Thought I would share my story for all those who are worried about surgery!!! I definitely recommend it and wish I would have done it sooner!
The surgery itself and recovery was 2 weeks and no pain vs the 1+ year I spent having flare ups and doctor/urgent care visits. My first major flare up was 10 days before my wedding. My buddy was the same size as a baseball. (I promise I’m not over exaggerating… I didn’t feel stressed but I think my body was kicking my butt. I waited 2-3 days after I probably should have. I couldn’t even lay down on my stomach I was in so much pain.)
I got Dr. Michael Johnson (WA state) to see me and he lanced and drained it. (Worst pain I’ve ever been in.) It immediately felt better – I was back to work day after and on the beach in 10 days. Fast forward 2 years, flare up on Christmas Eve. Went to urgent care and got antibiotics. Flared back up less than a month later. Doc said it progressed to pilonidal sinus. I had a half dollar size “bruise” on my butt and 3 pits. Because of work I put surgery off 6 months and worked through the monthly pain and anxiousness that it would flare up again. Doc said surgery recovery would be 1 week only laying on stomach and 1 additional week with little movement. I finally got it. He cut an elliptical shape (like a football)… Removed the pits/sinus… Stitched back up and covered. Doc said not to remove bandage for 2 weeks and leave covered.
I woke up in no pain. The next day I only had to take ibprofen and that was only as a precaution. By the second day I was off all meds!! I couldn’t sit on my butt for the first week… But walking around, going up stairs, or laying down was no problem. After the first week sitting on a fluffy pillow was fine for a few hours. The only thing that was slightly uncomfortable during these 2 weeks were the stitches because the ends were poking me in the butt when I’d lay on my back! 🙂 I was super worried and scared because I had read so many stories on this site about long healing times or complications.
Surgery was the right decision and absolutely worth it!!! I have an ugly scare but no longer worry about flare ups!! (PS mine cost me $1,600 in WA with relatively good insurance.) sorry for the long post! These were all the questions I had before mine!