small, non-infected cyst.
---
### Author:  [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/16 "2005-08-10T18:39:57Z")
> [@nonacetone](#):
>
> Yeah, but if you could feel how bad it hurts, you wouldn’t be so quick to want to stick a needle into the thing! Actually, there is no sign of any pus that I can see. It’s apparently a deep one. I don’t know. All I know is that the Dr. said it wasn’t ready to lance, as of last Friday, and today it looks exactly the same as it did then.
> _shrugs_
I’ve been spared the horor of boils/cysts thus far. Zits I get & pop with only rare complications. Apart from the size and what sounds like commensurate local discomfort, what’s the difference? What if you put a few shots of bourbon down your gullet and lanced the thing yourself, dead center (with properly sterile gear of course)? Would the go come ut or would it just bleed?
What the hell are these things anyway?
---
### Author:  [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/17 "2005-08-10T18:53:13Z")
> [@Inigo Montoya](#):
>
> What the hell are these things anyway?
You might have one of these [lovely fellas…](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinea_worm)
---
### Author:  [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/18 "2005-08-10T18:55:18Z")
> [@featherlou](#):
>
> Maybe you could try applying gentle, moist heat to the boil to get it to come to a head more. Works for pimples.
>
> **Enola** , thanks for sharing. Opening threads like this is just about the definition of morbid curiosity.
Moist heat certainly can’t hurt, as long as it isn’t too hot. It might make the thing hurt a bit less, too.
I had a staph-resistant boil/cyst on my upper right arm and it hurt like hell. The doctor never lanced it, she kept me on antibiotics until it finally healed. It DID open on its own and start draining eventually. Dear Og, what a mess. I hope yours will respond quickly to the antibiotics.
---
### Author:  [@nonacetone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nonacetone)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/19 "2005-08-10T20:29:19Z")
I’ve TRIED moist heat. For DAYS. It didn’t work. There’s no sign of it even THINKING about bursting…or even making any pus. Doc said it was deep down in there, so I’ll go with what she says about finishing my antibiotics and going back on Friday.
---
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [August 10, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409/20 "2005-08-10T20:40:01Z")
Ewww…
[Sebaceous cysts (with pictures) - Removal Treatment For Infected Sebaceous Cyst](http://www.bestincosmetics.com/sebaceous-cysts.htm)
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bursting-cycts-tmi/316409.md?page=2)