As you may have heard, I just had Pilonidal Surgery. It’s been a week since I had the actual surgery and I’m still in a lot of pain. It was a lot more painful than I had anticipated.
I stopped taking my pain medicine and I actually finally started to feel better. I was taking Percocets which is a narcotic pain reliever. The Percocets only really relieve the pain for the first 2 hours and then I am nauseous for the next 8 hours!
Even if I ate food with them, whenever my stomach started to feel empty, I would get sick. I probably gained 10 pounds last week just from laying in the bed, popping percocets, and eating food!
I did switch to ibuprofen. But I’m taking 400-800mg instead of the normal 200mg. I may try Tramadol which is a non-narcotic pain reliever.
My doctor has been I total jerk. He pretty much told me to suck it up, that there was nothing else he could do. I have a giant gash in my butt cheek that has to be cleaned and scrubbed with a cue-tip and packed with gauze EVERYDAY for the next 4-6 WEEKS!! SERIOUSLY?!?!
Before he told me “Oh I’ll prescribe something for the pain, you’ll need it for the packing” (giggles like an evil scientist). Thanks Doc! I know this surgery is usually done on men but you’d think he’d be a little more sympathetic and at least try to prescribe me a different pain reliever.
I debated on whether or not to post pictures. But many of you have asked and for everyone else that have seen the pictures, its been quite a shock. I wish I could see your face…
***WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES!!***
For the record, these images make me sick to my stomach, and it’s my butt, so if you have a weak stomach… BEWARE
Here’s the hole. YES that hole has to be cleaned and packed with fresh gauze…. EVERYDAY! (Sorry it’s blurry, my husband’s no photographer)
And yes! It is extremely painful! The stitches are where the Pilonidal sinus opening was. They removed it and everything underneath there.
The incision goes in and to the right, and all that tissue underneath there was cleaned; opposed to being completely cut out like the pictures in this post.
After packing (first time)…
Related Posts
I Have Pilonidal Disease! *Warning Graphic Images*
I’m Having Surgery Tomorrow!
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Is it bad that the pictures didn’t make me sick at all? It looks very painful. I had to take Tramadol for a back injury and it worked great. No pain and no side-effects.
I know this is total personal question but does it hurt like hell to poop?? ” I hate the word poop”
Actually I’m not sure. I’ve been a little worried about that but the Percocets have stopped me up so bad I haven’t had that issue come up!
OMG you poor thing! I hope it heals quickly. Yikes!
OMG! That looks so painful! Hope it heals really fast!
wow! Hope that gets better soon….ouch! 🙁
Ouch! just.. ouch!
Good gravy that looks painful. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to sit.
Hang in there.
http://harrietandfriends.com/2011/08/rut-rho-2/
Oh there is NO sitting. I lay down for just about everything. Even in the car. I was able to sit on a pillow to eat breakfast for the first time today!
ohh, you poor thing, I am so sorry. I hope it heals soon!
Oh my god Amy. I am sooo sorry. That looks so painful. You should be able to get different pain pills. Praying for a fast recovery.
Wow… looks like it would hurt! I had a wisdom tooth extraction and a month later,knee surgery. The pain pills helped me lose weight because I was feeling nauseated all the time! I hope you start to feel better soon and heal quickly!
Just ouch, ouch, ouch. Percocet is lovely for those types of “occasions.”
Good grief you poor thing, that is a wound for SURE. I have never heard of what you shared but I am off to find out more. I hope that your recovery goes smoothly. I am so sorry you are in pain.
Mindy~
Oh my! That does look painful. I can’t imagine what you are going through. I have had surgery on my clavicle, but I am pretty sure your pain trumps my pain. I hope you feel better and are able to be pain-free as much as possible. Take care of yourself! 🙂
Poor thing! *OUCH*
I feel really bad for you!
You should definitely go see another doctor or something and get some better pain medication.
Or put your foot down and tell your own doctor to do it! He is such a jerk! Doctors are supposed to keep their paitents out of pain and if this medication isn’t working well for you and causing you to be sick, you need to try a different one!
*Sorry, I wouldn’t have been so nice if he was my doctor during this surgery! LOL!
I hope you get to feeling better soon!
Thank you for sharing! I’ve never seen this done before!
Sweet Peas and Bumblebees
http://sweetpeasandbumble-bees.blogspot.com/2011/08/wordless-wednesday_24.html.
The thing is, I WAS mean! He even was worried about me hitting him during the in office exam and packing. There was a lot of screaming and flailing.
He acted like there was nothing else he could do. You think he would have offered a new pain medicine (he offered Motrin) or at least some nausea meds to take with the percocets.
LOL OMG that’s funny.
Well, I’m glad you put up a good fight HA!
And after that I am shocked your doctor didn’t take better care of you. I’m so sorry you got suck with such a jerk!
When I said “Doctors are supposed to keep their paitents out of pain” those are the words right out of my own doctors mouth! He is very adamant about making sure his patients are taken care of and goes out of his way to make sure of it. He took really good care of my after my “C”-section and is always open to trying new or different medications to fit my needs. Including my migraines and back pain and was very helpful during my pregnancy with my back pain and 24/7 nausea the first trimester.
