Been there done that. The last time mine infected was when I snuck into the apartment complex pool when it was closed and dropped into the jacuzzi with a bottle of wine and a good book. 2 hours later I emerged and my swim suit was no longer black, but a strange brown and I felt slick all over. It had been closed because they’d shocked it. But the pilonoidal cyst took off and swelled shot and infected deeply. Had to go to Doctor slicer. No fun that.
Did the doctor talk about surgery to remove it altogether? It’s got something like an 8 week recovery time, but it would get rid of it once and for all.
The drainage is enough of a pain for me that if it flares up again I’m going to see about getting the surgery done.
I had one growing up. I don’t think it ever got infected. It was just annoying enough in my day-to-day life to have it removed.
I got it removed not long before band camp my senior year. I think the recovery from surgery is similar to the recovery from having it burst…I had to take a shower at every break and have a nurse change my bandage and pack it back up. The nurses were my best friend’s sister and my other friend’s mom!
I guess it coulda been worse, coulda just been random band moms. But it was a very uncomfortable week.
I bet if you have it break open again you’ll have it removed. It is about the same! Except the top of my buttcrack is sewn shut and that’s kind of weird. Well it’s really weird. But love me, love my buttcrack?
Did they sew up the incision right away? From everything that I’ve read online, the standard now is to leave it open and let it heal on its own from the inside out to keep from trapping any remaining or new infection.
That part has me the most freaked out about the drainage that I had done yesterday. I now have an extra hole in my butt crack that has to just heal up on its own. The thought of having to even look at it makes me nauseous. I don’t know how my husband is doing it. I keep asking him how big it is but he says he doesn’t know. I think he’s just protecting me from my own tendency to faint about this sort of thing.
I don’t remember about the incision, it was 1996. But that makes sense that it was open when I went to camp. All of that goo could not have come from something that was sewn shut!
My ex had the surgery and I kept it cleaned out with those long Q-tips. It wasn’t too gross and he did well during the recovery period as it slowly closed. He may have stayed overnight (too long ago to remember) but they might do it on an out-patient basis now. It sounds like you have a good helper so I don’t think it would be a very bad experience.
To me this is really high up there on the grossness scale. Combine gross with extreme pain and a high fever and I’m a total mess. I almost hope it happens again so I can get the thing taken out and be done with it. As it is now, I feel like a ticking time bomb just waiting for another flare up.
I don’t think you have to wait. Since they’re known to flare up you could probably go ahead and get it done as a preemptive measure. (Once this infection is over?) And the surgery is probably smoother than the fever and pain you have now. (And it’s really not that gross to the caregiver, promise.)
I’ve got all that beat. My cyst story, circa 2002, Burbank, CA.
I could no longer stand the itching or the pain. Even cotton underwear would rub into it and bring pain up my spine. So it’s after midnight on a weekday, I can’t even lie on my side and sleep. Off to emergency room.
The doc takes a look and tells me he has to lance it. LANCE! Not incise, not cut and drain, but lance. All I could think of was those medieval knights with those huge freaking lances.
I get a local (didn’t help), he lanced by making an X in the cyst and drained. It will drain for several days, I’m told. Since I couldn’t wear the jeans after the procedure and the ride home (drainage), I changed and head to Pavillions for maxi-pads (as suggested by the doctor along with regular gauze if needed).
Here’s the fun. I have two older sisters and knowledge of various women’s products. How to use them, not so much. I thought the sticky side of said maxi-pad went on the skin, not in the pants.
After discovering this I called my female buddy on the phone, explain the situation. After 4 or 5 minutes of laughter (on her end of the phone) she explained the proper usage. So I have to tear the thing off my literally bleeding ass. Being a boy past puberty, there’s enough hair involved that I ended up also learning what waxing is. That really HURT!
So to this very day, that dang cyst is essentially there, but no inflammation yet. I’ve heard that 1 in 5 white men grow this cyst in their 20s-30s. Screw my Anglo Saxon ancestry.
I had mine back in 88. I first had it lanced and drained, honestly, I felt the shot itself but not the draining. Once it healed, I requested it be surgically removed because I didn’t want to go thru it again alone at college that I was starting in the fall.
The surgery was miserable and my butt is very ugly. I stayed overnight in the hospital. 3rd shift nurse came in to take vitals and since I wasn’t comfy in bed, I was standing. Nurse asked me to sit down so she could take vitals. Good God did I go off on her. I just couldn’t believe that she didn’t realize what I was there for. Looking back, I’m obviously very ashamed of that rant, but at the time it made perfect sense.
Hubby just pulled out the gauze that was inside the wound. He was amazed by how far in it went, to about the depth of his middle finger. Gross!
For those who had theirs removed, how bad was the recovery? I’m a teacher, so if I’m going to go for the removal on an elective basis, I’d like to time it right.
I had mine removed in 2008? using the “Lumbar flap” technique. I believe a flap of skin was cut and folded over the region that was removed.
My father had the same thing, but I believe the only procedure available back then was excision and then letting it heal from the inside out on its own.
I know that I was unable to sit or lay on my back for roughly ~3-4 weeks after the surgery. I had a complication with the stitches and had an infection after that, but presuming you’re luckier than I am, the recovery is typically 4-8 weeks depending on a number of factors.
I would recommend removal. Draining is a stopgap and it is likely to cause a problem again in the future. The downtime is a factor, of course, but you won’t regret it.
Ask your surgeon which of the two techniques would work best for you. I believe both of them are viable today.
EDIT: I believe the flap technique is more commonly used when you’ve developed sinus tracts underneath your skin that form “tunnels” of infected fluid. I ignored it as a dumb college kid so the surgeon recommended that. If you’re not far along, I’m not sure which technique is better since I didn’t experience the excision only method.
I returned to the surgeon today for a recheck and got quite a surprise. Turns out he doesn’t think I had a pilonidal cyst at all, at least not by its literal definition.
He sent out some of the pus to be cultured to be sure I was on the correct antibiotics. Turns out my infection is MRSA. :eek:
Doc’s new theory is that I had a cut that got infected with MRSA that was already on my skin and mimicked a PC. It makes sense. The reason I delayed treatment for so long is because that’s all I thought I had at first - an annoying scratch that just wouldn’t heal.
So now I’m on a new antibiotic that should help clear it up, though it may never go away fully. The only way to do that is a multi-day course of heavy duty IV antibiotics. Luckily the surgeon doesn’t think that is warranted unless the infection comes raging back multiple times.
My husband told his mother about the new diagnosis. Now she’s freaked out. She’s worried that I could pass this on to my kids, especially my 1 year old.
I asked the doc about this and he didn’t seem concerned. He just said to be sure to follow the aftercare instructions (bandage, Neosporin, sitz baths, antibiotics) and wash my hands often. The infection isn’t in an exposed area, so there’s no chance of them touching it.
Any advice? I’ve done a lot of Googling, but haven’t found much other than what my doc already said. Well that and that I may be considered a carrier that just has MRSA hanging out on my skin, which is far from reassuring.
