I'm in utter agony.. Please help me identify what this is..

[Inagony234]

Small lump started about a week ago, each day goes by it progresses.. Today its red raw where my thighs have rubbed together the skin has broken down. I've lathered it magnesium sulphate and hot compress... I can see a very tiny head coming up.
My god the agony is unreal.. Also don't feel myself at all. Not feverish or anything. Just feel really terrible.
What is this? Boil? Abscess??

The white stuff is magnesium sulphate BTW

@angel1977

Ridiculous to go to hospital or A and E with this. Sterilise a needle or razor blade and pop it then apply the mag sulph to the wound and and a non adherent dressing like mepore. Why cant people take some responsibility for their health? Simple self care treatment. No wonder the NHS is at breaking point. Unless your whole leg is swelling and you feel like you are unable to function. Its sore because of where it is anf the pressure caused by the pus the inside, let it out, take painkillers and it should improve.

🤦‍♀️

@BigBadBoom

I have hydradentitis supparativa, which causes boils like this in a similar area. Sudocreme works like a charm, helps bring it to a head, soothe the pain and shrink it down. Do you have some of that handy?

Me too!

I have found cream for piles is good because it reduces inflammation and has a local anaesthetic in it too.

Rather than popping it with a needle, could you grit your teeth and pull the skin on each side to see if that helps?

Are you covering the boil with the mag sulph on it? If not it just rubs off and won’t draw anything.

Hope you get some relief soon

@Benjispruce4

It’s hardly an emergency. You’re doing the right thing by keeping an eye and phoning for advice.

It can very quickly turn into a life threatening emergency with sepsis

@angel1977

Ridiculous to go to hospital or A and E with this. Sterilise a needle or razor blade and pop it then apply the mag sulph to the wound and and a non adherent dressing like mepore. Why cant people take some responsibility for their health? Simple self care treatment. No wonder the NHS is at breaking point. Unless your whole leg is swelling and you feel like you are unable to function. Its sore because of where it is anf the pressure caused by the pus the inside, let it out, take painkillers and it should improve.

Going to A&E is taking responsibility for her health. By attempting to Lance it herself, she may not get all of the infection out. She may introduce more infection and unless she is a regular sufferer, she won’t have packing and dressing to care for it after.

You should never ever use magnesium sulphate on an open wound!

I’m really surprised they think that requires GA.

It’s like they haven’t watched YouTube videos of doctors lancing these things after a few shots of lidocaine at all. (Note the sarcasm here).

I am legitimately surprised though. My husband gets spots like this all the time because of an underlying medical condition and they never do anything more than give him a local to numb the pain before draining it and then cleaning it out. Yes, it’s unpleasant, but GA introduces another level of risk.

@BigBadBoom @Colouringaddict me three! Completely disappeared when pregnant and reared it’s head again as soon as I gave birth. Mine are in my groin, usually very top of my inner thighs. I find super hot compresses and a good layer of mag sulf under a dressing usually brings them to a head. I had one that required draining at hospital after it got to the size of a tennis ball between my legs. I was struggling to function, went to OOH one night and was given painkillers and sent home. Multiple courses of antibiotics from GP. Eventually sent to hospital to be put under but by the time I’d waited all day and most of the night for a theatre space (not an emergency) it had burst itself and I had it drained on the ward after begging the rounds doctor to do it so I could go home. Sheer agony.

OP, I hope you don’t have this condition but your boil looks so similar to the stubborn ones I get on my thighs. They can linger for days before eventually bursting and it’s the best relief ever. Hope the antibiotics do the trick, but I would continue to keep gently encouraging it to burst as much as you can.

@DriftingBlue I was advised I’d need to go under GA to have one drained in the same location as OP. I was told local anaesthetic wouldn’t have worked.

The part you can see is like the tip of the ice berg, there will be poison under the skin too.

They never know how deep they need to go until they open it, then clean it and pack it, hence the GA. As a sufferer of hidradenitis some of mine are tennis ball sized and need surgery to resolve, although some of my smaller ones I have had done under local. I did have a “helpful” out of hours GP, who just lanced it because by the time he had given me a painful local, he could have lanced it, I foolishly allowed that… lesson learned!

Hidradenitis is the 3rd most painful condition in the world of medicine. There is no cure although some sufferers to respond to treatments. Most don’t. It is an auto immune condition and can lead to sepsis.

I would not wish this on my worst enemy

@angel1977

Really stupid advice!! What exactly are your qualifications for your rather interesting suggestions?

Love how you're giving the OP a good telling off - like that's really gonna help.

Hope you’re doing ok OP. No advice (as I accept I’m not medically trained ) but hope it’s better today.

Whatever you do, don't try to force this to pop or use a sterile needle. By pushing you can be forcing the pus further deeper and seriously risk recurrent boils in the same spot.

I had one in a very similar spot, which I left alone (GP advice) and given antibiotics. Took about 6 days, 6 very painful days, until getting into the shower one morning when I twisted it popped. Lots of blood, but instant relief. Took about a week to heal with lots of cleaning (antibiotic cleaner) and bandage changed about 4 times a day for the first few days, then changing need decreased. You need to let it drain but protect your skin, so you need sterile gauze swabs.

