So I had a small something on me for 2-3 months. I don’t know if it was an ingrown hair or a small cyst. Two nights ago I fiddled with it a bit, and got some stuff out of it. Yay me, happy.
Yesterday morning I woke up to discover I’d turned it into an INFECTED FOLLICLE. Also called a furuncle. Also called a boil. Og dammit.
It’s been years since I had one, but always before doctors would give me antibiotics for it. I normally love antibiotics, and I have an MD friend on tap who will prescribe them for me, but she says that it needs to DRAIN in order to really heal. I’m sort of on board with her on this one, because right now I’m pregnant, and not a big fan of the idea of taking antibitiocs–even safe ones–or the Monistat that would inevitably follow.
The problem is I have never, ever in my whole life had any kind of pustule that would burst and drain on its own; these little furuncles never even come to a head. I’ve been applying hot compresses and keeping it salved up otherwise, but no progress. There’s a white dot in the middle, but no sign it’s coming to a head.
Okay dopers.
Tell me how to get this baby to the surface, and
Feel free to share zit stories of your own along the way.
Keep up with the hot compresses for a day or two longer - there’s hardly been time for it to ripen.
Then once it progresses further: do NOT sterilize a needle in a flame, swab the area with alcohol to sterilize the skin, and lance it yourself and clean the area thoroughly with peroxide. That’s dangerous.
Well personally those are the EXACT steps I’d take… but you really do have to be careful to not inadvertently drive that infection deeper so I didn’t want to give dangerous medical advice. Especially since you’re pregnant.
Seriously - if you keep up with the hot compresses for a few days, I’d bet it’ll get ready to go on its own with minimal “encouragement”.
I had this thing on the cleavage-side of my boob for a good while. It started when I began going to the gym, which is also the time it started being 80 degrees and super humid here.
The thing would flare up and occasionally I could pop something out of it and then it would go back down. But then it would flare up again and go down again. I didn’t do a compress on it except one time when it hurt. It went down after that - and came back
Honest to Og tho, the one week I didn’t do anything with it because the gym was closed and I wasn’t working out, thus no flare up…I looked down and saw it was oozing a bit. I gave it a poke and a massively massive mass came out along with some blood. I cleaned it up and all that was left was a hole. I put a Band-Aid and Neosporin on it for a couple days.
It’s been about 3 weeks now and the hole is all closed up and there’s nothing but some sad-looking skin left from all that original squeezing.
First time in my life a pustule did burst on its own!
I had similar trouble. I picked and squeezed my way into a problem that lasted for years.
I think it was initially an ingrown hair but my meddling turned it into some kind of recurring sore that would seep clear fluid and blood. It once puffed up about an inch long and a half inch tall - freaked me out - it was full of thick white puss and blood - GROSS.:eek:
It came and went for years. I tried picking, popping, lancing, and also reasonable solutions like compresses, salve, and ignoring it. Eventually I took a pair of scissors and hacked it and the area around it out. I have a small scar on the inside of my thigh but it has never returned.
Mine literally came and went for YEARS and I brought it entirely upon myself. I’m stupid. Don’t be me. Either leave it alone or ask your doctor to excise it.
My parents used to always use this black gunk called icthammol for drawing stuff out of the skin, splinters, boils, carbuncles, etc. Sometimes the old remedies are still tge best.
I have a pilonidal cyst. Imagine a cyst about 4 inches long and 2 inches wide that constantly oozes either blood, purplish black pus, or white pus, all the time. That’s what I lived with for two years. Here’s a website that describes what it is, and how it’s treated. I opted not to have it removed, as the thought of surgery terrified me at the time. Fair warning, there are pictures of the surgery near the bottom of the page. I’m going to break the url since the images aren’t safe for work. h t tp://www.worldwidewounds.com/2003/december/Miller/Pilonidal-Sinus.html
Thankfully it stopped draining awhile back, and now I hardly think about it until someone new sees it.
Had one on the outer edge of my eyebrow a couple weeks ago. It started, as many zits are wont to do, as a red discoloration of the skin and a little bump, almost like a mosquito bite. But having had some rough teenage years, I know the precursor of a zit when I see it.
The thing grew almost overnight into this huge bump, but it must have had it’s roots deep because try as I might, I couldn’t pop it. The pus must have been too deep inside the skin for any squeezing to work.
