large abscess on back - gruesome -any advice gratefully received

[puffling]

DP has had a cyst on his back for a few years. The area adjacent to it recently got infected and became an abscess. Finally persuaded dp to go to walk in centre. They were horrified at it's size and about the puss spurting out. The pain combined with them saying 'Oh my God' when they looked at it caused dp to faint. Anyway, they dressed it, prescribed anti-biotics, but gave no more advice than that. he then got a doctor's appointment. The doctor also was horrified when he saw the puss coming put, started panicking saying, 'we're not set up for this,' and, 'quick, is there a nurse about?'e gave him a swab to take home to check if he has a strep infection and if so whether it;s resistant to anti-biotics. Shouldn't he have done the swab? gave more anti-biotics and that was it.

The thing is, there seems to be no co-ordinated response. He doesn't know where to go. Doesn't know if it should be lanced. Coyuld he go to A and E? Does anyone know what he should do next. Every morning I take the dressing off and it's still pouring with stuff that looks like scrambled egg mixed with tea (said it was gruesome). Shouldn't a nurse be doing the dressings. If he is infected with strep, could he infect dd? She has a gluey eye at the moment and I'm worried it's linked.

Sorry for ranting on. Will stop there.

Yes, your GP or practice nurse should have taken the swab, and he should have had the wound examined and cleaned properly by either the practice nurse or the district nurse. If there is a cavity where the abcess has been then it needs to be packed with a special dressing to help it heal properly. I'd go back to the GP and ask for it to be swabbed and dressed. Alternatively, send him to me, I love this kind of thing

I'm quite jealous !

It sounds like he needs a big course of antibiotics or something. The practice nurse should be dealing with it I'd have thought.

A friend of mine had something similar on her arse, and she ended up having weeks of antibiotics and having to have the dressings changed daily by a nurse. I think your H needs to go straight back to the GP if it's still not clearing up, these things can be very nasty (and get abruptly worse, a day or two on an antibiotic drip is not actually out of the question if he neglects this).

Id be tempted to go to A and E, if it is that bad, they may well put him down on the Emergency Theatre list for an Incision and Drainage. They then tend to pack the wound and a nurse comes out daily to repack it post surgery. Where I work, we get people walk into A and E, then they are put on the list for the next day, and then attend Day Surgery, have the op, and go home the same day. We have at least 3-4 of these a week.

Is this a pilonidal sinus?

I ask because I suffered terribly with these in my teens and 20s. The first two I had operated on under GA and subsequently had the wounds packed daily by a district nurse.

The surgeons removed an enormous amount of flesh hoping that this would stop it coming back in the future, it didn't - and the recovery was harder (I believe) because of this.

Since then, I have (refer to the self-surgery threads ) dealt with the problem myself and taken two hot salt baths a day! In fact a holiday swimming in the sea for a few hours a day seems to work wonders.

Thanks everyone. Will push him harder to get this sorted. I'm feeling sick now that I've been doing the dressings and my daughter may have touched something contaminated.

Does anyone think her weapy, gunky eye might be related to his infection?