Post by pilonidalstories.com on Sept 4, 2017 7:19:09 GMT
I just would like to say that many doctors are not knowledgeable about this disorder. Some are unable to diagnose it at all, some have no idea how to treat it appropriately, and some do not understand the amount of pain a person is in with an actively infected pilonidal abscess. The first two abscesses I had went undiagnosed by three different general practitioners, and one ER doctor. The first diagnosis of Pilonidal disease I ever got was from a young man who appeared to be around 27 years old. He was a physician's assistant in the ER who was assigned to me. He was actually to date the best I ever had at treating this issue.
The first time I ever went to the doctor for this, my doctor was thinking broken tailbone, even though I kept saying that I hadn't sustained any kind of injury. There was no suggestion by her that it might be an infection. And I, never having heard of pilonidal disease in my life, you can imagine how shocked I was one morning to wake up to puss all over my underwear. I had no idea it had been an infection that had cause all the swelling and intense pain over the last two and a half weeks. I immediately went to the ER where the doctor said "you must have some kind of staff infection". He prescribed pain medicine and an antibiotic and never touched me. I assumed that it couldn't be good to have all this puss inside so I gently squeezed it out myself in the mirror and got out a VERY large amount of thick puss. When my second abscess struck a few years later, I recognized it as the same issue as before but still had no idea what it was. Neither did my new doctor or her medical student that was also in the examination room. A week later I ended up in the ER where I had the good fortune of being assigned to that very astute and bright physician's assistant. He diagnosed me in 1 second flat, and gave me an injection of dilaudid in my butt. After giving the diluadid a few minutes to enter the bloodstream, he numbed up the area with four lidocaine injections. After making sure that I was totally numb he cut a little, and stopped to make sure I didn't feel pain from the scalpel. I was fine, and he proceeded to finish the cut. He squeezed really hard, pushing down on me with his entire body weight, and then cleaned it out and packed it. He gave me very clear aftercare instructions and a prescription for percocet. He was absulotely fantastic. He was keenly aware of the pain that this issue can create, and even told me going into the incision/drainage that I could bight down on the bedsheet if I wanted to LOL.
Two months later I had another abscess, but this time it was way bigger than the other two and was spreading out to the side. After numerous trips to my Dr. and the ER to have incision/drainage again, I was repeatedly told that it wasn't (fluccuant) ready for drainage. That was fine with me. I really had no fear of the procedure as it had gone so well the last time. I was actually looking forward to it as it had immediately made me feel 90% better. Finally it got so huge that it started to leak a little and I knew it had to be ready. I went to the same ER hoping to get that same physician's assistant as before. No such luck. I got a guy who didn't care about pain at all, and who I doubt knew much about this disorder. He did not pre-treat me for pain, he gave me lidocaine injections over and over which never numbed me because of the severe infection and swelling. Each subsequent injection was as excrutiating as the first one as no numbing was occuring. I was screaming "Oh my God" over and over. After around 15 imjections he just started cutting without even asking me if I had sensation in that area. I felt the cutting 100%. Worst medical experience of my life. Then he stuck tools into the incision to spread it open and started cutting inside and injection more inside. I never felt pain like that in my life and he never squeezed even once to get puss out. He just sliced and diced and packed it. I told him I vowed to never go through this again and he yelled at me in a nasty way "GOOD!!! DON'T COME TO ER FOR THIS ANYMORE!!". Not only was this guy not good, he was sorta mean and nasty.
Laying there on the table in the ER I knew I had to get the surgery to fix this since you just get the luck of the draw in the ER. You can get an amazing doctor/PA or you can get the worst of the worst and go through a torture session.
Of course, since the last guy never squeezed the area, the infection never went away and was still present when I had surgery to remove sinus shortly there after.
The first time I ever went to the doctor for this, my doctor was thinking broken tailbone, even though I kept saying that I hadn't sustained any kind of injury. There was no suggestion by her that it might be an infection. And I, never having heard of pilonidal disease in my life, you can imagine how shocked I was one morning to wake up to puss all over my underwear. I had no idea it had been an infection that had cause all the swelling and intense pain over the last two and a half weeks. I immediately went to the ER where the doctor said "you must have some kind of staff infection". He prescribed pain medicine and an antibiotic and never touched me. I assumed that it couldn't be good to have all this puss inside so I gently squeezed it out myself in the mirror and got out a VERY large amount of thick puss. When my second abscess struck a few years later, I recognized it as the same issue as before but still had no idea what it was. Neither did my new doctor or her medical student that was also in the examination room. A week later I ended up in the ER where I had the good fortune of being assigned to that very astute and bright physician's assistant. He diagnosed me in 1 second flat, and gave me an injection of dilaudid in my butt. After giving the diluadid a few minutes to enter the bloodstream, he numbed up the area with four lidocaine injections. After making sure that I was totally numb he cut a little, and stopped to make sure I didn't feel pain from the scalpel. I was fine, and he proceeded to finish the cut. He squeezed really hard, pushing down on me with his entire body weight, and then cleaned it out and packed it. He gave me very clear aftercare instructions and a prescription for percocet. He was absulotely fantastic. He was keenly aware of the pain that this issue can create, and even told me going into the incision/drainage that I could bight down on the bedsheet if I wanted to LOL.
Two months later I had another abscess, but this time it was way bigger than the other two and was spreading out to the side. After numerous trips to my Dr. and the ER to have incision/drainage again, I was repeatedly told that it wasn't (fluccuant) ready for drainage. That was fine with me. I really had no fear of the procedure as it had gone so well the last time. I was actually looking forward to it as it had immediately made me feel 90% better. Finally it got so huge that it started to leak a little and I knew it had to be ready. I went to the same ER hoping to get that same physician's assistant as before. No such luck. I got a guy who didn't care about pain at all, and who I doubt knew much about this disorder. He did not pre-treat me for pain, he gave me lidocaine injections over and over which never numbed me because of the severe infection and swelling. Each subsequent injection was as excrutiating as the first one as no numbing was occuring. I was screaming "Oh my God" over and over. After around 15 imjections he just started cutting without even asking me if I had sensation in that area. I felt the cutting 100%. Worst medical experience of my life. Then he stuck tools into the incision to spread it open and started cutting inside and injection more inside. I never felt pain like that in my life and he never squeezed even once to get puss out. He just sliced and diced and packed it. I told him I vowed to never go through this again and he yelled at me in a nasty way "GOOD!!! DON'T COME TO ER FOR THIS ANYMORE!!". Not only was this guy not good, he was sorta mean and nasty.
Laying there on the table in the ER I knew I had to get the surgery to fix this since you just get the luck of the draw in the ER. You can get an amazing doctor/PA or you can get the worst of the worst and go through a torture session.
Of course, since the last guy never squeezed the area, the infection never went away and was still present when I had surgery to remove sinus shortly there after.