Since everyone is telling their stories I would like to share mines. I am a healthy male and at the age of 29 I felt a small pain on my tailbone.
I thought it was from all of the exercises that I was doing and somehow I bruised or put some extra pressure on my tailbone so I said forget about it. BIG MISTAKE!!! Suddenly one night I couldn’t sleep. That night I took 4 extra strength Tylenol to help and it helped with the pain a bit. I waited another 2 days with SO MUCH PAIN that I said enough is enough. I couldn’t even take a proper step anymore.
I went to my family doctor and as soon as I saw him he knew what it was and he told me to go to the ER right away. So I went there and they had a look at it and scheduled me for a surgery the same day. I was put to sleep because I had SO MUCH PAIN. The doctor made a small incision and drained it. After I woke up and I was in the hospital for 2 hours before they discharged me.
Before I was discharged, the doctor told me to take warm baths with Epsom salt to help it drain any pus that had not been drained. Right after I was discharged I felt a lot better. Not really 100%, but way better than what I was. A week went on and I still felt pain. I went back to the ER again and told them about my pain. This time I had a different doctor. The first thing he did was requested an ultrasound. The ultrasound was great. It located exactly where the abscess was and how deep it was. So after the ultrasound results came in the same day, the doctor scheduled me for surgery the same day. Same procedure, but this time the doctor made a deeper incision, made sure all of the pus was out, and scooped the roots of the abscess out.
I had an open wound with all of the packing and all of the stuff that they put in it. I was discharged from the hospital the same day, but this time I had no pain, but I was extremely stiff walking. I had a nurse come to my house everyday for almost 2 months. They came and cleaned the wound and re-packed it. It started to heal up great. Now I was great. I started going back to normal routine. I got to say that I am extremely lucky since I live in Canada all of the surgeries and the homecare was free.
Don’t get me wrong we do pay a bit higher taxes here, but it’s worth it. Now I am 31 years old and I just started to get some pain on my tailbone again. I was like OH NO NOT AGAIN!!! So I went to the ER and did an ultrasound and yes I do have some pus, but it is nowhere to what it was. So things to know: It’s not about hair or sweet. I do have hair around that area and it’s not like it was an in-grown hair. There is a chance that it will happen again if you have experienced it once.
If you are lucky like me that live in Canada use or go to your doctor or ER and ask for help. Don’t wait too long and do not be embarrassed because true professionals have seen worst.