Two of them, actually, side by side.
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The result of which is a hardened, painful bruise about the size of quarter on my thigh. I think that it is filled with pus and it is raised about 1/4".
Last night my SO tried to squeeze some of the inflamation out of it but all that secreted was a little blood and what looked like water. Except that it smelled bad. Like ass. Then she took a small nail and puncured a bigger whole in the bruise and the entire time I could feel nothing in that small area. The nail was a little less than an inch and she almost put the whole nail inside my leg. Barely any puss or blood was drawn from the new hole.
The more we manipulted it the smaller it became but I don’t know where it all went. I think that I probably just squeezed it all together to form a smaller, harder lump.
I am really paranoid right now. I keep thinking that I have a tumor or cancer or something else more terrible but what? I know that it just from two ingrown hairs because it is painfully obvious when looked at, but I am not a doctor. ANY suggestions? Ideas?
Best thing to do is basically keep the area clean around it to ward off infection (very important now since you opened it). Heat sometimes works to bring it up. You will eventually get something like a big zit. Just take care of it, and you should be fine.
Try this for a week. If it becomes extremely painful or begins to do weird things (enlarge greatly, change colors, etc.) you may need to go to a dermatologist. But I would not worry too much
I get ingrown hairs every now and then too. I wouldn’t be to worried. It should go away on its own. If it forms a whitehead type look, you may be able to pop it then but if you do make sure you keep it clean.
#1 - go to a doctor. He or she will be able to determine if you have an infection or just ingrown hairs and recommend a course of action. This may involve “leave it alone” or go to betadine solutions, scapels, and surgical drainage. Surgical drainage is not a lot of fun. It does solve the problem, but a couple weeks of thrice daily (minimum) bandage changes is not fun, especially in the early stages of draining when pus, blood, and other vile things may soak entirely through the bandages, usually at a socially awkward moment. You really want to avoid letting things get to this state.
#2 - homegrown solutions. You can leave it be, keeping the area clean, apply antibiotic ointments, keep it bandaged, and apply heat. DO NOT poke, puncture, or prod at it unless it achieves a “giant zit” appearance, with a white or yellow center. If you play with it and it’s not in this state it might rupture inward instead of towards the outer world. This will only make things very much worse. If you start running a fever, if the lump starts growing, or gets very painful, or otherwise is clearly getting worse, then try solution #1.
I had an ingrown beard hair just below my jawline; it swelled up like a zit to start with and there was all the associated nastiness, but it ended up being a hard painful lump about the size of a pea.
fortunately in my case though, shaving every day meant that I would often accidentally remove a sliver of skin (ouch) and the lum thus grdually made it’s way to the surface, eventually, it broke open and I hooked out what appeared to be a little spring made of hardened, greatly thickened hair, it was really weird.