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Pilonidal sinus
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Hi folks,
So glad I found this thread, it's weirdly comforting to know there's so many people out there who have been through the same ordeal! The only thing is, it doesn't seem to be updated too regularly and I desperately need some urgent advice from you guys, so I'm praying someone will notice this! Here's the craic (I'm going to include all the gory background info, so this may be quite long, sorry):
My whole drama began about four years ago. One evening (after sitting up doing last minute uni work for about 48 hours) I got a terrible pain - I'm sure you all know the one - and by 3am that night I ended up ringing the doctor on call because I honestly thought I wouldn't last til the morning. It was that bad! I went to see them first thing the next morning and they didn't have a clue what was wrong, just told me it was an internal infection, doesd me up on painkillers and anitbiotics and sent me on my way. That seemed to do the trick, and at that stage I was blissfully unaware of abceses, sinuses or anything of the like. I'd never even hear of them. You know where I'm going with this...
Then, about a year later, one beautiful summer's day, the pain came back. This time I was able to ride it out for a day or two before it got so bad I went to the doctors. It was a different doc this time and again they had no idea and ended up it telling me it was a rare (and very painful) form of muscle strain unique to women. Since I still had never even heard of a pilonidal sinus, I took his word it and went on my way once again. I even went home and googled what he said it was, and the symptoms seemed quite similar. My other half was away that weekend, and I have no hesitation in saying it was the worst few days of my life. On the Saturday I went back to the doctor's and again saw a different one. I told that one about what the other one had said it was so he didn't even examine me, instead just said 'yeah, that's very painful alright' and gave me a pain relieving injection that lasted just about until the end of that afternoon. By the Sunday I was throwing up and hallucinating and by the time my boyfriend came back on the Monday he found me in agony and half out of it on the sofa and took me straight to the hospital. I had an emergency operation on an "ischiorectal abscess" that night and spent the next 9 days in a isolated room in hospital pumped full of antibiotics that were so strong they made my blood feel like it was on fire. Apparently the poison from the abscess had got into my system because it was left so long, so there's a cautionary tale for you all right there! Turns out because it wasn't in the usual place for this type of thing (and it was very deep) it was an easy mistake for the doctors to make.
Right, that's the first half of the story, and here's where the ps comes into it. Following that intial op I had about two months of packing, and about a month or two after that with no bother at all. Then the area began to swell up, just like what's been described so many times here. Luckily, it wasn't an abscess this time but instead had developed into a sinus, meaning once it would swell to a certain size it would burst with all that yuckiness (better out than in, believe me!). The first time this happened I went straight back to the doctor's, yet again being seen by a different one. At least at this stage I knew what and where the problem was, but that didn't make that trip any better - the bloody man took a scapel to me without warning and hacked out it right there and then. The entire medical centre must've heard me screaming! Then he gave me more antibiotics and sent me on my way - again. I also needed packing for about a week or two after that incident.
The next few times it flared up I was obviously aprehensive about going back to the doctors, and tired to ride it out for a while. It was becoming too regular though, and eventually I had to. It was at this point things began to change - I found a wonderful doctor who knew what he was at, and I've still with him I'm glad to say. He used to be a surgeon back in his home country and had only gone into general practice when he came to Ireland. He was the first one to think to even mention to me that it wasn't an ingrowing hair that was causing my bother too (I'd always just presumed it was, though no one else had said so) but rather it was the result of a really minor problem I have with my tailbone (it didn't form properly when I was a baby, basically I don't have one!). Apparently cartilidge was growing under my skin and causing the infections. Anyway, he arranged for me to have another op. I went on the waiting list and after about a year and a half of regular flare ups I had it last year, followed by about a month of packing.
At first it seemed like that was it, I was free. But the day I felt that familiar first twinge I realised my optimism was unfounded. I tried to ignore it for a few months but eventually I had to go back to the doctor. He knew how much I didn't want to go through the whole op thing again, and I had just started a new job, so the first time he just gave me more antibiotics - although he was aprehensive about it and warned me that probably wouldn't cut it. They did work, though, but only for a while. When it came back - even worse this time - I went back and he put me on yet another waiting list for surgery.
That was around January this year, which brings me up to my current predicament. At that stage it really was flaring up every week or too, and quite badly, and that continued for a few months. I've become well used to it, but it really was still affecting my quality of life and I've had to cut back on the decent painkilllers because I was taking them too bloody often for my own good. The thing is, at that stage I hadn't told my work about being on the waiting list because I thought I was only going to be working there until April, but they've since kept me on. The ps kept flaring up for a while in the months since then, but I still never mentioned it because I just presumed I'd be on the waiting list for at least a year and I thought I would be given plenty of notice from the hospital regarding when my op would be. Then about two months ago I got a phonecall from the hospital asking if I still needed the op - at that stage it hadn't flared up in around a month, but I was just expecting it to be back as usual any day - and I said yes. Then they asked if I would be able to go for it before September because they'd had some cancellations, and I told them I had two weeks off booked for the end of August but because work was so busy I probably wouldn't be able to do it any time other than that. They said they'd be in touch and when I didn't hear from them again I thought I was just put back on the really long waiting list because August didn't suit them.
Then today I got a phone call - they have me down for this Monday coming! I'm literally back two days from my holidays, and to make things worse in the end I never told my bosses about it because I thought, when I hadn't heard from hospital, I was just back on the long waiting list. To make things even more complicated, my ps hasn't flared up at all really in the meantime, so I've been around four or five months free of the thing - which is highly unusual for me. In fact it's the longest I've gone without it since this whole fiasco began four years ago. There's been twinges, and slight little pains, but no swelling and no bursting.
I'm going to go to my GP tomorrow to ask for his advice, but do any of you out there have any experiences of the things just going away by themselves? Please, please tell me yes! If not, what the hell am I going to do??? I honestly can't afford to take the time off work at the moment - it's mental right now - and I simply can't turn around to my boss and say I need at least another week or two off when I'm only back from a two week break. I've got some holidays left, but I've those booked for six weeks time when I've a family wedding in England which I really can't miss. Any advice at all would be very, very much appreciated here
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