ingrowing hair in the base of the spine?
 

mate at work has an ingrowing hair at the base of his spine went in to docs for a check up with an itchy pain at the base of the spine to be told he has to be operated on today!
anyone know what this is called ie medical term so i can dig out some stuff of the net to scare him with :-)

Base of his spine? - would that be his arse then?

Search for pilonidal cyst

search for 'WereWolf'
;)

tell him to stop getting his @rse crack waxed :D

good news or bad?

good- very common and no big deal to the docs and nurses, they see it all the time and are well used to dealing with it.

bad- ohhh, where to begin! i rode enduro bikes for a while and had a few falls where i smacked my coxics (sp?) tailbone....this lead to an infection in the hair folical....which led to an opp...twice!

tell him NOT to look it up on the net....DO NOT even think about it. it looks/sounds fcukin grim on the net (which it is but knowing that wont help him)

basically they cut a chuck out of you at the base of your spine- right what you sit on. they then leave it to grow back while filling the missing tissue hole with fresh packing every day to stop it healing over and not filling out from the base of the new wound up. im no whimp but this had me in tears despite being on lots of pain meds.

it was also handy for me in that i work for me so going to the GP every day for 6 weeks was alright- god knows how 9-5ers cope.

T

ps- tell him to buy an auto if he wants to drive within 8 weeks of the op!

As AJM said - Pilonidal sinus - excision of sinus caused by an ingrowing hair at the top of the buttocks, near the tail bone.

Stefan

Show him this

Stefan

Pilonidal Sinus- been there done that, not nice.

There was a picture on here not long ago of a member after the op.

ohh...and tell him to come up with a cool excuse for the problem like crashing your motorbike! it helps you feel a bit harder when your screaming like a baby!

T

(i really did crash my bike though...and knowing that help when the sobbing started!)

The 12 weeks in hospital was the worse part for me, lying on my front only. :eek:

I believe this is what RB5037 had done ! NOT VERY NICE

forever amazed at the useful pool of info on scoobynet ;)

another example of the human body being a bit useless despite millions of years to get it right!

tell him not to look it up, its for his own good, my mate had it done and he was cabbaged for ages afterwards

Yep not nice,

I had this first when I was 16. The problem is that once you get it you usually get it again. I've had 4 operations since and I finally think I'm clear as the last op was seven years ago (touch wood very quickly).

The worst one though was the year they decided to experiment with a new form of "packing" instead of using sorbsan (a bit like cotton wool), they were using some new product which created a soft mould of the wound which you just washed and replaced each day (I shudder at those memories). The best bit was when they first made the mould though..... it was less than 24 hours after they'd cut a huge chunk out of my a*se and they said were just going to make the mould up, so they remove all the existing packing (which is truly painful) they then poured this liquid into the wound and wait twenty minutes or so, now the nurse says it may get a little warm.............

A little warm !! It felt like they'd poured a vindaloo curry in there, I honestly thought I was going to pass out.

Needless to say it didn't heal properly and I had to have another op less than a year later.

Hope nobody was eating their tea :)

As everyone else says it'll be sore for about 4-6 weeks and then it'll calm down, but he'll be walking around as if someones stuck an umbrella up his a*se.

The funniest bit are the undies the hospital give you to hold the dressings in place

apparently being operated on this eve? hes due to be going on a diving holiday next week so i guess thats out too!

Had this occur a couple of times, but caught it early so antibiotics helped it heal up. Was told if it didn't clear I'd have to have an op, which would prevent me from sitting comfortably for weeks. Was extremely sore and extremely messy (think of the pus from a big zit, but hairy :eek: ).


Nickname for it apparently is Jeeps disease - from WWII soldiers getting rubbed up the wrong way on a cross country trip by the hard seats in the Willys Jeep.

Had 3 op's on my arse for this,fu**ing sore,most painfull thing iv'e had to go through,do not look this up,as he will be sh*t scared,
6 weeks of this and you will thing that their is nothing worse.

best thing though,it's not funny when you go to hospital and 1hr later are under the knife,scary or what.

hope it goes well.

Mac.

:eek::eek::eek:

I'm another 'bin there, done that'.

Glad I didn't read this thread first as I found the whole process reasonably straight forward.

An overnighter in hospital for the excision, then pads over the wound for a couple of weeks.

That was over 20 years ago and no re-occurrence. The surgeon advised never take baths (daily shower only), always shower straight after getting a haircut and make sure the seat of any car being driven is well shaped - like a WRX.

Ensure there is no loose hair that can work its way down and under the skin which can then set up the infection.