GP advice was to keep an eye on it, if it occurs in the future I'll need to go back in for it to be professionally lanced. Touch wood, almost 2 years later and no reoccurrence.

@angel1977 this is really incorrect advice.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/boils/ - NHS advice clearly states do not pop a boil.

I had an abscess which looked exactly like this and went to walk in centre who told me to go to A&E. They lanced it, gave me 2 types of antibiotics. I said to the doctor did I do the right thing coming to A&E and he said yes, it was infected and would only get worse. He asked if 2 students could come and watch as these are the things they need to see. He said it’s very common, usually an ingrown hair.

Ouch that looks so sore. I hope you managed to get some sleep and the antib's kick in quick when you pick them up.

Believe me, youbwould want a GA when they pack 2 metres of packing into your open wound. When they pulled the 2m out the next day they could only pack s metre in as it it was excruciatingly painful.

Imagine cutting a 1cm hole into your skin the packing 2 metres of gauze into it. Would it smart a tiny bit? At least when you come around after a ga the hole is already there and the infection has been dealt with, but you are still left with a open wound packed with long thin stripes of gauze packed in as tightly as you can tolerate. Well more than you can tolerate as by that point there is zero pain relief options available

@Kummerspeck

Please remember that just because someone says they are qualified in some way does not mean they are or that their advice is right. As a unicorn with a medical degree and a speciality in inner thigh infections I think you should stand on one leg and recite poetry till it pops... ...but seriously, your course of action with antibiotics at home is sensible, A&E seems extreme.

Love this! 🤣

Op, hope the antibiotics work really fast and you feel better soon!

@IncessantNameChanger

Believe me, youbwould want a GA when they pack 2 metres of packing into your open wound. When they pulled the 2m out the next day they could only pack s metre in as it it was excruciatingly painful.

Imagine cutting a 1cm hole into your skin the packing 2 metres of gauze into it. Would it smart a tiny bit? At least when you come around after a ga the hole is already there and the infection has been dealt with, but you are still left with a open wound packed with long thin stripes of gauze packed in as tightly as you can tolerate. Well more than you can tolerate as by that point there is zero pain relief options available

I know a mine who has just had this done for the second time - ending up with a large hole in her back. She had a similar but left it alone for a long time until it was just beyond ‘a few antibiotics and a dressing’.

I had something similar in my armpit and the pain was awful. I had antibiotics and was advised to put a hot compress on it which did help. Possibly a walk in centre might be open today?

Ps I would not recommend pouring boiling water on it as someone has just suggested!

Morning all. I think I fell asleep with the hot water bottle In between my legs, woke up this morning and the pain is much less worse. It's less angry looking and hurts less when I walk.. It still v much there though. Picking up antibiotics as soon as the pharmacy opens!!

@KittenKong yes it was shocking when I realised what "packing" meant. I thought it was just a surface type dressing, not someone feeding stripes of gauze under the skin with tweeters a what looks like a chrochet hook. In three days it had tracked 3 to five inches into the body so that's how far in it had to be packed.

It only stopped when the skin healed back together and closed. No stitches, nothing. Just letting it knot back together from the inside from the base of the absese 🤢🤢🤢🤢

@Inagony234

Morning all. I think I fell asleep with the hot water bottle In between my legs, woke up this morning and the pain is much less worse. It's less angry looking and hurts less when I walk.. It still v much there though. Picking up antibiotics as soon as the pharmacy opens!!

Glad you are feeling a little better now.

I has a septic thumb that initially looked tiny, {Splinter under the nail} but the pain spread up my arm and was soooo painful and I too needed antibiotics.
Antibiotics are a blessing, let's just hope bacteria don't get too resistant to them.

I have had a few of these, magnesium sulphate helped draw mine out and heat. I feel your pain as it’s just awful, I used to get them on my groin area and had a nasty one on my bottom which made sitting painful for a couple weeks (I did get antibiotics for that one). Keep applying heat with a hot water bottle and hopefully it will eventually burst and drain 😬.

[quote IncessantNameChanger]@KittenKong yes it was shocking when I realised what "packing" meant. I thought it was just a surface type dressing, not someone feeding stripes of gauze under the skin with tweeters a what looks like a chrochet hook. In three days it had tracked 3 to five inches into the body so that's how far in it had to be packed.

It only stopped when the skin healed back together and closed. No stitches, nothing. Just letting it knot back together from the inside from the base of the absese 🤢🤢🤢🤢[/quote]
Yikes! that sounds so serious.. {Faints} Abscesses are vile things.

I’ve got a humdinger of a scar on my arse cheek after having a boil lanced last year and agree that the packing is the worst bit. I had to go daily for ten days to have it changed. I wasn’t really prepared for that!

I had mine done under local and was lucky I could go to the walk in to be treated. I’d had the boil for 5 weeks and it just wouldn’t come to a head and i couldn’t sit down it was so painful.

The nurse took pictures on my phone of the wound afterwards so I could see it, wasn’t pleasant!

But lots of dressings at the pharmacy when you go, and anything else they recommend !