This website has been an amazing resource during this entire process. In December 2012 I was diagnosed with a cyst and was started on antibiotic therapy in a attempt to get things under control. Within three days I had to go to the er to have it drained. The following February it came back and i was given more antibiotics to manage it until April when I could have surgery. The first surgery seemed to work up until mid June when I stalled healing and formed a fistula which, naturally, got infected and more pilonidal tissue formed. I seemed fine throughout the summer then, the day before I was supposed to move into my dorm at college I was sent to the ER to get it looked at after it closed up and formed another cyst. It reopened on its own and they managed me with antibiotics until I returned home for break. I had my second surgery in early December of 2013. It was much more extensive than my surgeon thought it would be and I was hospitalized for a few days. I currently have a wound vac that uses negative wound therapy to speed healing and keep everything clean. My suggestion is to consult both a general surgeon and a colorectal one if you can get a referral. Colorectal surgeons are very used to working in that area and have more expertise with pilonidal cysts than a general surgeon might. If they offer a wound vac take them up on the offer. The machines are annoying but the cut down healing time by 2/3 sometimes. For those younger patients in their teens: Don’t be afraid. I’m 19 now and have lived through two surgeries. I’m healing slow but I’m healing.You can survive this and its not as embarrassing as you think it is. You will get used to them around your private bits after a couple times. Trying to get a surgeon of the same gender as you will make things less awkward. Just relax. You might not like it but remember its good for your health