I had surgery yesterday...

[Joe the Destroyer]

I had what was called a pilonidal cyst.  What kind of cyst is that, you ask?  Let's just say it's a real pain in the butt. 

This is the second time I've had one.  The first time would be eleven or so years ago.  The surgery I had then was worse, because the cyst was the size of a fist.  This time, it was roughly the size of my thumb.  The drugs they used this time were a lot less inconvenient (better than the spinal block I had last time), and much more effective.  I basically remember being taken into the OR, hearing a bunch of clattering and clanging, thinking, "God, they going to start cutting me or what?" and then the next thing I know they're pushing me into the recovery room and saying it went well. 

The good news is: I get a week off from work, two orders of hydrocone, and enough time to scrape my movie backlog down to nothing, as well as some time to write more of my story. 

The bad news: I have to take a week off work without pay becuase I've only worked at the hospital four months. 

So far, it's going well.  I've watched a ton of movies over the last few days, but I'm running low.  I'm down to my last six films, and being as I can't go anywhere because my doctor discourages long bouts of walking as it might cause me to bleed overmuch, I usually watch about 3-4 movies at a go.  Well, that's one cyst down, and one more to go.  I also have one on my chest that will need to be removed eventually.

[Trevor]

All good wishes for a speedy recovery, Joe. 

I googled the condition and now I see what you mean by a pain in the butt. 

[trekgeezer]

Do you have to do that packing with gauze thing.  My brother had one of those and it is literally a pain in the but. 

[Rev. Powell]

Glad to hear you're well, and enjoy your downtime!

Remember to get rid of any unused hydrocodone; you don't want that stuff lying around the house.  Send it to me if you want and I'll dispose of it properly.

[The Burgomaster]

About 20 years ago I had a cyst about the size of a grape at the tip of my tail bone.  The doctor said it might have been caused by doing sit-ups.  He told me to stop doing sit-ups and he may have had me sit on a heating pad or something simple like that . . . I really can't rmember.  But it eventually shrunk and disappeared and, luckily, I never needed surgery.

[Javakoala]

Glad to hear you're well, and enjoy your downtime!

Remember to get rid of any unused hydrocodone; you don't want that stuff lying around the house.  Send it to me if you want and I'll dispose of it properly.

I go one better:  I'll send you cheesy movies. The worst I can find....

[Rev. Powell]

Glad to hear you're well, and enjoy your downtime!

Remember to get rid of any unused hydrocodone; you don't want that stuff lying around the house.  Send it to me if you want and I'll dispose of it properly.

I go one better:  I'll send you cheesy movies. The worst I can find....

OK, I accept your offer.  This is now a binding contract.   

[Psycho Circus]

Here's to a good recovery my man! 

[Joe the Destroyer]

Thanks everyone!  Sadly, this vacation is getting closer to done with.  Maybe I'll have to have a few more cysts removed to get some more time off.

[asimpson2006]

I had what was called a pilonidal cyst.  What kind of cyst is that, you ask?  Let's just say it's a real pain in the butt.  

This is the second time I've had one.  The first time would be eleven or so years ago.  The surgery I had then was worse, because the cyst was the size of a fist.  This time, it was roughly the size of my thumb.  The drugs they used this time were a lot less inconvenient (better than the spinal block I had last time), and much more effective.  I basically remember being taken into the OR, hearing a bunch of clattering and clanging, thinking, "God, they going to start cutting me or what?" and then the next thing I know they're pushing me into the recovery room and saying it went well.  

The good news is: I get a week off from work, two orders of hydrocone, and enough time to scrape my movie backlog down to nothing, as well as some time to write more of my story.  

The bad news: I have to take a week off work without pay becuase I've only worked at the hospital four months.  

So far, it's going well.  I've watched a ton of movies over the last few days, but I'm running low.  I'm down to my last six films, and being as I can't go anywhere because my doctor discourages long bouts of walking as it might cause me to bleed overmuch, I usually watch about 3-4 movies at a go.  Well, that's one cyst down, and one more to go.  I also have one on my chest that will need to be removed eventually.

I know your pain my friend.  Had two of them my self, and had three surgeries regarding them.  The first one that I had the doctor removed and then stitched me up.  About 6 months later, I get a relapse and get another surgery.  This time the doctor left about a 6 inch long and about an 1 1/2 inch gap to heal from the inside out.  That left me off work for 3 months.  Fast forward to 6 months later, the area where I had surgery is failing to stay shut, so I end going to see a plastic surgeon to have that fixed.  Doctor basically stitches the top of my cheeks together and I now have a wonderful backwards number 7 scar on my buttocks.  

Anyways, it's not really healing that great so the doctor wants me to get another surgery and just have it heal from the inside out again but just the top part.  I wasn't sure if I could get away without surgery so I went and got a second opinion from the surgeon who did my first two surgeries.  He said that I couldn't get away without another surgery so sometime this fall I'll be getting my 4th surgery for this but first I have to get some laser hair treatments to help with some of the hair that bugging part of my open area.


Had a cyst removed from my belly button region back in April (The doctor and the surgeon I saw about this at first said that I had a hernia since it looked like one.)  So the surgeon orders a CT scan (The contrast stuff I had to drink was quite tasty but it didn't make me feel so great later on.) which ends up finding out it was a cyst which I think was a shock for everyone.  The surgery went fine, I just now had an almond shape area on what used to be my belly button.  The only hard part about that surgery was that the doctor had to cut through my muscle wall to see if this cyst went to my bladder or not (Thank god it didn't.)

Anyways got another surgery at the end of July for more skin problems which could leave me off work for a month or so just depends on how well I recover from it.

[Rev. Powell]

Wow asimpson... sounds like a medical nightmare.  Good luck, I hope the docs finally get it right and you can get back to living a life that's not constantly disrupted by surgery. 

[asimpson2006]

Wow asimpson... sounds like a medical nightmare.  Good luck, I hope the docs finally get it right and you can get back to living a life that's not constantly disrupted by surgery. 

yea it's quite bad with me.  The doctor who worked on my stomach looked at the other stuff I had done and basically said that "I was the worst case of this specific problem that I have ever seen" which didn't make me feel any better.  Hopefully with this next surgery this should lessen some changes of other stuff coming back, and hopefully I might be able to avoid another surgery in the fall.