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Posted 11/27/2011 10:41 PM (GMT 0)
     This is sort of embarrasing, but I was wondering if any of you out there have had a boil?

     I have, what I HOPE is only a boil, in an unmentional part of my body.  I went to the doctor yesterday because of the pain..going down into my legs.  She lanced it and put an antibiotic cream on it and gave me a script for Bactrim and the antibiotic cream.

     Today, it is no better...it is about three inches in diameter, red, swollen and hard as a rock.  I never had anything like this before in all my 65 yrs!  Hope it isn't a tumor!

Posted 11/27/2011 11:27 PM (GMT 0)
Oy did I have boils.... a few months before surgery I broke out with them all over my butt, one on my hip, and one in a female area (that looked like something called a bartholin's gland cyst, but I went to a gyn who said it wasn't....). In my case it was related, as there's a rare thing called cutaneous crohn;s. Did they do a biopsy of the boil?

Three inches in diameter is bigger than mine was, and they are just awful until they pop..... did she lance it before it was really ready? Has to all come to the surface. It's like a pimple from hell on mega steroids..... They get really hard and red and hot.... I can see where it feels like a tumor, but if the doc looked at it, probably is a boil.....

I did something where I made a paste of baking soda and water and put it on, covered with gauze.... few times a day. It seemed to speed things up getting it to come to the surface and break. When it breaks it will drain and drain, and it's very gross, but you'll feel immediate relief. It would generally take a day or two where I had to bandage it to catch the drainage (and it was a lot of yoga to get bandages on mine).

I have had some that the bactrim alone made shrink, but it sounds like yours is too far along.... definitely take the bactrim, it helps.... boils are little infections.

Hope you feel better soon..... remember, as soon as it pops, immediate relief.... but do not squeeze it and try to pop it yourself, you can make the infection worse.
Posted 11/27/2011 11:28 PM (GMT 0)
ps -- why exactly is having a boil embarrassing? You are talking to a crowd that poops into bags.....
Posted 11/27/2011 11:35 PM (GMT 0)
Are you sure its a boil and not an ingrown hair? Lots of times down there its ingrown hairs. For those, you can just poke them with a needle and get the hair out. For that matteryou can do that with a boil too.
Posted 11/28/2011 3:28 AM (GMT 0)
I had a boil once on my inner thigh. Awful. Sounds about the same as yours Christine...I did the hot compress thing and waited until it came to a head...like blueglass said the thing will drain and drain. If it doesn't start to shrink in a couple of days, I would go back to the doc...but they can take a while and are painful as heck.
Posted 11/28/2011 12:39 PM (GMT 0)
I forgot to mention the hot compresses, but as maazee says, they help a lot too.

I disagree with summer on popping the boil with a pin. If it's not ready, that won't help (the doctor lanced it, right, and it still hurts?) It has to come to a head first. If all the infection isn't ready to come out, then you're just going to be spreading the infection around inside. Summer did you notice that she said it's 3 inches in diameter?

I am actually surprised that your doctor lanced it early, as mine wouldn't touch it before it was ready. So maybe I'm wrong....

When I had boils, they just came one after the other, I thought it was the plague.... couldn't sit, was in so much pain.... but eventually the antibiotics helped. Hope you get relief soon.
Posted 11/28/2011 8:28 PM (GMT 0)
     Hi!  Thank you for the responces.  Today it is down a bit in size but still hard as a rock and close to the anus.  It isn't as painful.  It must be draining because the doctor told me to wear a sanitary pad and every few hours I notice a bit of yellowish stuff and change the pad.  Guess it will take some time to disappear.  Geez, can you just imagine having one of those babies on your nose? rolleyes
Posted 11/28/2011 10:10 PM (GMT 0)
Glad it's starting to drain.... at least if it was on your nose, it'd be smaller, right? Hope it keeps hurting less.....
Posted 11/29/2011 4:27 AM (GMT 0)
eyes      Well, not sure what exactly was draining but looking at it tonight while placing hot compresses on it....scary.  It is still very large and hard as a rock.  There is a small bit taken out of it where the doctor must have drained, but don't ask me what she drained out of it.  Geez, I hope this isn't a tumor.  Since my anus was not sewn closed and Brian mentioned last year after my operation, that the anus is sewn closed so it won't become cancerous...this has me thinking eyes .

     You don't think a cancer could start inside the anus and pertrude up out of the skin like this, do you?  I am calling the doctor tomorrow. Getting paranoid in my old age shocked .

Posted 11/29/2011 12:43 PM (GMT 0)
Christine hang in there...I haven't had boils but I have had fistulas:(

Are you running a fever? What kind of doc drained it? Don't get too paranoid yet, just call your GI and let them take a look...

If I remember right, your diagnosis was Proctitis, not Crohn's, right?
Posted 11/29/2011 2:28 PM (GMT 0)
Christine, my boils were very scary looking too and very hard.... I think boils grow much faster than cancer does, and you are being monitored, right? Would a tumor drain?

If it's a boil, it's likely to be different than it is within a few days....

Calling the dr is a good idea, hopefully that will give you some reassurance.....
Posted 11/30/2011 8:26 PM (GMT 0)
     It's still there.  We went to AC yesterday and stayed overnight.  I am still on the antibiotic.  I phoned my family physician, who lanced this...whatever it is...on Saturday.  I thought it shrunk, but it didn't and still as hard as a rock.  This doctor is VERY young and I just hope she knows a boil from a tumor.  She will be in the office tonight.  Praying it isn't anything more serious. 
Posted 11/30/2011 9:15 PM (GMT 0)
The antibiotics won't work right away -- it's hard for them to get to the infection, and it can take more than a few days for it to come to a head if it's going to pop. Just saying that what you're describing is what my boils were like, nothing here to suggest to me that it's anything more. I understand that you're worried.

When mine were hard and hurting a lot, they generally had to come to a head and pop. When they were just starting out, the antibiotics could shrink them before they got going, and the antibiotics prevented more of them. One time the bactrim shrunk a big one, but all the other times it didn't (I went through several rounds, as I went off the bactrim and then a while later they'd come back etc.... but no reason to expect that w/you, I was really sick w/Crohn's then..... pre surgery, really messed up immune system and on pred all the time).

Do you have a gi doc? I went through mine for these, not through my primary doc. Given the location, it's appropriate.

Hope you get mental and physical relief soon. Hang in.

Where's AC?
Posted 11/30/2011 9:43 PM (GMT 0)
Can you get in to see your Doctor? I really hope you get some relief and answers ASAP. Sounds painful and stressful which is an awful combo. :-(
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