I am sharing my personal experience with PC. Its a happy story and I hope will not scare people.
Most of the advise which I received was from this website and especially the post operative care is the most important (I cannot emphasize enough on it).
HOW IT STARTED
I was 28 years old, male, when for the first time in my life I felt pain in the bottom of my tail bone. The pain was not severe, but enough to cause discomfort. I was under the impression that my recent long road cycling rides might have caused it, but to my surprise I felt a red bump on the top of my buttock flap. The bump just kept growing and it hurt like hell, especially when I sat down.
MEDICAL PROCEDURE
After about 10-15 days the bump opened on its own from the head that had formed. It was draining, but not completely. At this stage I went to the ER and got it lanced and packed. It was a big relief and the pain was gone. I changed the packing every day assuming that finally the horror was over. In about a week it healed and I was on my normal routine.
THE RETUN OF PC
After a week when I changed my clothes, I found my undergarment was wet from where the bump was. I saw it in the mirror and it seemed that the bump was back. There was no pain, but only draining fluid. I went back to the doctor and for the first time heard the word PC. He immediately diagnosed it and informed me that there were 3-5 pits and surgery was the only cure. I had an exam in a few weeks, so I had to wait until then.
THE SURGERY (PRE-PREP)
I did a lot of online search and with the grace of god I have a few doctors in my family. I spoke with them and all of them concurred with what my doctor had informed. I had never been under a knife so I was very anxious. I tried all remedies to ensure avoiding surgery, but the pits continued to drain. I had to put a small bandage on the pits every day. Two days before my scheduled surgery I was given a antibacterial solution to take a shower with the morning of the day of surgery.
THE SURGERY
On the day of the surgery I reached the outpatient surgery section, signed the paper work and was allocated a bed. I got my surgery in the US where I was studying. My uncle was a doctor in the same hospital which made a lot of difference, as everyone knew me and took really good care of me. Although, this was not a major factor, I was just happy to get it done with. After I changed into the gown, the anesthetist visited me. He asked me what my major concern was. It was pain, I told him that I did not want to wake up in pain. He started the IV and gave me a drug to calm down. The drug worked like a magic. I was calm, not asleep, but it helped me get rid of anxiety. After 30 mins he gave me another shot of the same drug and it made me further calm and relaxed. I was awake, but was not worried or concerned anymore. On the contrary I was smiling.
After about another 20 mins two nurses came and pushed my bed into the OR. There were three people in the OR, the came and introduced themselves. Then my surgeon came and shook hands with me. He then informed me that there will be a mask put on my mouth and nose and I will be asleep. In a few secs as soon as the mask was put, I was asleep. I have no clue what happened until I woke up in the recovery room. After the surgery, which I was informed lasted 45 mins I was sent to the recovery room where I was monitored by the anesthetist. I gained consciousness after an hour, but kept going back to sleep every few mins.
Finally after two hours after the surgery I was all up and awake. There was no pain, just a little discomfort. The nurse removed the IV and I was given apple juice to drink. I then went an peed on my own in the bathroom, although I could only walk very slowly. I was in the hospital for another one hour before I was allowed to go home. I could not sit on my back of lay down. I was on my side or on my belly. Even when I was driven back home, I was on my belly in the back of the car. The discharge instructions asked me not to remove the packing for 48 hours. They had packed it with some pain killer ointment. I was also given 500 mg pain killing medication, which I did not need after the first day. I was on a regular tylenol thereafter, just once a day before I went to sleep. There was discomfort and I had to be on my belly for the next few weeks, so I made sure I had plenty of movies and a comfortable low bed.
POST SURGERY CARE
After 48 hours I went back to the hospital to get the packing opened and this was the most horrible phase. When the nurse opened the packing, it hurt like hell and in the bargain, she ended up rupturing a few of my capillaries, which resulted in bleeding. It took over 20 mins for her to control bleeding and repack it. I was not very happy with her packing so I asked my Uncle, a surgeon to re-do and check it for me in the evening. He did it and assured me that everything was fine. Since then, every evening I get the packing opened from my Uncle, who graciously agreed to do the dressing. Then I took a shower and allowed the water to run through the heeling wound. Then I would pat dry it and get a saline packing done. The first week was a little difficult as every time the packing was removed it hurt. But then as the wound started to heel, the things improved and by week two, It just became a regular routine.
For me it took 4 weeks for the wound to completely heal. During these four weeks I made sure that the packing was done everyday, and I cleaned the wound with lots of running water. I would stand under the shower and with a hand held shower let the water flow through the wound for 15-20 minutes. I did have to get my hair shaved around the wound after the first 10 days.
ONE YEARS AFTER SURGERY
I am happy and have no flareups. I make sure that when I take a shower I use antibacterial soap to clem my the space between the butt cheeks and shave it with an electronic shaver every two weeks. For the first few months after the surgery I did have a tingling sensation under the wound site, but I was informed that its the nerves that are re building which is causing it. I do all activities, running, cycling, swimming and sit for long hours without any issues.
OPEN VS. CLOSED SURGERY
This is a highly debatable topic, but the data shows that open surgeries are more successful and have a higher success rate. Closed surgeries although help you heel quicker, there are chances or a re-occurance. When I was doing my research and with my discussion with the 4 doctors in my family, all of them advised me to go with a surgery and leave the wound open to heal. One of my relatives who is a general surgeon in the US and deals with such surgeries cautioned me about the closing the wound with stitches. In his experience there is a 60-70% chance of reoccurrence. He had seen multiple patients who get a surgery and the wound was closed which resulted in a re-occurance and landed in his OR. The only thing you need to worry about is the healing. Then the wound is healing, you have to make sure that the skin around the wound does not dip in and if there is hair it does not go in the wound when it is healing. Any foreign material that stays in the wound will result in another PC. In this whole process, the post operative care is the most essential thing.
I hope my story helps you. I am not advising you, but sharing my experience. I would be happy to talk to anyone who is going through this horrible experience and needs some words of encouragement.