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One of the
biggest concerns people have is about getting back into
working out and other physical activities in a
post-Pilonidal surgery world. The answer depends a lot
on which type of surgery you had and your physical
condition. Open healing requires a longer healing
time than closed surgeries. Flap surgeries require
even longer still.
The type of surgery and
the size/depth of your wound will determine how quickly you
return to exercise and sports activities. Some
people report that they were back in the gym within two
weeks, others waited two months. The most
important thing is to listen to your body. Those
youngest and healthiest will heal quickest, some teenage
Pilonidal patients are back on the football field within
a month after surgery. It is a personal decision
that only you can make, knowing your body and your
health.
Pro's & Cons:
- Heavy weightlifting and physical strain tears
your muscle tissue, which the body then has to heal - it
makes more sense to let the body focus on healing the
surgical wound. Also, running and
jumping involve using the gluteus muscles, this disturbs
all that nice new tissue that's growing in the wound.
- Physical
activity is GOOD FOR YOU! It keeps your mind
active and your heart pumping oxygen into healing
tissues. It improves your outlook on life and helps
you through post-surgical depression (which is
common after any kind of surgery).
What I did
after my surgery - I waited until about 3 weeks into
healing before starting yoga and bike riding. I
started riding about 30 minutes a day and added 10
minutes a week until I was back up to a full hour. What
I do not recommend is bike riding on those flat granny
seats on gym bikes. You need a quality bicycle
saddle that is designed to keep pressure off the
tailbone. If you can sit back and read the paper on the
bike, the seat is no good for a Pilonidal sufferer....
One benefit to
physical activity is that you will probably experience
less splitting of the scar (once it is healed) if you've
been active, especially in the last couple of weeks of
healing.
Swimming -
The official line on this
is NO for pools and/or lakes (icky things in the water + open wound
= infection) and POSSIBLY for ocean. If you have an open wound, be
smart. Salt water is good for wounds, but how clean is the
water at your beach, really? We've had some doctors give the green
light for ocean swimming and some say to not risk it. The one thing
all agree on is NO POOLS.
Intimacy -
Most people usually wait for about two weeks before resuming
"relations". It is up to you and your partner to figure out
which positions work best since it depends an awful lot on where
exactly your wound is located.
Sitting -
Two words that you've see all over this site: Coccyx Cushion.
Horseback Riding - This one is tough for Pilonidal sufferers
since the pounding pressure of riding is a bad combination with a
Pilonidal. Every year we hear from a few teenage girls who
ride competitively and are dealing with Pilonidals. Your
doctor will probably say no riding until healing is complete.
After that, you may want to look into specialized cushions and Seat
Mapping.
(Courtesy of message poster Mary) "Also, for those who cannot find
relief with the cushions on the market, I found out that there is
something called seat mapping system that some rehabilitation
centers are using to help determine the best type of cushion to use
for pressure relief for people with various disabilities. The
centers have various samples of cushion materials (air, gel, closed
cell, open cell) that could be tried over your chair, car seat or
other place and the computer reads out how much pressure is present
and exactly where it is over the buttock region. From the readouts
they make alterations in the cushion, try another material, or/and
change your position to relieve the pressure over the painful or
delicate area. These professionals suggest and can customize
cushions if necessary to relieve pressure. A prescription is needed
for the evaluation . We used it to determine which seat cushion was
best for my daughter to use on her saddle while resuming her horse
back riding."
This page last updated:
03/25/2007
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