Do you have another doctor you can go see? A few years ago I broke my middle finger as it got slammed in a solid heavy metal jail door (used to be a Deputy) and at the emergency room, I tried to suck it up as best I could…I broke about a dozen bones as a kid so I was familiar with that kind of pain, but this one was different, as it smashed my finger destroying the nail bed and squishing out the muscle (pretty narly). Anyway, he numbed my finger while doing the stitches, so of course it didn’t hurt at the time *Duh* and after he said I was too tough to need pain meds. *WHAA??? ExCUSE ME??? Yes, I’m tough, but this freaking thing hurt like a mother when not numbed. So by the time I got home the numbing agent wore off and I was in tears from the pain.I mean come on…broken finger bone, smashed nail bed, stitches…seriously..so I called my regular doctor at the time and explained the situation to her. She was APPALLED that the doctor said that and didn’t give me any medication for it.
She was happy to prescribe me vicodin for it. So I highly recommend seeing another doctor about your pain management. There is nothing wrong with that and even though your current doctor is treating you, there are plenty of other doctors happy to see you regardless and help with your situation.
I hope you can try that, and I hope you get to feeling better soon! 🙂
Hi there Heather,
How are you feeling after all these months i have had this same surgery 4 times already if i may ask did you have it done in the doctors room.
It is so nice to know there is other people out there that knows what im going thru.
I have teached myself now how to drain it myself but it is still painfull.
All the best.
Erika
i just saw this post and was thinking that a week is an awful long time to still be in pain for this. i had a pilonidal cyst come back every two years starting with the year i was pregnant w my son. it came back two times after the first, and i had them just opened and drained. the third time i finally went with surgery. i have a weird scar on my behind now, cos they took out the whole tract, then sewed all the places where the previous ones had been together. it looks awkward, but i’m glad i haven’t had another since the surgery *knock on wood* in 1992.
Omg!! I just had surgery last wed Nd my incision is the same as yours!! Total pain & nasty and it drains often 🙁 . Packing changes suck to… How long did yours take to go away?!? I’m 10 days post op & i am still sore
The packing changes were the worst! The first week was bad but it took a REALLY long time before it was completely healed and not sensitive to the touch. I was actually having issues with it hurting today so I took a hot bath… and its been almost 3 years since my surgery. Riding in the car for a long time always irritates it too. It’s definitely a lifelong battle.
How long did it take for the hole to heal? I had mine removed 5 days ago and it looks like there is a hole around the stitch :-(. He told me 2 weeks tops it will be healed, but now I am reading all of this and i am a bit concerned it will take longer.
I’m not sure, it really depends on the type of surgery you had and how deep it was. Mine took a REALLY long time before it was completely healed and not sensitive to the touch. Are you packing it? If so, it should take about 4-6 weeks so it can heal from the inside out (which helps prevent it from reoccurring).
I know this is incredibly old but please tell you got a cleft lift at some point. I hate the stupid traditional surgeries (the one you got). They’re only done because most of the old doctors refuse to learn the new way. They have this “well I learned it this way so I’ll only do it this way!” kind of attitude and that’s the reason why so many people have reoccurrences. For anyone who may find what I’m saying at some point, let me tell you why you shouldn’t let your doctor sucker you into traditional surgery.
1) Traditional surgery is practically useless for most cases. The reoccurrence rate is out of this world. It’s well above 50% (I’m not sure what the exact number is), whereas the rate for the cleft lift is about 2-3%. Right? It makes me mad, too.
2) Traditional surgery takes about 2-3 months to heal (of course, again, for the majority however there are some special cases). Cleft lift takes 2 weeks, tops. Ready to kill your doctors yet?
3) Traditional surgery doesn’t even address the problem behind the disease itself. All it does is clean the hole for however long until your butt does the same thing it did to get pilonidal in the first place. The cleft lift shallows your natal cleft (fancy word for butt crack). The problem with the natal cleft that makes the reoccurrence is that it’s typically never allowed to dry, which makes it a big ol’ party for bacteria. When you make the natal cleft shallow, more air gets to it, keeping it relatively dry so that bacteria doesn’t accumulate and create the problem again. In the case that it’s due to hair, making the natal cleft shallow also allows the hair to grow out and not be pushed back in by your crack.
So, please. If anyone sees this, unless you know exactly how you got pilonidal (which is usually not the case because most people don’t find out about it until they end up in the ER), don’t get traditional surgery for your sake. Insurance also shouldn’t be a problem, just make sure you get the right doctor who knows how to code it so that insurance won’t try and call it “cosmetic surgery”.
Sorry this was so long, I just hope that this helps someone in need.
Thank you for this! My husband is at the doctor right now with what we believe is this problem (will find out for sure from a physician), except he has a hole but has experienced no pain.
The only reason he knew it was there was because he had blood show up on tissue paper every time he went to the bathroom. He was embarrassed about it so it took him a month to tell me it’d been going on. As soon as I looked at it I advised he see a doctor right away.
I’ve been looking at the options for treatment in the event that this is the issue, and I will absolutely ask about this option if his doctor doesn’t bring it up on her own. And extra thanks about making sure the coding is properly recorded so as not to be “cosmetic.”
You are excellent for sharing this info.
I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this!
I have been having tailbone pain and I’m not sure if I’m hoping it’s a cyst or tailbone injury. There’s lots of information on tailbone injuries and rehab but I had a hard time finding into on the cysts so I really appreciate you sharing this.
I see the post is quite old, have you had any recurrence/complications?