Hi everyone, I'm 22 years old and have had a pilonidal cyst since I was a young teen. The cyst was always very small and never really hurt so I always put off surgery...until recently when it became highly infected, and HIGHLY sensitive. Earlier this week I rushed to ER at 3am after the cyst had turned bright red and started leaking puss and blood. The ER doctor gave me a little bit of morphine and local anesthetic and lanced the cyst. It was one of the most painful things I've ever experienced in my life due to how sensitive and swollen it had gotten. In fact, my blood pressure dropped drastically from the pain durning and after the lancing and I almost passed out. The ER doc removed hairs out of the cyst and also some other things (I thought she said "hatchets" in my haze of pain, but it may have been pits I've heard people talk about). Fast forward to 2 days ago and my primary doctor changed the packing and dressing of the wound. Once again, I was given a larger dose of morphine and local anesthetic and it was EXTREMELY painful once again. He doused the packing in antibiotic solution and packed the wound before putting bandaging over it (I'm also on oral antibiotics). He told me to come back in 3-7 days to have it re-packed and said it wouldn't hurt as bad next time..however I have a question that I forgot to ask in my haze of pain and delirium. Should I change the bandaging that is over the wound on my own? I've had it on there for 3 days now and you can see a tiny bit of blood, and also dried puss from the wound draining into the bandage. Common sense tells me that this bandage needs to be changed out and will breed bacteria and other bad stuff by leaving it there, however I'm afraid of accidently pulling the packing out or something. I can't call the doctor until late tomorrow so I thought I'd ask here what the normal procedure is for taking care of the wound after lancing? Also, how many times will this thing have to be packed before it heals? It really sucks not being able to take a shower!
My daughter has had two excisions of Pilo with packed dressings. Last year the staff in hospital said to pack it every two to three days, but when I researched here I realised that daily packing would be better so I took on the job myself (I am a nurse) This time I took her home from hospital and started daily dressing changes. I would advise you to see if you can have your wound packed with Aquacel AG as it reduces the pain of dressings. The packing material turns into a soft jelly like substance and slides out of the wound easily. The AG is silver added to the dressing. I think you need more frequent changes, see if you can find a Wound Care centre, or if the doctor or a nurse will do that. Look at the threads and info here for all you need to know about packed dressings. Just off now to do the dressing for today, It only takes me about five minutes. Daily dressings involve a lot less pain as the dressings are not hardened.
