Post by pilonidalstories.com on Aug 28, 2017 12:50:23 GMT
“Hey, my fellow pains in the ass (must try to make yourself laugh about it sometimes, lol).
I’ve been suffering from this pilonidal issue for about 3 years now. I am a young, university student who first discovered her issue during the summer of 2014. I was away at my cousins for a summer vacation, and we enjoyed a night at a friend’s hot tub. When I got out of the hot tub and went back to the house where I was residing at the time, I noticed my “behind” area (near the crack, sort of) became rather itchy. So, as most people would do, I scratched, but I noticed my hand felt very odd (gross, I know). And so it was odd. My finger was covered in blood. I do have ass “fat”, and I was not used to the hot weather in the area, so I concluded it was just a chafe/chap near my crack from skin friction during the summer heat. Prior to this, I always had been the type of girl to sweat in her ass, but it was never problematic before this. Being a young girl, I was afraid and I did tell my mother, and she was worried but knew I would refuse to go to the hospital alone. I did not see any more blood in the region during the following week I had left of my visit, so I let it be.
When I arrived back to my home, I did not see anything that I deemed to be out of the ordinary. When I would clean the region, there was some “sweat” and it had a very potent odour (I now know that it was not sweat, but instead was pus from the wound). During these teenage years, you feel embarrassed and ashamed to let anyone, especially your parents, look at these “private” regions, so I of course refused my mother to look at it, and said it was nothing. That was until, one day, while I was school shopping in a larger city center, I felt a leak. I went to clean it with in a washroom and discovered blood. This is when my mother looked at the area and found there was quite a large hole just down between my anus and crack.
I went to the doctor that following week, as soon as I could get an appointment. He informed me it was most likely pilonidal, and that it would require me to see a surgeon. We took it one day at a time, and within a week I saw a surgeon. He could not understand why I had this pilonidal sinus, as I am not hairy in that area whatsoever. He wanted to avoid doing the big surgery (which, you will read later, if you make it that far, that I ended up having to get anyway) and instead opened me up that same appointment with some forceps just enough to be able to pack the wound properly.
I went through this packing of the wound from October 2014-December 2014, which was a tiring two months on both me and my family, as the closest dressing clinic is about a 45-minute drive from my home. I had to take that trip every day for those two months, 45 minutes up and 45 minutes back down. With using AMD packing and just putting a gauze between my bum cheeks to keep things in place, I healed.
I stayed healed until February 2015. It split open again, but it was very small. My family doctor said try using my sitz bath once again and see if that would heal it on its own, since it was much too tiny of a wound to pack. That worked. Fantastic. The small wound healed in about a month, so March 2015, I was healed yet again!
Then, June 2015, the day before my 11th grade English final examination. I was playing a card game with my family, and all of a sudden when I stretched further, I felt a rip. I knew then that it was opened, yet again. This time, it opened much bigger than it had back in February. So I went to see my family doctor that following day after taking my English exam, and he said, “you definitely have to go see a surgeon again.” So I did. I went to the same surgeon and saw him in August 2015. He does work with a lot of surgeries in the hospital and said it may be some time between October-November, which was fine by me because I wanted to at least get my first month of my senior year in. However, his receptionist phoned in September and told my mother that they had a cancellation for September 15, 2015 and could fit me in.
September 15th, 2015, I was scooped out in my pilonidal region all the way down to my tail bone (I think it was about 10cm deep? I can’t even remember now). My surgeon stitched my surgery, at this time (note: with no drainage tubes or anything that could actually allow drainage to come out from the wound…). I took the 2-hour ride back home the following day.
Things were going fine, until that Saturday (for reference, my surgery was on a Tuesday). I had a lot of pain, but since my pain tolerance is so high I could bear it no problem. However, when my mother went to change the dressing covering it, she noticed a lot of drainage. And when I say a LOT, I mean a LOT. It was insane. I couldn’t sit up or do anything, every time I would I would leak to the point it looked like I had pee’d in my clothes. The drainage ended up bursting several of the 14 stitches out, thus not healing the wound whatsoever.
When I went to the dressing clinic to get my stitches removed, my nurse knew that something was up. The wound hadn’t healed at all, and she called a local doctor to come up and take a look. He decided it would be best to cut it open and pack it. After taking the surface stitches out, they cut it with a razor blade like object (which I didn’t even feel, surprisingly) and packed the wound with AMD until I saw my surgeon the following week.
