I had my follow up appointment today so Dr. Schatz could better evaluate my situation now that the infection has been treated. I will have surgery in two weeks. Dr. Schatz said that my case is "complex" and not a typical presentation. She did not try to convince me to have surgery, but she did tell me this isn't going to get any better on its own. She did a good job of describing the procedure to me. It's a big oval incision (4-6 inches long) and three layers of stitches. She said this would not be a good case for packing the wound given how large the opened up area will be.
I told Dr. Schatz that I read that there's a 50-percent recurrence rate with pilonidal cysts. she very confidently said, "No. that's
really high. That's not the case with my patients at all, although I've done a lot of surgeries on patients who had a recurrence after someone else did their first surgery. In your case, I'll be eliminating the entire sinus, so your current situation will be completely eliminated."
I then met with Richard, the scheduler. He looked at the notes and said, "Oh, my. Yeah, you want to get this taken care of quickly. This is...not minor. But! You're in very good hands. Dr. Schatz does a lot of pilonidal surgeries and she's been doing them for 20 years. She's really good at this, so you really shouldn't worry about your outcome."
That's all I'll know until after surgery. So far, I've had a positive experience with Dr. Schatz.