It was large enough after about a week for me to actually grip it with my index and thumb. I stupidly thought that it was big enough to get rid of even though I couldn’t really make out where the white stuff was. Being next to some really obvious pores made it seem like a volcano with multiple openings, and like the Riddler it fooled me more than once when I thought I could make it burst through an open with extensive squeezing.
At this point it was getting really painful, so one night I just grabbed it and squeezed as hard as I could. I expected a perforation, even a little bit of blood, but nothing. I could feel the pus breaking into my skin out of it’s little shell, but it went deeper into the flesh. There was a small sound and feeling like cottage cheese being squeezed out of a tube. It was disgusting.
Finally, I had had enough. I wasn’t going to let this zit beat me, I have been fighting zits for a decade at least. I went to my tried and true method, the needle. It never fails. Sure, sometimes, and this was one of those times, I have to stab and poke several times before I could break into the pus well, but once I did, the pus flowed freely without obstruction. A bit of blood later and I knew I had tapped the pus well dry.
Took a while, longer that usual zits do; it was a worthy foe. In the end, I had 3 or 4 needle jabs and had to simply tear off the outer layer of the skin. Thankfully that healed already so all I have is a small scab.
I am… somewhat known for my zit/boil/pustule tales around here.
Here is such a tale about one that actually did, finally burst on its own. But it took awhile.
Letting them puke on their own does take longer (sometimes much longer) but given you’re pregnant it might be better to put up with it until you’re no longer pregnant, THEN take more aggressive steps if it’s not clearing up on its own. Don’t risk a greater infection while you’re carrying the baby, is all I’m saying, and avoid the antibiotics/monistat if you can - although if you get something like MRSA you may not have a choice about the medications. So don’t risk it.
I had one of those too, when I was a teen (I should start an “Ask the girl who has lots of stupid skin problems”!) I don’t remember if it oozed ever or what. But it hurt enough that I ended up having it removed.
Surgery was “whatever” but post-surgery sucked. I had it removed the week before band camp. I had to walk around with all sorts of menstrual pads taped to my ass, shower three times a day and have a friend’s mom (a nurse + chaperon) change my bandages. I think I’ve read a couple of other Dopers’ posts about having theirs removed and it was also not pretty.
I’ve got an ugly ugly scar now and I’m considering having plastic surgery to make it look less horrible. Even tho the surgeon who did mine in the first place was a plastic surgeon.
Don’t do the surgery if you don’t need it. But do make sure you keep the cyst clean and “healthy” or you’re going to need surgery!
In fact, I have a pilonidal cyst myself. It got irritated enough to weep a little twice when I was a teenager, but it’s been ten years now since it gave me any trouble. I’ve read that if you can avoid any major inflammation before the age of 35, you’re pretty much golden. I hope that’s true.
I’m intrigued by the ichthammol drawing salve. I’m going to see if my CVS carries it… I guess they keep it behind the pharmacy counter, like Sudafed.
I think this puppy has to be taken care of BEFORE I give birth, if it’s going to continue to be infected. Boils on the breast (which is where this is) are listed as a BIG PROBLEM for nursing mothers.
What a timely thread! My husband just had surgery this morning to remove a pilonidal cyst. It got infected and really painful within a period of about a day. Yesterday morning, my husband didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. By the time he got home from work, he said, “Hey - I’ve got a zit on my butt!” By this morning, he was sweating and almost incapable of walking or sitting due to intense pain. He was going to tough it out, but I told him to go to a dermatologist and he did, and they sent him to a general surgeon, who removed it at 10:30 this morning.
The wound from removing it is about 2.5 inches long and 1.5 inches wide and about first-knuckle deep. It’s right between his ass cheeks. Guess who gets to clean it?
When the doc was showing me how to clean it, he held up this giant glob of hair that had caused the cyst. It was really gross, yet strangely fascinating. Anyway, my husband has to have a follow up procedure to remove the hair follicles down there or it’ll happen again. He’s very hairy and this is the second time he’s gotten a cyst.
I keep snickering, telling him that the doc cut him a new asshole. Given that I’m going to be cleaning my husband’s ass for two weeks, I don’t feel too terrible about it, though I’d stop if he didn’t find it funny, too.
