In 2007 I was in the Army stationed at FT. Wainwright, AK. We were gearing up for a deployment to Iraq in a couple of months. I was at a friend’s house, who happened to be a medic, enjoying a few drinks. I was bent over petting the dog and my friend, the medic, punched me square in the tailbone. It hurt, and felt quite bruised. I just figured there was a bruise and nothing else of it.
After about a week, it had swollen to about the size of a golf and was extremely sore. I figured it was time to go see the flight surgeon. I get in there and asked the medic on duty if the doc had a few spare minutes to look at my tailbone, ensure me it’s just some rough bruising and send me on my way. The doc looked and told me I had a Pilonidal cyst. I asked how that happened, he said it was probably there before and the trauma of being hit was what inflamed it. He said, “We have to lance that now.” So I agreed, and the horror began. I’m pretty sure he’s never encountered one of these before, because his first mistake was giving me local anesthetic, which did not work due to the infection. He lanced, I yelled in pain, it was a horrible process. He gave me pain meds and sent me on my way. Told me to come back in a week, before we all took leave prior to our deployment. I returned, he gave me a shot of demerol this time, and I could care less what happened. There was no packing after the lancing and draining, and I figured I was good to go.
Fast forward to my return flight to Iraq from my R&R. I was on the plane and started to feel that dull tailbone bruising pain I had before. I went to the bathroom and gave it a feel and sure enough, it had returned. When I got back in country, I went to see our medic, the only one we had, and the one who caused the trauma that exposed this horrible thing and told him it had returned. We went to the flight doc there, and he sent me to see a surgeon because he hadn’t dealt with one before. When I met the surgeon I learned that my flight doc from AK did everything wrong. This time they sedated me, lanced it and cleared out the pits. I was told that the wound have to be packed and heal for 4 weeks, then they were going to send me in for a cystectomy.
So the medic, who I blame for this just because, had to repack my wound for 4 weeks. Then I was off for my surgery. For my surgery they did the spinal block and sedated me. The feeling of no pain was awesome. I was relieved to have this be the end of it. It was repacked twice daily for a while until it was healed. The only thing I didn’t like about the spinal, was that the puncture site and my back were really sore for months afterward. I also feel that my medic friend got his just desserts for that punch to my butt.
Sadly, it’s been 5 years since that surgery and I’m getting that same feeling back, right in the same area. There’s a nice marble sized lump under the scar tissue from the surgery. I hate to have to do this again, but it seems like surgery is the only viable long term solution when this flares up. We’ll see what my family doc says about it.
Hopefully this will be the last one I ever have.