No more problems

Well, another month on since my last post and I can’t say I’ve had any real problems. The wound seems to be a bit more comfortable now, and I can sit in most types of chair without it being too uncomfortable, which is a big bonus. Running and stretching still feels quite odd and I’m quite cautious about the wound, I haven’t played any sport or done anything particularly strenuous yet and to be honest I can’t think that it’s ever going to feel like I’ll forget about it. I’ve got a section of flesh from the z-plasty that’s pretty numb and apparently will probably stay like that for a long time, perhaps forever.

There’s a bit of the wound right in the crack of my bum which I can’t shave, in fact I don’t really know how you could remove hair from there unless it was done with wax or cream, both of which would have to be done by someone else, I’m not the sure the skin is strong enough for that yet so I’m just hoping that bit of hair won’t cause any problems, it’s right on the edge of the healed wound.

Apart from that, I do get the odd twinge of pain, and the pilonidal paranoia sets in, I’ve been concerned a few times that it’s started up again, but I’m pretty certain it’s just me, the general trend is that it’s feeling better all the time. I’m going to say it. I think it’s healed. There, I said it! At least for now, I think I’m pilonidal free for the first time in many years.

Not 100% convinced but good signs

Well it’s been a long while since I updated the blog, I’d like to have written the post that says “It’s healed!” by now but I’m being cautious. As I told my nurse a few weeks back when she said I should look happier that it had healed, “the thing is it’s not the first time I’ve been told I’m healed and it’s turned out not to be true” I’m not looking on the downside, far from it I’m hoping very much that the end is here, but I’m also wary and previous experience has taught me patience.

I’ve has problems on and off since my last update with the wound bleeding and discharging a bit from an awkward place that is difficult to do much with. It seems to have stopped now but this is the third time it seems to have stopped, so I’m going to wait and see what happens though the signs are good.

Thanks to everyone who’s sent me good wishes, and I send the same out to those with surgeries coming up soon.

Someone moved the finish line

End of week 10 post op

Well, on Wednesday I went to see my consultant knowing that I’d likely come away having been pronounced healed. He thought that would be the case and had told me two weeks previous that he would probably be discharging me. Sure enough when he looked at my wound, he declared that it was looking good and I didn’t need a dressing any more, I shouldn’t have any further problems and he would check in with me in six weeks time to see that all was well.

I went home with a spring in my step which had evaporated by the next day. I already had appointments booked at my GP’s surgery for Thursday and Friday so went along to see the nurse anyway, mostly to say thank you for looking after me but also to check that she was happy with my wound as well. I was a bit surprised when she told me that my wound wasn’t looking too good, there was bleeding and discharge and she could see granulation tissue, rather than skin in the middle. Sure enough when I got home and looked at it, it looked quite different to the previous day. So it got a little bit worse the next day and I have been prescribed some Tri-Adcortyl cream, to put on it. This may settle it down, but the worry is that it has opened up because of the superficial bridging I had a few weeks back, there may be a space left under where tissue has healed and that isn’t a good thing.

So not for the first time I’ve gone from being healed and elated to a few steps back and pretty fed up. It’s a rough justice to have got so far, with so few problems only to have the rug whipped from under your feet. Still fingers crossed that this is an unsteady wobble just before the finishing tape and not a full on crash into the side of the road.

“Drink Me”

End of week 8 post op

Well, like Alice my wound is shrinking, the dressing I now have is only about 2cm square, and apparently it’s nearly there. About another week, perhaps 2 seems to be the current consensus. This is good news of course, I am moving much better now and sitting fine but I have to say, given that it’s so close to healed, I’m still quite aware of it and nervous about it. Perhaps that’s just me, I’m hoping that over time it will get less tender and fragile feeling. There’s going to be no counting of chickens until they’re hatched round here, but it’s a positive position for me to be in, given that I am probably the closest to being free of my Pilonidal Sinus at the moment than any time in the last 5 years I guess. Which is a good feeling.

