I want to share my positive pilonidal story; Two days before Halloween October 2016 I had my first ever pilonidal “flare up”.
Was 41 years old and at that time didn’t think I’d ever had any pilonidal trouble at all. I actually thought I had coccyx pain as I was getting awful sciatic and lower back pain, so I went to visit the GP (I’m in the UK). I saw a locum doctor who diagnosed Coccydynia and told me to apply heat and do some back strengthening exercises. Not entirely happy with that I rebooked to see another GP the next day who correctly diagnosed a pilonidal abscess and started me on a 5 day course of very strong antibiotics.
If you’re on this forum chances are that you know the amount of pain I was in at this point but the antibiotics started to get to work very quickly and the next day the abscess popped, drained and began to heal, I even managed to go trick or treating! I found this website and read with horror the surgeries that people were going through and tales of emergency room lancing and draining. I felt very lucky that I’d avoided any of that.
Exactly two months later, the site began to tingle again and sure enough, by the end of that day I was phoning the GP surgery. It was a Thursday and I played merry hell for an appointment before the New Year holiday weekend. Another locum doctor, only this time I got a 10 day course of antibiotics and a hospital referral for surgery. By now I was Dr Pilonidal and had read and contemplated Jon D’s remedy on the forum here, plus just about everyone else’s cures – its times like this that you realise the internet is one weird place!
Something about Jon’s non-invasive and very simple remedy made me stock up on my supplies: castor oil, baking soda, wheat bag and gauze swabs from amazon, Organic apple cider vinegar from our local health food shop. And off I went. Well, off we went; my devoted husband has, since January, had the job of chief botty-dresser almost every night! I also invested in a superb SmithHillman coccyx cushion. Whilst the wound was still visible I bathed daily in a hot Epsom Salt bath. I had no more trouble and by the time I went for my hospital appointment at the end of January I was feeling very positive as the abscess wound was healing nicely.
My appointment was at Nottingham City Hospital and the only word I can use to describe that day is surreal. The surgeon I’d been referred to breezed into the room with 2 students and another lady, barely made eye contact, prodded and poked and announced that the lady, who was actually a doctor of some sort, we never did find out, would go through the consent form with me and we’d “get the ball rolling”. He then turned to leave the room. I think not Mr Doctor. We had so many questions and so my wonderful amazing husband literally put his foot in front of the door, and we asked our questions!
In a nutshell, yes I needed surgery as the reoccurrence rate was high and the more flare-ups I had, the more tissue damage there would be. I completely understand that and so with heaviness, I signed the consent form. For the next few days I was like a rabbit in the headlights, I didn’t know what was going on: the wound was healing so well, how could I possibly need to be opened up and scooped out? I’m a self-employed childminder and so began the process of telling parents that “at some point in the near future” I would be off work for anything between 5 weeks and 5 months depending on how the surgery went. Imagine trying to reorganise childcare around that? I felt awful. I couldn’t balance how I currently felt with the enormity of the surgery and so began the process of the second opinion.
I came again to this website and found the list of UK surgeons who perform cleft lift surgery. I figured that anyone who was doing that surgery had probably been treating pilonidal abscesses for a good number of years, I wasn’t wrong. I got the name Mr Robin Gupta, with over 15 years treating all things pilonidal. He works privately but also from the Chesterfield Royal Hospital about 45 minutes away. I was able to contact his secretary and after a few phone calls and emails, he rang me. We discussed my (now lack of) abscess and he told me that a referral to him was straightforward, my GP could do it. My GP was wonderful and very encouraging of a second opinion.
The date for my surgery came through; April 18th, the day after we got back off our family holiday. On the same day the date for my appointment with Mr Gupta came through too, 12th June. I cancelled the surgery. There was one final hiccup; Mr Gupta was on holiday on 12th June so I saw a colleague of his. A very experienced colleague, Mr Peter Goodfellow, who reassured me that if I turned up on his operating table, I would be straight off it! I did not need surgery, there was evidence of two old sinuses which had healed over and there was no sign AT ALL of anything else. Nothing! As I’d made such an effort to see Mr Gupta in the first place, this lovely surgeon rebooked me in to see him in 6 weeks time for a “follow up” appointment.
And so yesterday I finally met Mr Gupta, who is a man just doing his job, but for me is almost godlike! He repeated what Mr Goodfellow said but most importantly of all, and this is what I really want to get across, he praised me for following up on my gut instinct and getting that second opinion. The chances of a reoccurrence are there as I’ve had 2 previous abscesses however both surgeons said that given what they’ve seen of my derriere they’d be surprised if I ever get another abscess. The instance of pilonidal abscess sharply drops off when you hit your 40s.
Growing old never felt so good!