Pilonidal Experience #42

“I am speaking this story into my phone, standing up– most of you who’ve experienced pilonidal abscess will completely understand why! I have had these abscesses before and they always drained fairly quickly and didn’t cause nearly as much pain or b come nearly as large as my most recent one did, the most recent one waking me up in the middle of the night last Saturday and making me think about how I’d read that one of the indications that you absolutely ought to go to the hospital is if the pain from your condition wakes you up in the middle of the night. I did not go to the hospital; the next day I went out and bought myself some vitamin C tablets, 500 milligrams; I wish I could have gotten the coated kind but I’m vegetarian and don’t eat gelatin so it was what it was. That first day I took a thousand milligrams of vitamin C every half-hour that I was awake; I napped for at least two of those half hours lying flat on my belly. There was still pain that night, enough to make me tear up and sob little, but after a second night’s sleep and a day of lying prone for 1 1/2 days (I had to sit at a desk for half of Monday), although the abscess and my left thigh lymph node weren’t much decreased, I did at least feel better–the vitamin C caplets gave me a cold sore (thus the wish I could have gotten them past the lining of my mouth with a coating) so I decided just to take a thousand milligrams of Vitamin C powder– Ester-C makes a non acidic version– with breakfast, and have been sitting on a pillow all day. For a few moments, I didn’t even feel any pain! During this time I did contemplate taking an acetaminophen before bed but did not; I’ve been limiting my sugar, eating a bowl of blueberries and oatmeal for dinner one night and a bowl of lentil soup with lots of kale the next day at lunch and anticipate continued return to health with a strict focus on butt crack hygiene from now on!”