Post by pilonidalstories.com on Sept 4, 2017 7:27:23 GMT
First off I'd like to say how wonderful it is to read these stories and know that I am not alone!
My first experience with Pilonidal Disease started in 2007. I was in the ninth grade and started to notice a pain near my tailbone when I sat a certain way. I waited a few weeks before telling my mom something was up. She took me to the clinic the following day. The doctor there was certain that I must have fallen on my tailbone or had some sort of trauma to that region and prescribed me a cream for muscle pains. I used this for two or three days and my pain only got worse. I finally had my mom look at my bum and inspect the area that was swelling and turning red. She told it looked like a very large pimple. I was absolutely mortified and refused to believe that was the problem.
The next day I went back to see the doctor. When I revealed my bum to him he told me it was a very large boil and the best way to get rid of it would be to simply pop it. He had me lean over on the table and he pushed on the "boil". I swear to this day that he grunted and used all his body weight pushing on it. I bit down hard and endeared the horrible pain with tears streaming down my face. The "boil" finally popped and what came out was a disgusting mixture of blood and pus... And a lot of it. The doc sent me away with some gauze tapped to my bottom because it was still draining.
The problem remained dormant for about 2 years when one day I noticed a pain near my tailbone that I recognized. I immediately went to the doctor who told me it was an abscess and prescribed me some antibiotics. I went home and layed on my stomach for what felt like days in agony. I went back to the hospital the next day hoping that maybe they could do something to relieve this pain. By that time I had googled my symptoms enough and self diagnosed my pilonidal abscess. Back at the hospital the doctor told me I needed to wait until the abscess grew larger to lance it! She gave me a few Tylenol 3s to help me sleep that night and sent me away. I layed around for two more days not able to move as it hurt so bad. I constantly applied heat to try and bring the infection to the surface ( doctor's advice).
By the end of the week I needed to return to work because it was a long weekend and there was no one willing to cover. As I hobbled around that morning getting ready I noticed a wet sensation an when I checked my abscess had burst open and there was blood and pus running down. I gave it some slight pressure and the outcome was disgusting. I quickly soaked up the mess and taped a peice of gauze to my abscess because it was still draining. I decided against going back to the doctor as the pain was pretty much alleviated after it stopped draining.
Three months later another abscess began to form. I went to the doctor right away. He was the first doctor to actually confirmed that I was suffering from a pilonidal abscess. He prescribed me antibiotics and t4s and sent a referral away to a surgeon so I could have an operation to remove the root of the problem and the adjoining sinus tract. He told me if the pain got worse to come in and they would lance it open to alleviate pressure. About a week later I returned to the E.R. ( it is almost impossible to make appointments in the clinic where I live because we have so few doctors). I had to see another doctor who told me she could empty the abscess with a needle. She brought in a huge needle and poked it deep into my abscess. This was excruciating. Any movement hurt let alone something being inserted into it. She pulled out some pus and blood and sent me on my way. She also told me that surgery was not necessary unless it came back again. I decided to ignore her when she said that because I did not want to deal with it again.
Unfortunately when she stabbed me with the needle she did not solve the problem but she made it worse. The existing abscess just filled back up and I developed another one beside it. My boyfriend insisted that we go somewhere else where they would have more doctors that had dealt with this more. We then went to visit my friend who was in a large city hospital. I could not sit and visit with her and her new baby because I was in so much pain. Her and my boyfriend insisted that I go see a doctor. I checked in and was immediately saw by a doctor and a nurse. They explained what was happening to my body and answered my questions. Then they had me undress and lay down so they could lance my abscess. When the Dr poked the dressing needle into one abscess, the other one opened up from the pressure of the freezing going in. They had tunneled together under the skin and were connected. When the Dr cut into the abscess I felt it. There was so much infection that no matter how many times he tried the freezing would not take. I felt every cut. After he finished lancing the nurse packed my wound with a gauze ribbon and cleaned up all the blood on my legs. She then gave me some privacy to clean myself up. When I stood up the sight almost made me pass out. There was so much blood it looked like someone had been stabbed. It had leaked between my legs and soaked the sheets on the bed and the gown I was wearing. The doctor had said there was a lot of drainage but I had not anticipated that. No wonder I was in so much pain!
For the next couple days I had to have the packing removed and repacked. This hurt so bad. Especially when the nurse did not believe me when I told her it was quite deep and she packed it, realized it was not enough and had to pull out the ribbon completely dry. I became so upset the next time I was there I had to begiven Ativan to calm me down. Finally they told me it no longer had to be packed. Yay!! A few months later the surgeon got a hold of me and we planned to excise the sinus tract and what ever was causing these infections. We planned to do secondary healing and leave the wound open. It turned out I developed 2 sinus tracts so the wound left over was quite large. The homecare nurse measured it to be 4cm deep and 4cm long. She could not get a proper width measurement as the wound is more like a cavity she said. I've been getting wound care everyday for two weeks and my wound has only healed approx. 1/2 a cm. I usually have to resort to a pad half way through the day because of the amount of drainage soaking through the dressings. I also have been feeling both sharp pains and tinly sensations like those you feel when a limb has fallen asleep. I seem to be developing a tolerance to pain meds at this point too. The nurses have decided to try a wound vac. I will be hooked up to it tomorrow and hopefully that will speed up the healing process and I won't be ruining my clothes from the draining. I sincerely hope that this is the end of my troubles with pilonidal abscesses.
