I’m 18 and I had my first pilonidal cyst drained yesterday with packing put in. Now, my surgeon and nurse gave little to no information on recovery other than to remove packing in 24 hours, keep the wound clean, and take it easy for a while. I was suggested by the nurse to take a shower while removing the packing, and while trying to do so tonight the pain was enough that my vision blurred and I almost passed out and I gave up. I wasn’t told how deep my wound is or how much packing was put in, and I honestly don’t know what to do. Tomorrow I’m going to my school nurse to see what she thinks I should do, but does anyone here have tips on how I should take the packing out without such pain?
For what its worth, in my case, I was told to soak in a tub with warm water for 30 mins twice a day. After 2 days, I was able to remove the gauze myself. Mine wasn't as bad as some of the Youtube videos (only about 1-2" of packing) but it still hurt. Keep in mind that the reason its painful is because the gauze is sticking to the wound. I was able to wiggle it around a little to free it up and then pull it out.
Ziggy, go get it checked out by a nurse practitioners or someone that has dealt with pilonidal cysts/disease before. I had the same situation a week ago - out of no where this thing flared up and I went to an emergency clinic. Guy there took a look at prescribed me antibiotics and to go to the ER in two days to have it lanced/drained. Well the next morning it popped on it’s own so I went to the ER that night since it would not stop draining.. 6 hours later I got a surgeon resident who did not really know what he was doing and took a look, saw it was drained. He cleaned it a little and packed it really tightly with gauze and told me to take it out after 24 hours and that was it. Well I took it out a day later and there was litterallt a hole down there, a small one! Didn’t feel right so I went to my doc the next day who referred me to a nurse who’s seen these before. She said the surgeon was nuts and that these need to be cleaned/repacked and dressed every few days to make sure they are clean and don’t heal at the top of the wound - they need to heal bottom first. I’m on my second cleaning now and still have 2 more or so with this nurse. It shouldn’t be left open to heal by itself right away. Go see a nurse to help you clean it and pack it. Then find out from them how many times you need to go back to continue the process until it’s healed properly. I’m using Aquacel packing been super helpful to put in and take out, normal gauze is really painful my first experience after the surgeon put it in was dreadful to take out.
Also a tip for taking out the gauze the first time, spray it with saline or spray saline on the area until it gets soaked then take it out. That helped me a lot!
Good luck
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Thank you! My mom and I managed to get the packing out but weren’t told to do anything after that, so I’ll ask about going to see my doctor again (not the surgeon) about repacking and specifics on healing an such!