how did i get to accident/emergency?
I'm home from the ER.
Thankfully my boy was around on Trillian-Android-AIM during the 2 hour wait-I'm not blaming the ER, there was a big game today and a few car accidents and it's the biggest trauma center for 25 miles.
Turns out it was not, in fact, a pilonidal cyst but an abscess. Basically the difference is that an abscess is infected, a cyst is not. Pilonidal cysts/abscesses are typically in the natal cleft smack on the tailbone (i.e. just above your butt), which is exactly where mine was. The doctor told me that abscesses are much less likely to recur because unlike cysts an abscess doesn't use the body's own skin to wall itself off, it uses the bacteria to do it. So thank god for that at least.
They couldn't give me the good shit (i.e. some nice narcotics) because I was driving myself home. So just local anesthetic-which seriously felt like someone had set the area on fire. I yelled a little; I'm not proud to admit it. Then the doctor asked me if what he was poking me with was sharp and I said "what poke?" and he said "good answer".
They opened it up, drained it out, and then washed out the area with about 750mL of saline which got allllll over the bed and even onto the floor. Because of the anesthetic, it felt like I was peeing myself-good times!
Then I was on my way with a prescription for antibiotics and some Tylenol 3s.
I stopped at Hardee's on the way home because now that the pain was gone I was seriously fucking hungry. And god, that burger tasted incredible.
The fun's not over yet, because someone has to repack my abscess site every 12 hours though. :C Sorry, Mom! Plus I have to go back in 1-2 days to see if it's actually healing.
I feel so much better I cannot even tell you, though.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. Comment there (
), or feel free to comment here.
Thankfully my boy was around on Trillian-Android-AIM during the 2 hour wait-I'm not blaming the ER, there was a big game today and a few car accidents and it's the biggest trauma center for 25 miles.
Turns out it was not, in fact, a pilonidal cyst but an abscess. Basically the difference is that an abscess is infected, a cyst is not. Pilonidal cysts/abscesses are typically in the natal cleft smack on the tailbone (i.e. just above your butt), which is exactly where mine was. The doctor told me that abscesses are much less likely to recur because unlike cysts an abscess doesn't use the body's own skin to wall itself off, it uses the bacteria to do it. So thank god for that at least.
They couldn't give me the good shit (i.e. some nice narcotics) because I was driving myself home. So just local anesthetic-which seriously felt like someone had set the area on fire. I yelled a little; I'm not proud to admit it. Then the doctor asked me if what he was poking me with was sharp and I said "what poke?" and he said "good answer".
They opened it up, drained it out, and then washed out the area with about 750mL of saline which got allllll over the bed and even onto the floor. Because of the anesthetic, it felt like I was peeing myself-good times!
Then I was on my way with a prescription for antibiotics and some Tylenol 3s.
I stopped at Hardee's on the way home because now that the pain was gone I was seriously fucking hungry. And god, that burger tasted incredible.
The fun's not over yet, because someone has to repack my abscess site every 12 hours though. :C Sorry, Mom! Plus I have to go back in 1-2 days to see if it's actually healing.
I feel so much better I cannot even tell you, though.
Originally posted at Dreamwidth. Comment there (
), or feel free to comment here.