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Well, last year while I was working a job in retail, I noticed my backside would itch intensely while standing long periods of time. Embarrased, I waited and waited hoping it would just go away on it's own. Eventually I went to a family doctor who thought I had hemmoroids. He gave me some foam and those delightful little rockets to insert into your anus. The foam only provided temporary relief, and the rockets did nothing for me. I saw him again and, concerned, he referred me to a gastroenterologist. The gastroenterologist looked at it and informed me that I had a pilonidal cyst. He said that it would have to be removed surgically at some point. Depressed, I accepted the bad news but vowed to wait a while before having the surgery. Finally a couple of months later, the cyst really started bothering me. It would hurt so bad while I was trying to work and I was too embarrased to tell my co-workers why I was so slow moving. Eventually I had to quit my job and I figured it was time to have the cyst removed. My family doctor referred me to a general surgeon here in town. We'll call the surgeon, Dr. X. Well, I went to have my consultation with Dr. X and he assured me that the surgery would be a walk in the park. He made it sound like he had done many of them before, and actually scoffed at the notion that I had seen a gastroenterologist about it (Why I don't know, I was referred to the Gastro. I didn't just visit him on my own free will). Dr. X said at the absolute most, I would be out of work/school for a week. His technique was simply to cut out a large (and I mean LARGE) chunk of tissue surrounding the cyst and to let it grow back from the inside out. He made it all sound so easy. Red Flag #1 - He was available to do the surgery one week from our consultation. The best surgeons are usually booked up a couple months in advance, but I didn't think about it at the time. So I said okay, this doesn't sound so bad. Just get through this little surgery, and move on with my life. WRONG! The surgery day rolls around and everything goes fine (or so I think). I go home the same day feeling pretty good. Well, I have this gigantic bandage on my backside which makes it virtually impossible to have a bowel movement. But that's really the least of my concerns. The days begin to pass. I had my surgery on Monday and I see Dr. X on Thursday to get the first set of stitches out. Thursday rolls around, and while I don't feel like I'm getting a whole lot better, the surgeon says everythings fine and to see him in a week. This is where things get bad. Every day I start to feel a little bit worse. The wound just keeps building up more and more pressure with every passing hour. Simply walking from my bedroom to the kitchen seems like a gargantuan task. Finally I decide (on the following monday) to call Dr. X's office. Everything's fine, they say. It's a painful surgery I'm told. So I go on hoping that maybe I will be in less pain the next day. Except I can't even sleep good at night because rolling over hurts SO bad. But, like I said, the pain meter hasn't even been touched yet. The next day I feel worse than the day before and I decide to call them again. It's a tough surgery, they say. Take a pain pill. So I take a pain pill which does me no good whatsoever, and hope that tommorow will be better than today. Which obviously is not the case. The pain just gets worse and worse and worse. The wound now throbs intensely when I try to walk. The next day rolls around and nothing is changed for the better. Except on this day I get a suprise! After having a bowel movement I look in the toilet and see a nice pool of my own blood! (As well as pus, but that's neither here nor there) Just where I was standing I look down and see a puddle of my own blood. I'm no doctor, but this can't be good. First I call my brother and tell him and he says I need to speak with the surgeon ASAP. I leave a message at their office (which is closed on Wednesdays, how convinent) and after an hour get a phone call from the on-call surgeon. I tell him my situation and he says the blood in the toilet could be any number of things and that I should just keep an eye on my wound until my appointment with Dr. X the next day. What does that mean anyway? Keep an eye on it? At this point the pain was getting very intense and I wasn't sure if I could make it to the appointment the next day. I just decided to hop in the car and drive to a family doctor to see if he could help me at all. He freaks out when he sees my wound and says that I have a massive infection. He immediately calls Dr. X (who has the day off, of course) and ends up speaking to the same on-call surgeon that I spoke with earlier. He really lets the guy have it, saying that they can't keep turning me away over and over again. He says that I need to be seen right now. The oncall surgeon drives over to my family doctors. And, let me say in his defense, the oncall surgeon really wasn't a bad guy. I just don't think he understood the severity of my situation. Anyway, he and my family doctor snip some stitches and pack the would lightly until my surgeon sees me the next day. FINALLY, after all this I get the honor of seeing the totally inaccessilbe Dr. X who operated on me. He looks at it and says, oh well about 1/3 of all my pilonidal cyst patients have this happen. I'm like, what? This would've been nice to have known in the consultation. He STILL has to remove stitches from the infected cavity which hurt SO, SO, SO bad. On a scale of 10, I would give this a 10. I just lay on this table, bare ass, while he yanks these things out of me and I just bite down trying not to pass out. Then he has to pack it for the first time. Keep in mind this is a GIGANTIC hole which has developed a massive infection. He would put the gauze on the end of a long q-tip and shove it into the cavity. OH MY GOD THIS HURT MORE THAN ANYTHING I'VE EVER EXPERIENCED BEFORE. The only thing worse is when he had to pull it out. It felt like someone had taken a knife and cut your flesh slightly. Then they grip that little stub of exposed flesh, and rip off a gigantic piece. He tried to downplay it at first but I knew he was full of it because my family doctor and the oncall surgeon said I was up the creek as far as pain went. Anyway I have to pack this thing for about two and a half months before it totally heals. Not exactly one week, huh? I lose all the classes I was taking in the summer and can't even go to school in the fall. Plus, I can't work. I just lounge around all day, soaking and packing and packing and soaking. I learned after the fact that the surgeon's technique was to close the wound after the surgery and hope that it heals from the inside out. Unfortunately, instead of it healing from the inside out it just developed a huge infection and built up more and more pressure with each day. Had I not gone to see the family doctor when I did, I shudder to think how much worse I could've gotten. It was the worst experience of my life and I wouldn't wish the physical pain that I went through on anyone.
In Reply to: Dr. Stoll, I have had a horrible pilonidal cyst surgery... posted by Ethan [703.236] on October 31, 2004 at 01:03:08:
Hi Ethan, how awful for you. And how forbearing of you to put Doctor X and not his name! He would deserve it.
I hope you recover soon - why didn't they anaesthetise you for the procedure?
There may be herbalists on this board who can help you along with Dr Stoll - I hope so! How is this affecting your everyday bowel function?
Jane
In Reply to: Dr. Stoll, I have had a horrible pilonidal cyst surgery... posted by Ethan [703.236] on October 31, 2004 at 01:03:08:
Hi, Ethan.
It is really too bad you could not have read the pilonidal archives before giving yourself into the hands of the surgeon. In my opinion, you could easily have been the first one of these he ever did!
I, too, do not understand why you are protecting the identity of this doc. All that does is preserve the trap that this doc is for other unsuspecting patients like you.
Walt
In Reply to: Re: Dr. Stoll, I have had a horrible pilonidal cyst surgery.Archive in monopoly. posted by Walt Stoll [9.8] on October 31, 2004 at 16:07:08:
Im having mine removed this friday
In Reply to: Re: Dr. Stoll, I have had a horrible pilonidal cyst surgery.Archive in monopoly. posted by rose [15.6] on November 15, 2004 at 20:25:07:
Hi, Rose.
Good Luck!
Maybe you will be one of the lucky ones.
Walt
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