Not for the faint of heart. . Don't read of you don't like to hear about . . doctor stuff. . .

Two days ago I was crying because of the amount of pain I was in. Today I cried because the pain is almost completely gone.

Sunday: I started to feel some discomfort in my lower back, pressure on my tail bone.

Monday: Pain intensified during the day at work. Once home I striped from the waist down and laid on my stomach until my husband came home. “Sweetie, can you do me a potentially gross favor?” He replied with an mischievous smile “Like, pop a zit?” “Well, I don't know if it's a zit or not but there is something on my tail bone that hurts really really bad.” All he found was something that looked like a zit that was deep under the skin with no head on it.  

Tuesday: Pain continued to intensify, I could now feel a hard lump under my skin, over the size of a nickel, still looked like an angry zit.

Wednesday: It's a 20 min drive to and from work. I started crying about 5 min into the ride home. The bumps in the road were unbearable. Turning a corner made my legs tense up and I kept trying to squat above the car seat instead of sit on it. That night my husband suggested I make an appointment with a doctor.

Thursday: I called around to different doctors offices trying to get in that day. Most said that they weren't taking new patents or it would be the middle of July before I could get in. One office said that they would like to call me back after talking with my potential doctor. With in an hour I had an appointment with Dr. McSteamy. His office was kind of hard to find, out on the very very edge of town along side a living assistance building. “great, I'm going to an old person doctor” I thought. But the waiting room had people of all ages, including some kids.

Once I got into his office the nurse looked me over and said that she was sure it was a cyst. But she wanted Dr. McSteamy's opinion on what to do. Within 45 minuets of getting in to see my doctor, I was referred to a surgeon. The reason being that the cyst could be much deeper and Dr. McSteamy didn't feel comfortable draining it in his office. That it may need to be done in an OR. My surgeon was Dr. McDreamy, who agreed to see me that afternoon. So I drove over to his offices, just a few miles away. He talked with me about what they wanted to do and then went down to business. I got four shots of something to numb me up. I wasn't expecting a small shot to hurt but because the area was so sore it hurt a lot. Then he made an incision about an inch long and drained the cyst. He said “just a little fluid in here” I was thinking “that's a lot more then just a little” I could feel it run down my back side, between my legs, and drip on to the padding under me. He then began to “pack” the cyst with gauze. That hurt, I could feel each little push. He put about three inches in to the cyst. Then covered the whole thing with more gauze and taped it down.

He rolled a chair over and sat next to my head (I was lying face down) to talk with me. He said he had never seen a case like mine. I wasn't old enough, I wasn't over weight, I didn't have a job where I sat all day, and I had good hygiene. He also said that he didn't see any evidence that it was something that would reoccur, as in pilonidal disease or pilonidal cysts. He thought it was just a cyst that appeared in an area that would make doctors assume pilonial cysts, but really just a zit gone wrong. So thank you Dr. McDreamy and thank you Dr. McSteamy for being able to help me that day and for helping the pain start to subdue.

Dr. McDreamy prescribed an antibiotic, no showering until Saturday, and on Saturday I could take off the bandage and pull the gauze packing out. So I went to the Dillons that I work at to get my prescription and buy some tape and gauze. I still couldn't sit very well but I had to wait about 15 min for them to fill my prescription. I also got some bottled water so I could take my first dose asap. I was home by 5:30 that night.

Friday: I had to be at work by 6 am that day, totally forgot to ask if I was allowed to go back to work. But with some Advil and very helpful co-workers, I made it through the day with less pain then before. My co-worker, Brandon told me he had been taking extra care to clean his “cheekies” since I told him what was wrong. At least we had some good laughs. Buy the end of the night, most of the pain I had was from the tape pulling on my skin.

Saturday: nerve racking, I was suppose to go to my grandma's 80^th birthday party today, but since it still hurts to sit in my car seats, I decided a 5 hour drive would be to painful. Happy Birthday Grandma! Sorry if I was ever a pain in the ass! Because now I know what a real pain in the ass feels like. Nerve racking because today I can shower, I can take the bandage off, I can pull the gauze out of my cyst. Don't know if any of that will hurt. I waited around as long as I could stand being dirty. Then gathered up my things, took an Advil and got in the shower. The water felt good. The tape didn't feel so good. But the gauze was out right terrifying. I decided to leave it there until my shower was complete. I washed from my head down, then got very “doctor” like and scrubbed between my toes, and under my finger nails. Washed really good behind my ears. . I was putting the gauze pulling off. The water temperature started to change, so I needed to do this fast. The first little tug stung, probably hurt more then it needed to b/c I was so tense. To calm myself I started to think about all the knitting I was going to do the rest of the day. I planned on making an entire pair of lace anklet socks in some super rainbow yarn. Then the cleaning that I wanted to get done before the husband came home. I hadn't cleaned since Sunday and I was starting to feel bad that he was picking up the slack. Next thing I know the three inches of gauze was out and the pain stopped. I got out and dried off, taking time to do everything slow, not knowing what movements would hurt. I dropped my towel, bending over to pick it up I realized that it didn't hurt to bend over. Wow. That's when I started to cry. I was so happy that the hard part seemed to be over. Now I just need to keep it covered until it stops draining. Then all I'll need is a band-aid. Sweet, now I just need to start on my socks.