How it all started
In September 2000 I was involved in a car accident. I was driving up Surbiton high street and a van was turning in the road in front of me. I stopped, behind me a young girl in her mother’s car on her way back from a friend’s house didn’t. Luckily I didn’t have my handbrake on, or my foot on the footbrake, I felt the impact through my seat, my car was shunted forward a fair distance but thankfully both cars were still drivable.
A couple of days later I noticed that the area around my coccyx was very painful, it got worse, I couldn’t sleep on my back, I couldn’t sit down. I made an appointment with my GP. I hadn’t lived in the area for that long, about a year I think, I was young and pretty healthy and it was the first time I had been to the surgery apart from the once when I had registered. I saw the duty doctor, who was a woman, about 30, pleasant and attractive. My heart sank slightly, I was a young man, in pain, not on good form and I knew this consultation was likely to end up with me having to get at least partially undressed and have this young attractive doctor look at my bum. I explained that I’d recently had a car accident and thought that the impact had done something nasty to my coccyx. She looked at me and prodded the area “Does this hurt?”, “err. lower down” I explained. “Hmm” she said quietly, “could you get undressed from the waist down and pop yourself up on the bed there” I obliged and she gently pressed the area I had pointed to “AAWWW, My life that hurt!” I wanted to shout, but instead managed a small whimper … “I’m just going to squeeze here a bit, this is probably going to hurt” she informed me. It did hurt, she also got her finger caught in the hair on my bum which had got matted from the blood and pus she’d squeezed out. “I’m sorry this must be a pretty horrible thing for you to have to do” I said rather helplessly lying in almost a foetal position as she struggled to free her finger. “Not as horrible as it is for you, I’m sure” she replied kindly. Afterwards she told me I had an abscess. She explained that I had a small sinus, drew a picture to explain what that was, and that it had got infected, she gave me some antibiotics and told me to come back if it didn’t get better within a few days. She also predicted that she’d probably see me again in a few months because these things didn’t often get better themselves. I walked out of the surgery feeling a good deal better after she’d got most of the puss out of the abscess, though still in a bit of pain, and rounded the corner to go and get my antibiotics from the chemist next door.
She never mentioned the phrase ‘Pilonidal Sinus’.
I knew what an abscess was, I didn’t really understand why I had this sinus thing, I figured drain the infection, take the antibiotics and it should heal up shouldn’t it? Anyway the infection cleared up, it stopped hurting and bleeding and that was the end of it as far as I was concerned. I was slightly worried by the doctor’s prediction that I’d be back to see her, but months went by and I had no more trouble from it. In fact a couple of years went by, I moved house, I had forgotten about it by the time I noticed that I had some pain in the same place as before. It wasn’t that bad though, not nearly as painful as before and got better by itself after about a week. However this was the start of my battle with Pilonidal disease although I didn’t know it at that point. After a couple more episodes of it hurting and bleeding a bit about 6 months apart I knew something was up, I turned to the web and searched for ’sinus’ and ‘coccyx’, after a short time I had diagnosed myself with a Pilonidal Sinus, and read a lot of pretty daunting things about it.
Given what I’d learned I wasn’t sure I wanted surgery and I wasn’t too keen on repeating my experience with the nice GP I’d seen a few years before. Curse the Internet with it’s plethora of information on tap, and curse my want for knowledge and embarrassment about embarrassing medical conditions and having to strip off in doctors surgeries.
So I lived with it for a while longer, it would flare up every so often and once with a particularly bad flare up I went to my GP, explained I had a Pilonidal sinus and got some antibiotics. I asked what could be done about it and was told not much, they were a very troublesome thing.
I think I was unlucky that the GP’s I saw early on didn’t send me straight to see a consultant to discuss possible surgery. It may have been that at that time I wouldn’t have been recommended surgery but I wish I had had the option. I believe it would have been a lot simpler at that time and perhaps I wouldn’t be where I am today had it been tackled early. Still it is water under the bridge now, however if you’re reading this and are a Pilonidal sufferer who hasn’t yet had surgery, make sure you see a consultant sooner rather than later and make an informed decision whether to leave it or go for it. I chose to leave it but that was based on my own knowledge and the limited information I’d got from my GP, and I dearly wish I’d been pushier with myself and my GP earlier on.
Skip forward a year or two to mid 2005. The thing was frequently flaring up now, perhaps once a month. I decided I wanted surgery, I got myself referred to a Consultant on the NHS and scheduled my surgery for early December. It was at this time that my PNS got a name, I called it Sammy, he had outstayed his welcome and he was going to be evicted.