The end is nigh (sort of)

Middle of week 8 post op

Well, the report from my nurses at the surgery is that it’s getting quite close to healed now. “A couple of weeks” was the verdict. I am going to end up with a dip rather like someone has come and taken a dessert spoonful of flesh out of my bum, which I suppose is not dissimilar to what has happened. Skin is beginning to form on top of the bits most healed and there is just a small portion in the middle of the wound which is still open and needs packing mainly to bring it up to a level where a dressing can sensibly be applied. So I’m off to see my consultant this afternoon and am expecting that he may change what is being used to dress it because it was discussed last week but eventually decided to leave it alone since it seemed to be working.

I went to a meeting about an hour’s drive away with work yesterday and that was ok, just a little uncomfortable after sitting for most of the 3 hours that the round trip took. So life is definitely returning to normal slowly. Incidentally I went to another wine tasting at the weekend and managed to completely avoid even getting slightly drunk, which I thing owed as much to the fact that most of the wine was truly horrible rather than a steely resolve on my part.

Don’t get carried away

Beginning of week 7 post op.

Things I can now do:

Drive – I’ve started to drive to my appointments and to the shops, which has been fine. It’s slightly uncomfortable but not painful, I think the coccyx cushion helps here.

Sit on a sofa – I can now sit on the more upright of the two sofas in my house, in reasonable comfort, this is good for TV watching which previously had to be done standing up or lying down neither of which are optimum television watching postures.

Get drunk and make a fool of myself – to be fair, I was capable of this before now but rather like Luke Skywalker refusing to fight his father in the Return of the Jedi, I had previously used my powers of inner strength in my resolve to be healthy. However my local wine merchant was having a tasting at the weekend and I persuaded my neighbours to come along with me. They also own a copy of Singstar for the PS3. On Sunday not only did I have a hangover, I also had no voice.

 

Anyway, my wound has continued to fill in and is quite shallow now apparently. However it seems that there is a part near the bottom which isn’t easy to see that has bridged over leaving a small hole which isn’t ideal. This will have to be monitored, as it may present a problem. There seems to have been more discharge in the last few days, though this is likely to be because I’ve been more active. The general picture still seems to be positive.

Still going strong

End of Week 5 post op

Well as it turned out, it was agreed that my dressing still needs changing every day. So that’s what’s happening, and apparently progress is still better than expected. My consultant warned that healing would slow though so far there doesn’t seem to be any evidence that it has. The district nurse who saw it today hasn’t seen it since the first weekend post-op, so that’s 5 weeks. Her words upon looking today were “That’s amazing!” which I think is a good reaction. So I’m feeling positive, there doesn’t seem to be any pain to speak of, just a bit uncomfortable. I’m also going to have no knees soon! I’ve been kneeling instead of sitting so much in recent memory and particularly in the weeks since my surgery.

The things I think I’m looking forward to most after 5 weeks of having a dressing and counting are being able to have a proper shower, and not having to have tape ripped off my backside every day. After that, being able to sit comfortably on a sofa, drive and things like mowing the lawn or going to the cinema. Simple things really, that I haven’t done for months or in some cases more than a year.

So nothing particularly exciting to report, but I thought I’d update the blog anyway.

All quiet on the southern back

End of Week 4 post op

Well since Monday’s scare the rest of this week the wound seems to have been looking fine according to everyone who has seen it. The results of the swab aren’t back yet, but there doesn’t seem to be any cause for alarm, which is somewhat of a relief.

In fact the nurse who saw it today said it looked as thought it would benefit from not being re-dressed tomorrow because the dressing was fairly dry, I’m a bit skeptical about that. The theory is that every time it’s messed about with it disturbs the new tissue growth so the longer it can be left between dressing changes the quicker it will heal. The downside being that cleaning it helps to prevent infection and remove the debris from the wound bed.