He said as well as Jeep drivers it was also common among barbers who get cut hair between their toes and then, over time, develop the same problem with their feet.

on a serious note......if hes a web user and wants to check it out tell him all he needs to read is this thread.

i found a pilonidal forum which i discovered 2 years ago- the day before my GP checked me for the first time......after a quick read i remember praying...i mean REALLY praying! that the GP would say it was something else and not this!

next day GP says "ahhhhh...pilonidal wotsit"......i nearly cried right there!

anywayyyyy.......i had my 2nd op 4 weeks ago (do not drive a TVR 5 weeks after your 1st op....you WILL go back for more) and im sat here fine.

the point being......visit the forum and its full of people with grim stories...read this thread and its full of people with fast cars and its only a small part of their life.......when your in mid dressings change it might help him to know theres some light at the end of the tunnel!

T

ps- i could still powerslide the TVR sat on one cheek!

right i have a question, why is everybody saying this happens on peoples arses??

why not on your arm or sumthing?
does everybody shave there crack or sumthing??

I'm yet another person who has had this, had it done several years ago. That is one thing I remember - I had never heard of this, but once I started to tell people you hear of so many people who have had it in varying forms - it really is pretty common.

I first had it when I was on a GAP year, I was in New Zealand at that point. It was quite a downer then as I was in Queenstown which (if anyone knows it) is a place with loads to do - skiiing, snowboarding, bungee etc... Luckily I had already bungeed and done quite a lot there but I did miss out on skiiing etc.. and had to go to the clinic everyday - they simply drained it. This could have dealt with it and would at least offer a short term fix - I was moviing on soon and couldnt really have had an op.

I think it went away for about a year but came back towards the end of a holiday - the flight back was agony!:( By now I knew what it probably was so went straight to the doc's, who sent me to a specialist who had a look and scheduled the op.

The most painful bit for me was the first time the packing was changed after the op. As you can imagine, when you are out of it after the op they pack it full with as much packing as they can. Which is fine until you have to have it removed when you are conscious!!! I had gas and air but it was still the most painful thing I have experienced - and Ive had some bad injuries and visits to A & E!!!! The difference in the amount of packing the nurse got out that first time and the amount she could put in was, IIRC, phenomenal.

Had to visit every day to change the packing once I was out of hospital which pretty much ruined my summer. And the fact that it was actually summer didnt make it the most pleasant experience either. I did get to know the nurses wuite well though and pretty soon I didnt need an appointment or do anything that formal, I just bowled up when I could and they saw me pretty much straight away.

It was a litte while before I could drive and even then I had to nick my mum or my dad's car becasue they were auto.

Then it got to the stage whereby I could change it at home myself - or rather, my mother and girfriend where the lucky ones :D :D

Touch wood, I have been ok since but it has left quite a scar. My girlfriend reckons it looks like I have 'lady's bits' at the top of my crack ;) :D and hence calls me 'fanny butt' :D She also calls me fanny foot becasue I sliced open the whole of the bottom of my foot once in my drunkeness...but thats another story :D (and another very painful one actually!!)

My brother had an ingrowing hair on his @rse operated on yesterday.

The good new is that it is quite a quick procedure and hostpital visit.

The bad news is that it is completely agonising, they sedated him on morphine this morning when they inserted the packing in his extra @rsehole.

although I feel very sorry for him, there is still a funny aspect to the whole thing and I'm sure he'll be the 'butt' of many jokes to come (ho ho).

Pete

Yet another "been there, had the op". It was about 20 years ago and I think I got off quite lightly judging by some of the stories on here.

A male nurse on the ward was chatting to me after the op and told me that he had been present during the op. He told me that there hadn't been much blood and that the surgeon had been really neat with the stitches - in fact, "It now looks like you've got a zip in your arse!"

Hope it goes well for your mate.

Doug

Jeez, I'm going to have nightmares after reading this thread *checks arse hair* *checks arse hair again*

REV - there's nothing you can do about it. I asked the doc what caused it and his answer was that it just happens. He reckoned that it could happen to anyone but that hirsute chaps in their twenties of larger than average build were the most likely to get it. I fitted the bill perfectly!

Doug

on a positive note.....if this is the worst thing that happens to you lifes been good!

i acted like a baby first time i had it and felt guilty every time i saw someone in REAL pain...take a wander round a kids cancer ward...soon makes you realise that 6 weeks sitting funny is not that bad.

I had this to....but reading some of these accounts I had the mega mega light weight version.

In hospital Friday morning, operated on, then had to wait in overnight 'cause the doc had gone off to play golf that afternoon (muppet).
Had stitches for a few weeks so I spend all my time at college sat on one @rse cheek. I was well worried the first thime after the op when I went to have a dump.....god I thought my whole @rse was gonna rip apart.
But after a couple of weeks the doc removed the bandages and I could dump quite happily:D

Apparently if you keep the area v v clean it helps keep the buggers at bay.

Tony
:D