I want to share my story to offer hope for sufferers of this horrible thing, (particularly young women with maybe a little more body hair than most women inherited in the genes, in my case). But even if you aren’t a woman, this may help you.
I was 28, and on 11 December 2008, I felt minor pain on my coccyx, and thought it was from sitting down too long writing thank you cards after our wedding. I have an office job where I sit alot, so I think that is what caused it in the first place. Over the next 5 days, it got progressively worse, until I was crying in the middle of the night, and it eventually burst on the loo. I called my husband who saw the bleeding and me in agony on the floor and we went to the emergency room. I had no idea what it was as had never heard of it.
Was very embarrassed but the triage nurse was very nice, gave me painkillers and I could lie down on the waiting room chairs. Doctor saw me soon after and diagnosed pilonidal abcess straight away, I got morphine and was put in a bed to be seen by the Registrar on duty to assess for surgery. Luckily, I’m privately insured, and insisted that the best surgeon see me (despite the drug haze). He saw me a few hours later after I had been moved to the ward. He was happy with how it had drained by itself over that time (it felt HEAPS better after the drugs and the drainage) and that he would not operate at this time, but that in a few months when it had settled down.
I went home from hospital the next day, in much less pain and had no further pain while I waited for my operation in the February 2009. I was a bit worried reading this site etc from all the complications/recovery time, but I could not risk going through the agony if it flared again – it was the worst pain I’d ever experienced in my life, and I wanted to have a baby and didn’t want it to happen whilst pregnant.
Having been through both pilonidal and childbirth (12 months later), labour only just trumps the pain of pilonidal at its peak. Operation went well and it felt really good for 3 days – didn’t really need pain relief when nurses changed dressings (every morning) – but then it got infected. I did not have a bath at my apartment so was rinsing it, but wasn’t doing it properly. I went and stayed at my parents (with a bath). My mum (an experienced nurse) could change the dressing, but it was extremely painful during dressing changes from days 6- 9, despite pain relief beforehand, and baths twice a day.
It got better though, and by day 14 I was feeling great, it was healing well and I could sit reasonably well on the couch/car. In hindsight, I should have taken 3 weeks off work instead of 2, because I think it would have sped up healing. Daily ambulatory clinics for another 4 weeks were necessary to keep dressings clean, (hubby also changed a few god love him!) and then about week 6, I split the wound again by sitting on a cold metal grandstand seat at the footy (I think).
From here, I had to see the surgeon 2 or 3 more times as it just wouldn’t heal. He treated in his clinic with a few minor tweaks/clean outs (not painful). Took 6 months in total to heal completely, and hasn’t returned since. He was very patient. Occasionally, I get twinges when sitting too long at work, but I ordered an ergonomic coccyx friendly chair, and take care not to sit on hard surfaces if possible.
I would recommend the surgery if you get these often and can find a good surgeon. Make sure your wound care post-op is meticulous and that you don’t get too excited when you think it’s healed but it actually hasn’t. Good luck. This really is a horrible thing to get in your life, but once you get over the embarrassment (med staff see these all the time) and the pain (it will go eventually) you will be ok. All the best xoxo. (and thanks heaps to this website, I really needed it when it first happened, reassured me I wasn’t alone in this world).