(24F) My pilonidal cyst excision experience — open wound, healed in 1 month

Below I describe what my surgery and recovery were like, what I did during my recovery and what went wrong (and what I wasn’t prepared for), and how I approached the recovery mentally. Hopefully, it can give someone who is nervous about surgery a realistic but reassuring perspective. It's a long read but I divided it into topics to make it easier.

This is my experience and story of my recovery and not medical advice. Please follow the advice of your healthcare providers.

I’ve dealt with my pilonidal cyst for more than 10 years. Exactly one month ago, I finally had it excised and left to heal as an open wound. As a little spoiler: the wound closed yesterday.

I’ll be honest: reading the stories on Reddit and the internet in general made me incredibly afraid of going through the procedure, but I eventually reached the point where I couldn’t live with it anymore. I know everyone’s experience is different, and this is just my personal experience in Belgium. I’m sharing it because I hope it might ease some of the anxiety for anyone who is nervous about the procedure.

A little background

About 8 years ago, my cyst became inflamed and I had to have it drained. The pain was awful and I couldn’t even sleep. The drainage itself was also extremely painful because it was done without anesthesia.

Luckily, the aftermath was a huge relief. Once it was drained, the pain disappeared and it healed well within a week or so.

Fast-forward to this year. I had the old drainage scar and four sinus tracts, with the holes clearly visible in a straight line. They were quite close together, which I think probably helped in my case. I have had some flare ups but nothing like the one 8 years ago. I simply couldn't sit properly for a few days and at times the cyst would leak and then just disappear.

I got tired of this endless loop of pain and flare-ups.

I decided to go with an open wound because that’s the only procedure the hospitals near me offer, and my insurance wouldn’t cover other options.

The surgery and packing of the wound

I arrived at the hospital at around 7:30 AM and left around 2 PM.

When I woke up from surgery, less than an hour later, I was in quite a lot of pain, but it was manageable with painkillers. I had the initial bandage for three days, and then a nurse came to my home every day for about three weeks to take care of the wound.

From what I could tell, my surgeon had stitched quite a bit of the inside of the wound together, as well as around the edges, to make the wound smaller. The wound was around 8 cm long.

The nurse packed the wound with a compress and Betadine gel. Apparently, this is a newer technique where the gel replaces traditional tight packing and helps function as the packing material while allowing the wound to granulate.

After about 10 days, my doctor and nurses told me to start rinsing the wound in the shower. I made sure to rinse it as thoroughly as I could.

The nurse also regularly removed the fibrin from inside the wound so that it wouldn’t close too quickly on the surface.

Recovery

I had my post-op appointment last week, and my doctor was actually surprised by how quickly the wound had healed. At that point, it was practically closed.

And now, exactly one month after surgery, it closed completely yesterday.

The worst part of recovery for me honestly wasn’t the pain — it was the itching.

My recovery also happened during two heatwaves, so I think the heat and sweating probably made things more uncomfortable and may have slowed things down a little.

The itching was treated with zinc cream, which my nurse applied around the wound, and that helped a lot.

Sleeping was also uncomfortable. I couldn’t turn properly in bed, and sometimes I could feel the stitches pulling when I lay on my left side. My wound went slightly towards the left, so that probably contributed to it.

Sitting was difficult too. It remained painful and uncomfortable until the wound was almost completely closed and the stitches had dissolved. I bought a U-shaped cushion, but unfortunately it didn’t help me very much.

Things I did during recovery

These are just things I personally did — I have no idea how much, if at all, they contributed to my recovery:

* I walked every day. During the first week I took it very slowly. The day after surgery I actually felt completely painless and probably overdid it, because the following day I was in quite a lot of pain. After that, I made sure to take things slower, but I still walked every single day as much as I could.

* I took L-glutamine powder and L-arginine pills. This was something I had seen people mention on Reddit. I genuinely don’t know whether it did anything, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try.

* I increased my protein intake, mostly through protein shakes as I am vegetarian.

* I took iron supplements. I’m iron deficient, so I made sure this was a priority during my recovery.

* I tried to sit as much as I could. It was painful and uncomfortable, but I would sit until it became too painful and then get up and move around.

Things I wasn’t expecting in the aftermath

One thing I really wasn’t prepared for was the hard skin that formed where the wound had been.

Apparently, this is normal and is related to collagen and the healing process, but it still feels very strange. It’s definitely still early, so I’m trying not to overthink it.

The wound, in my opinion also looks ugly and I hope it will look slightly better even though no one can see it, including me.

I’m also aware that there is still a possibility of the wound reopening. I’ve mentally prepared myself for that and understand that it can happen during this stage of healing.

For that reason, I’ve decided to wait until the six-week mark before exercising or cycling, just to reduce the chance of reopening it.

What I am doing now, following the advice of the doctor and nurses, is putting zinc cream or Nivea cream (the blue pot). I also wash it really well in the shower and in the evening I disinfect the wound and reapply the cream.

Final thoughts

One thing that I think helped me a lot was deciding to view the whole recovery as a challenge to myself rather than something I had to rush through.

Before the surgery, I mentally prepared myself for pretty much every possible outcome. I had read experiences here where people’s wounds stayed open for several months, sometimes even up to a year, so I told myself that this could potentially be my reality too. I also prepared myself for the possibility of infection, setbacks, the wound reopening, and generally having a much longer recovery than I hoped for.

Because I had already accepted those possibilities in my mind, I found it much easier to be patient with the healing process. I didn’t constantly expect the wound to look better every day. Instead, I tried to focus on doing what I could and accepting whatever happened.

That mindset actually made me genuinely happy about the progress I did see. Every little improvement felt like a win, and when the wound finally closed after just one month, I was honestly amazed and incredibly happy.

Overall, I’m really happy that I finally went through with the surgery.

I spent years worrying about it and then spent weeks being terrified of what recovery would be like because of the experiences I read online. My experience ended up being much more manageable than I expected, and the wound healed much faster than I thought it would.

I know everyone’s body, surgery, wound, and recovery are different, so I’m definitely not saying this is what everyone should expect. My heart truly goes to those who are waiting or had to wait for months to see real progress. But if you’re currently terrified and reading this while waiting for your surgery, I just wanted to share a positive experience.

I really hope this gives someone else a little bit of hope and reassurance for their own journey. ❤️