My surgeon took out the deeper stitches and ended up fitting about 120cm of MeSalt packing in the wound. I was going for daily dressing changes, and still saw very little progress. I was having to take the 2-hour travel to see my surgeon every 10 days, because he wanted to keep checking on the progress. It seemed each time I saw him, it was just more bad news. Almost every time he ended up having to cut my wound open more just to pack it properly, or burn me with Silver Nitrate. After weeks of being burned with silver nitrate every second or third day, being cut open, and using mesalt packing, they decided to change it up a bit, just to see if something, ANYTHING, would help. They used AMD packing once again, instead of mesalt, and that seemed to help me heal much better. I was tested for diabetes, given tons of anti biotics, anything to see if this stubborn thing would heal
And heal it did. April 2016, a month before my graduation, it healed. I was so over-joyed, and although I still had pain and carried my pillow everywhere, there was no. more. Packing. I was ecstatic. Until August 2016…..
August 2016, after working all summer and it being a month before I moved away for University, my wound re-opened yet again. I went to my nurse ASAP and she packed the wound. I didn’t see a surgeon at this time, because there was nothing I was willing to get done. I wanted to go to my first semester of University and that was that. So, I kept going to the hospital in my University city and getting dressing changes, but instead of daily it was 3 times a week. They began using bridine (not sure the spelling) to clean the wound, which seemed to help heal the stubborn thing so much better! This began in September 2016, and then November 2016, I healed. I healed for one week. Then, it split open again, but in a different area, much closer to my anus. My main nurse in this city was so frustrated for me and herself, because she could not fathom why I would still be getting this issue after all this time.
While home for Christmas break, I saw my new family doctor at home and he sent me to see a surgeon in this city, to see if he could send me for a CT scan, colonoscopy, MRI, something to see what was happening (the colonoscopy is for bowl issues I have, but that’s not really the point of this story right now).
This surgeon informed me I’d have to have surgery AGAIN, but I am waiting until April 2017, after I am completed my second semester of my first year of University. So far, as of January 2017, the wound seems to be healed. I did however find puss on my gauze (I keep a gauze between my cheeks now to prevent a buildup of moisture from my sweat in the area) yesterday, but today I’ve seen nothing so far so I’m hoping that it was a false sign.
I want to thank the developers and users of this site for helping me with the stories and questions/answers so much over the last three years. I’ve been struggling with this since I was 16 years old, and I am now 19. I just want to let anyone reading this know that: it isn’t always this difficult. Some people heal right away, and some struggle for years. Regardless, you’re never alone. Don’t be ashamed because you “have a bad ass” and don’t let it stop you from becoming who you ultimately want to be in life. I know you may get depressed, and you may experience anxiety because of it, but do not let that define you. You can own it, and you can be stronger than you ever thought you could be. We’re all in this together.
”
I’ve been suffering from this pilonidal issue for about 3 years now. I am a young, university student who first discovered her issue during the summer of 2014. I was away at my cousins for a summer vacation, and we enjoyed a night at a friend’s hot tub. When I got out of the hot tub and went back to the house where I was residing at the time, I noticed my “behind” area (near the crack, sort of) became rather itchy. So, as most people would do, I scratched, but I noticed my hand felt very odd (gross, I know). And so it was odd. My finger was covered in blood. I do have ass “fat”, and I was not used to the hot weather in the area, so I concluded it was just a chafe/chap near my crack from skin friction during the summer heat. Prior to this, I always had been the type of girl to sweat in her ass, but it was never problematic before this. Being a young girl, I was afraid and I did tell my mother, and she was worried but knew I would refuse to go to the hospital alone. I did not see any more blood in the region during the following week I had left of my visit, so I let it be.
When I arrived back to my home, I did not see anything that I deemed to be out of the ordinary. When I would clean the region, there was some “sweat” and it had a very potent odour (I now know that it was not sweat, but instead was pus from the wound). During these teenage years, you feel embarrassed and ashamed to let anyone, especially your parents, look at these “private” regions, so I of course refused my mother to look at it, and said it was nothing. That was until, one day, while I was school shopping in a larger city center, I felt a leak. I went to clean it with in a washroom and discovered blood. This is when my mother looked at the area and found there was quite a large hole just down between my anus and crack.
I went to the doctor that following week, as soon as I could get an appointment. He informed me it was most likely pilonidal, and that it would require me to see a surgeon. We took it one day at a time, and within a week I saw a surgeon. He could not understand why I had this pilonidal sinus, as I am not hairy in that area whatsoever. He wanted to avoid doing the big surgery (which, you will read later, if you make it that far, that I ended up having to get anyway) and instead opened me up that same appointment with some forceps just enough to be able to pack the wound properly.
I went through this packing of the wound from October 2014-December 2014, which was a tiring two months on both me and my family, as the closest dressing clinic is about a 45-minute drive from my home. I had to take that trip every day for those two months, 45 minutes up and 45 minutes back down. With using AMD packing and just putting a gauze between my bum cheeks to keep things in place, I healed.
