I’m a 17 year old girl from the UK currently studying A Levels. At the time I had the issue I was 16 and wasn’t aware it was a pilonidal sinus until recently. I was in severe pain for about a week and visited the hospital and doctors only for them to send me away with painkillers as they thought it was a tailbone issue which I originally thought it was too. I went back to the hospital when the pain became too overwhelming. I couldn’t sit down or even lie on my back. It was agonising to even lie on my side or get out of bed in the morning. I decided I had to go back to the hospital when I nearly collapsed because of the severity of the pain. After an examination I was told I had an abscess that had gone past the stage of being treatable with antibiotics so I was told I needed to have an operation called incision and drainage. I was sent to a hospital in the next town where I laid on the floor in triage for 4 hours just waiting to be examined further as the chairs were too uncomfortable for me to sit on and there were no beds available. I had the operation under local anaesthetic and was discharged the same day with prescriptions of antibiotics, painkillers and some other tablets. The medication made me very ill leading to me vomiting for a few days after. For 3 months everyday I had to go to the local treatment room/doctors to get the dressing changed and have the wound packed which wasn’t ideal as all this was during the exam period. Last month I had a check up appointment at the outpatients clinic at the hospital where I was told I would need another operation as I can’t sit down for more than half an hour without being in pain. This is when I found out what I had was a pilonidal sinus and if left would lead to the chance of more infections meaning more abscesses. I’m currently waiting on an operation date. I was told this operation has an 80% success rate so I just hope I’m not in the 20% and this is the answer to the end of my pain.