Anyway, I’m feeling ok and trying not to relax my healthy habits which is easy to do after you start to feel better. Another glass of water and a rice cake beckons …

So far so good

Beginning of Week 4 post op

Well up until now my wound seems to have continued to heal nicely, my consultant thinks that it’s currently about a quarter of the size it was when he had finished operating on me. So at four weeks I’m pretty much at the best stage I could hope to be. Pain is minimal now, I still find sitting uncomfortable esspecially in the car, or for long periods of time, I can only really sit very upright. Going for dressing changes are starting to become rather a chore everyday, but the nurses are all very nice and it doesn’t take long. At the end of last week the nurse decided that part of my wound was over-granulating, i.e. it was healing too much so coming above the level of my skin at one side. So it was burned back with Silver Nitrate, I try not to think about the fact that Silver Nitrate is highly toxic, apparently it is often used to treat over-granulating wounds and not a big deal.

There is however an uncertain end to this particular post, in that today the nurse I saw was concerned there may be an infection, in roughly the place where I was treated with the Silver Nitrate I think, so it has been swabbed and we will see what turns up… I have to say I am not surprised because I’ve got two mouth ulcers at the moment and for me that is a very good indication that my immune system is working over-time and I probably have an infection. It’s always been the case before. I know my luck was probably going to run out some time but if I do have an infection it’s a real shame because I was starting to think I may get through it without one. Ah well, it’s familiar territory at least.

The aftermath

Start of Week 3 post op

It’s been a few weeks since my last post and an update is well overdue. I had my 4th surgery just over two weeks ago. It was more extensive than my consultant had predicted and so I am left with a large open wound because it couldn’t be stitched up. So this is somewhat of a new experience for me, and now I have undergone every different type of commonly used surgical treatment for a Pilonidal Sinus. I haven’t seen the wound, nor do I think I want to at the moment at least. From what I’ve been told I think it’s a rough elliptical shape about 6-8cm wide and about 2 cm deep. This is certainly the most painful of the four surgeries I’ve had. The first couple of days weren’t too bad, but after the anaesthetic wore off, it was pretty sore all the time for about 10 days. I was taking pain killers four times a day either paracetamol or co-codamol depending on how I felt, and if I forgot to take them I knew about it. It’s being packed with Aquacel/Kaltostat, which for those that don’t know are similar dressings which soften and become like a gel in contact with moisture, this helps keep the wound moist and draws exudate away as well as being more comfortable and less abrasive for the wound than just gauze. This is then covered with a Mesorb dressing pad and Opsite topsheet. Packing changes were a lot less painful than I had expected though. In general the pain dropped off sharply at the end of week two and it’s reasonably comfortable at the moment. I can hardly feel it during packing changes now which are happening once a day at my GP’s practice and the district nurse at the weekends. This is going to continue I think until they decide that it can safely be redressed every other day instead. The balance lies between faster healing with less disturbance of the wound but at the same time increased risk of infection.

I’m currently visiting my consultant once a week when he shaves around the wound with a scapel to prevent hair getting into the wound. It’s possible than when I’ve healed I will have some laser treatment in specific problem areas of hair growth to minimise the risk of recurrence since I’ve had so much trouble so far. I’m feeling pretty good about it at the moment, progress seems to be good although I have been warned that it will likely go quickly for a while and then healing will slow down later. Sitting is still not at all comfortable though I can sit for short periods now so at least travelling to the surgery doesn’t invlove lying in the back of the car any more, and eating is no longer a dangerously messy affair. Try eating peas standing up and you’ll understand the problems involved! Summer seems to have arrived with a vengence which is a bit depressing because I can’t really be out enjoying the sun much, but all in all it’s not too bad and I’m alot happier than I was a few weeks back before the op.

I’ll try to update the site more often during the healing process and I’d like to say thank you to those people who have contacted me, with their own stories and experiences. It’s nice to hear from others and to know that people are finding the site helpful.