I stayed healed until February 2015. It split open again, but it was very small. My family doctor said try using my sitz bath once again and see if that would heal it on its own, since it was much too tiny of a wound to pack. That worked. Fantastic. The small wound healed in about a month, so March 2015, I was healed yet again!
Then, June 2015, the day before my 11th grade English final examination. I was playing a card game with my family, and all of a sudden when I stretched further, I felt a rip. I knew then that it was opened, yet again. This time, it opened much bigger than it had back in February. So I went to see my family doctor that following day after taking my English exam, and he said, “you definitely have to go see a surgeon again.” So I did. I went to the same surgeon and saw him in August 2015. He does work with a lot of surgeries in the hospital and said it may be some time between October-November, which was fine by me because I wanted to at least get my first month of my senior year in. However, his receptionist phoned in September and told my mother that they had a cancellation for September 15, 2015 and could fit me in.
September 15th, 2015, I was scooped out in my pilonidal region all the way down to my tail bone (I think it was about 10cm deep? I can’t even remember now). My surgeon stitched my surgery, at this time (note: with no drainage tubes or anything that could actually allow drainage to come out from the wound…). I took the 2-hour ride back home the following day.
Things were going fine, until that Saturday (for reference, my surgery was on a Tuesday). I had a lot of pain, but since my pain tolerance is so high I could bear it no problem. However, when my mother went to change the dressing covering it, she noticed a lot of drainage. And when I say a LOT, I mean a LOT. It was insane. I couldn’t sit up or do anything, every time I would I would leak to the point it looked like I had pee’d in my clothes. The drainage ended up bursting several of the 14 stitches out, thus not healing the wound whatsoever.
When I went to the dressing clinic to get my stitches removed, my nurse knew that something was up. The wound hadn’t healed at all, and she called a local doctor to come up and take a look. He decided it would be best to cut it open and pack it. After taking the surface stitches out, they cut it with a razor blade like object (which I didn’t even feel, surprisingly) and packed the wound with AMD until I saw my surgeon the following week.
My surgeon took out the deeper stitches and ended up fitting about 120cm of MeSalt packing in the wound. I was going for daily dressing changes, and still saw very little progress. I was having to take the 2-hour travel to see my surgeon every 10 days, because he wanted to keep checking on the progress. It seemed each time I saw him, it was just more bad news. Almost every time he ended up having to cut my wound open more just to pack it properly, or burn me with Silver Nitrate. After weeks of being burned with silver nitrate every second or third day, being cut open, and using mesalt packing, they decided to change it up a bit, just to see if something, ANYTHING, would help. They used AMD packing once again, instead of mesalt, and that seemed to help me heal much better. I was tested for diabetes, given tons of anti biotics, anything to see if this stubborn thing would heal
And heal it did. April 2016, a month before my graduation, it healed. I was so over-joyed, and although I still had pain and carried my pillow everywhere, there was no. more. Packing. I was ecstatic. Until August 2016…..
August 2016, after working all summer and it being a month before I moved away for University, my wound re-opened yet again. I went to my nurse ASAP and she packed the wound. I didn’t see a surgeon at this time, because there was nothing I was willing to get done. I wanted to go to my first semester of University and that was that. So, I kept going to the hospital in my University city and getting dressing changes, but instead of daily it was 3 times a week. They began using bridine (not sure the spelling) to clean the wound, which seemed to help heal the stubborn thing so much better! This began in September 2016, and then November 2016, I healed. I healed for one week. Then, it split open again, but in a different area, much closer to my anus. My main nurse in this city was so frustrated for me and herself, because she could not fathom why I would still be getting this issue after all this time.
While home for Christmas break, I saw my new family doctor at home and he sent me to see a surgeon in this city, to see if he could send me for a CT scan, colonoscopy, MRI, something to see what was happening (the colonoscopy is for bowl issues I have, but that’s not really the point of this story right now).
This surgeon informed me I’d have to have surgery AGAIN, but I am waiting until April 2017, after I am completed my second semester of my first year of University. So far, as of January 2017, the wound seems to be healed. I did however find puss on my gauze (I keep a gauze between my cheeks now to prevent a buildup of moisture from my sweat in the area) yesterday, but today I’ve seen nothing so far so I’m hoping that it was a false sign.
I want to thank the developers and users of this site for helping me with the stories and questions/answers so much over the last three years. I’ve been struggling with this since I was 16 years old, and I am now 19. I just want to let anyone reading this know that: it isn’t always this difficult. Some people heal right away, and some struggle for years. Regardless, you’re never alone. Don’t be ashamed because you “have a bad ass” and don’t let it stop you from becoming who you ultimately want to be in life. I know you may get depressed, and you may experience anxiety because of it, but do not let that define you. You can own it, and you can be stronger than you ever thought you could be. We’re all in this together.
”