My first experience with Pilonidal Disease started in 2007. I was in the ninth grade and started to notice a pain near my tailbone when I sat a certain way. I waited a few weeks before telling my mom something was up. She took me to the clinic the following day. The doctor there was certain that I must have fallen on my tailbone or had some sort of trauma to that region and prescribed me a cream for muscle pains. I used this for two or three days and my pain only got worse. I finally had my mom look at my bum and inspect the area that was swelling and turning red. She told it looked like a very large pimple. I was absolutely mortified and refused to believe that was the problem.
The next day I went back to see the doctor. When I revealed my bum to him he told me it was a very large boil and the best way to get rid of it would be to simply pop it. He had me lean over on the table and he pushed on the "boil". I swear to this day that he grunted and used all his body weight pushing on it. I bit down hard and endeared the horrible pain with tears streaming down my face. The "boil" finally popped and what came out was a disgusting mixture of blood and pus... And a lot of it. The doc sent me away with some gauze tapped to my bottom because it was still draining.
The problem remained dormant for about 2 years when one day I noticed a pain near my tailbone that I recognized. I immediately went to the doctor who told me it was an abscess and prescribed me some antibiotics. I went home and layed on my stomach for what felt like days in agony. I went back to the hospital the next day hoping that maybe they could do something to relieve this pain. By that time I had googled my symptoms enough and self diagnosed my pilonidal abscess. Back at the hospital the doctor told me I needed to wait until the abscess grew larger to lance it! She gave me a few Tylenol 3s to help me sleep that night and sent me away. I layed around for two more days not able to move as it hurt so bad. I constantly applied heat to try and bring the infection to the surface ( doctor's advice).
By the end of the week I needed to return to work because it was a long weekend and there was no one willing to cover. As I hobbled around that morning getting ready I noticed a wet sensation an when I checked my abscess had burst open and there was blood and pus running down. I gave it some slight pressure and the outcome was disgusting. I quickly soaked up the mess and taped a peice of gauze to my abscess because it was still draining. I decided against going back to the doctor as the pain was pretty much alleviated after it stopped draining.
Three months later another abscess began to form. I went to the doctor right away. He was the first doctor to actually confirmed that I was suffering from a pilonidal abscess. He prescribed me antibiotics and t4s and sent a referral away to a surgeon so I could have an operation to remove the root of the problem and the adjoining sinus tract. He told me if the pain got worse to come in and they would lance it open to alleviate pressure. About a week later I returned to the E.R. ( it is almost impossible to make appointments in the clinic where I live because we have so few doctors). I had to see another doctor who told me she could empty the abscess with a needle. She brought in a huge needle and poked it deep into my abscess. This was excruciating. Any movement hurt let alone something being inserted into it. She pulled out some pus and blood and sent me on my way. She also told me that surgery was not necessary unless it came back again. I decided to ignore her when she said that because I did not want to deal with it again.
Unfortunately when she stabbed me with the needle she did not solve the problem but she made it worse. The existing abscess just filled back up and I developed another one beside it. My boyfriend insisted that we go somewhere else where they would have more doctors that had dealt with this more. We then went to visit my friend who was in a large city hospital. I could not sit and visit with her and her new baby because I was in so much pain. Her and my boyfriend insisted that I go see a doctor. I checked in and was immediately saw by a doctor and a nurse. They explained what was happening to my body and answered my questions. Then they had me undress and lay down so they could lance my abscess. When the Dr poked the dressing needle into one abscess, the other one opened up from the pressure of the freezing going in. They had tunneled together under the skin and were connected. When the Dr cut into the abscess I felt it. There was so much infection that no matter how many times he tried the freezing would not take. I felt every cut. After he finished lancing the nurse packed my wound with a gauze ribbon and cleaned up all the blood on my legs. She then gave me some privacy to clean myself up. When I stood up the sight almost made me pass out. There was so much blood it looked like someone had been stabbed. It had leaked between my legs and soaked the sheets on the bed and the gown I was wearing. The doctor had said there was a lot of drainage but I had not anticipated that. No wonder I was in so much pain!
For the next couple days I had to have the packing removed and repacked. This hurt so bad. Especially when the nurse did not believe me when I told her it was quite deep and she packed it, realized it was not enough and had to pull out the ribbon completely dry. I became so upset the next time I was there I had to begiven Ativan to calm me down. Finally they told me it no longer had to be packed. Yay!! A few months later the surgeon got a hold of me and we planned to excise the sinus tract and what ever was causing these infections. We planned to do secondary healing and leave the wound open. It turned out I developed 2 sinus tracts so the wound left over was quite large. The homecare nurse measured it to be 4cm deep and 4cm long. She could not get a proper width measurement as the wound is more like a cavity she said. I've been getting wound care everyday for two weeks and my wound has only healed approx. 1/2 a cm. I usually have to resort to a pad half way through the day because of the amount of drainage soaking through the dressings. I also have been feeling both sharp pains and tinly sensations like those you feel when a limb has fallen asleep. I seem to be developing a tolerance to pain meds at this point too. The nurses have decided to try a wound vac. I will be hooked up to it tomorrow and hopefully that will speed up the healing process and I won't be ruining my clothes from the draining. I sincerely hope that this is the end of my troubles with pilonidal abscesses.