Pilonidal Cysts ((TMI gross warning))

Anyone here have any experience with them? What did you decide to do about it (get it surgically removed or...?)

I'm so stressed out from this stupid thing right now. I only found out in June that I had the cyst, it swelled up fast and needed to be lanced at the hospital. Since then, it has started to bother me quite a few times (more than 7, less than 15), despite preventative care. It gets red, swells to about golf ball size, then a few minutes of very light amount of draining and it goes back down. This time, though, I think I need to have it lanced yet again. Right now, I can't go to the doctor because this is pre-existing and my stupid college-issued insurance won't cover it. :rage::rage::rage:

It feels sore all the time now and I am very fatigued, so I am a little worried. :bow:

My honest opinion. Anything that close to my spine and different internal organs would bother me. But even more so to know that you're feeling fatigued. The cyst could invade other structures internally like the spine or lower intestinal or urinary tract. My suggestion, find a good family doctor and stay away from the ER if you can.

if yours is this often reoccurring or this painful/serious I would suggest going straight to the surgical removal option...They can quite easily become infected and sometimes seriously infected.....MRSA and all those other lovely skin inhabiting bacteria are nothing to play with and more and more frequently the drug resistant strains are showing up.

Go for surgical removal. With cysts the "pouch" everything collects in needs to be removed or else it has a good chance of becoming infected again. It should probably just be scrubbed out for good instead of spending time and money lancing it every few weeks.

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Originally Posted by Chkadii

Go for surgical removal. With cysts the "pouch" everything collects in needs to be removed or else it has a good chance of becoming infected again. It should probably just be scrubbed out for good instead of spending time and money lancing it every few weeks.

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I would hate to have it lanced that often! I've only had to lance it once, the rest of the time it resolved on its own. I will have to look into where I can get it surgically removed around here. I thought it was getting better today because it feels smaller, but it's still not draining, more painful, and (gross warning) I can smell the infection through my skin. I'm not sure they can do surgery on it while infected, so for now I'll just have to get it lanced again.

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Originally Posted by kdreptiles

I would hate to have it lanced that often! I've only had to lance it once, the rest of the time it resolved on its own. I will have to look into where I can get it surgically removed around here. I thought it was getting better today because it feels smaller, but it's still not draining, more painful, and (gross warning) I can smell the infection through my skin. I'm not sure they can do surgery on it while infected, so for now I'll just have to get it lanced again.

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They might get you started on a round of really strong antibiotics a few days before the procedure and keep you on them afterwords, but I can tell you from dealing with large animals like horses and cows when an infection gets so bat that the patient is feeling or acting fatigued and the area has the smell of infection it's bad. So my suggestion is call doctor get seen get on some antibiotic's fast, get you an penicillin shot and get this taken care of. The last thing you want is an internal rupture then you're talking sepsis and long time problem life threatening issues.

I've been in quite a few cystectomies in my day as a surgical tech and if it's reoccurring then it needs to be removed, they can be and get nasty. With a lance they more than likely just drained it and didn't remove everything, to help keep it from returning everything has to be removed cyst and all.