I’m a 19 year-old girl from Vancouver, Canada. Back in August of 2011, I felt a really uncomfortable pain in my lower back. I saw a red bump on the top of my butt crack and assumed it was a hemorrhoid.
After having it for a few days and the pain becoming excruciating, I finally went to see my GP. She told me it was not a hemorrhoid, but a pilonidal abscess and prescribed me antibiotics. A couple of days later, it popped and I was thoroughly grossed out by the puss draining out of me. A couple of days later, I went back to my GP and she said it was healing fine. She also warned me that if it happened at least 5 more times in the next 5 years, I would probably need surgery. I didn’t pay much attention and carried on with my life.
Then, in November, I felt a familiar pain in my lower back and a quick look in the mirror confirmed that the abscess was back. This time, I wasted no time and immediately went to my GP. Turns out, the GP I’ve had since I was a child retired without informing me and some new doctor was her replacement. He prescribed me antibiotics and the second time around I was in very manageable discomfort. The abscess didn’t pop, it merely went down.
At this point, I actually read up on my condition and was terrified. I couldn’t talk about it without crying. Around this time was also when I found this website, a great comfort and reassurance.
Fast forward to February of this year, and I’m going through it all over again. I went to my GP hoping he would give me antibiotics and I could quickly move on, but he refused to and said I had to go to the ER and have it lanced. I was insistent on waiting until to end of the week so I wouldn’t miss any classes and the week after was spring break. On a Thursday, I went in to the ER and the doctor there really didn’t have to say much, I knew my options. I told her to lance it because I refused to drop out of school in order to recover from an excision. So, it was lanced and packed and I was sent home with antibiotics and went to an ambulatory clinic to change the packing every 2 days.
Once the wound was healed up, I had a consultation with the surgeon who lanced my abscess in the ER. She discussed stitching me up after removing all of the infected tissue if everything looked “clean” (by that she means a dead infection). I was really apprehensive of this because all the reading I’ve done and discussions with the head nurse at the ambulatory clinic pointed to having an open excision with a negative pressure wound vac had the highest success rate. My surgeon even said stitches worked about 50% of the time, not the kind of odds I wanted to hear. I talked with her again and expressed my concerns over the stitches and she said judging by my age, I would probably heal well and that if the stitches don’t work she’ll leave the wound open. Ultimately, I wouldn’t lose any time and she would have to assess which option is best when she actually opens me up.
So, my surgery is scheduled for April 26. As much as it frustrates me that this disease has severely put my plans on hold, I’m glad I have until September to heal without any pressure to get back into the swing of things in a hurry. For the girls reading this, don’t be ashamed! I know it’s an embarrassing situation but please do not let this fester and get worse. Within the span of a year I’ll have had my first onset and hopefully be permanently cured. I’ll probably post on my progress post-op in the forums, look out for my name if you want to know how it goes.