Posted 3/19/2014 12:10 PM (GMT 0)
Gotcha! If there is pus, you most definitely need to get medical advice about. Do you have a fever? Out of curiosity, do you have Crohn's Disease? If not, it's ok, we won't refuse to answer your questions or anything. ;) Just helps give us a better idea of how to help.
That sounds like a fairly large abscess - I think you should have had antibiotics. I would get to your usual doctor ASAP. I had a similar experience with my first abscess: I went to ER, got a shot of lidocain (thank goodness, I can't imagine yours without anything!), then it was cut and drained. It got packed up and I was sent home right after. I wasn't given antibiotics and the packing fell out the first time I went to the bathroom.
The problem with this is that mine turned into a fistula because it closed up on the outside but didn't heal on the inside. You really, really don't want that.
Ok, PLEASE keep in mind that the following is what I experienced and MY instructions from MY doctor. I am in NO way a medical professional AT ALL, and you should talk to your doctor ASAP. (Just want to add that disclaimer.)
It wasn't until my second abscess that I realized the best way to have it done. In addition to antibiotics, they should send you home with
-a bunch of sterile gauze
-paper tape (do NOT use plastic or you'll want to die when you take it off)
-long little sticks of wood (can't remember what they're called, but they are like toothpicks only a lot longer and not pointy on the end)
-sterile water
-sterile packing (mine looked like really thin strips of wrapping you'd see on a mummy, lol, only a lot smaller scale, like the width of fettuccine noodles)
-maybe a type of foam-looking stuff that's called silver.
You may need help with packing each night (my husband had to help me). I wouldn't have been able to reach this on my own. Here is what we did:
1) Wash the area and inside the wound with the sterile water (yes, it might sting a tiny bit)
2) Use the "toothpick" and wrap the end of a strip of packing around the end. Gently put it into the wound as deep as possible, and begin using the toothpick to twist the packing into the wound and fill up the wound entirely, maybe with a tiny bit of packing hanging out a little, then cut the packing. (Once you've done this a couple of times, you can have a general idea of how much packing you'll need and you can cut it in advance.) This is actually fairly painful. But it helps the wound heal on the inside part at the top so that it can heal a little bit each night from the inside out.
3) If you were given silver, cut a square of it large enough to cover the opening and even overlap a bit. I usually put a small piece of tape to hold it down as well.
4) Cover the silver and a fair amount of skin around the wound with gauze, and tape it down.
During the day, if the packing falls out, it's ok. Keep the area as clean as possible by either taking sitz baths (use plain water, no salts) or use a squirt bottle to kind of wash the area. Do this after each time you go to the bathroom. I would pack at night, then the first time I went to the bathroom I took the gauze and tape off because I would end up getting urine and/or stool on it (I'm female). Depending on the location of the wound, males could probably leave it on longer until they have a BM since they aren't likely to urinate on it.
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have any questions about this.
Again, if you have pus, you NEED to see your doctor ASAP. If you also have a fever, you might want to consider the ER. My last abscess I waited an extra day before going in from when I noticed it, and I went into septic shock after they cut and drained it because it had gotten into my bloodstream. Not trying to scare you, it's not all that common to happen, just wanted to give you a head's up it could happen. But since I have Crohn's and am on Remicade infusions, my immune system is pretty weak.