Mother of all sebaceous cysts

[Wegovypictures]

I feel like you are all the only people who I can share this with / will enjoy it

I have had a sebaceous cyst on the back of neck for years with no problem. Suddenly it got infected and grew so alarmingly that I had to have it taken out yesterday under general anaesthetic!

Anyone who knows about cysts knows it's normal a 15 minute local anaesthetic job not a two hour surgery!

Sadly I don't have pictures of what came out of it, but it was about the size of a golf ball when I went in...

My question is if anyone knows the healing time for something like this? I'm off to have the packing removed and it redressed later, as the wound needs to be left open (unstitched) to heal 😬😬😬

In a complete turn of events I've been told it only needs packing for another week! I'm so happy 😂

And I can start showering properly which will be bliss - no more washing my hair over the side of the bath.

Any update @Wegovypictures 🫣

Usually a ingrown hair or something simple. I've had two packed in my life so far. You have my sympathies op ❤️

We're getting there. Still got packing in but hopefully just for another one or two appointments. Then go down to normal dressings for god knows how long.

The exciting news is I'm now allowed to shower and wash my own hair. The bad news is it hurts like a motherfucker under the spray. So I just sort of stand to one side and lob handfuls of water at the back of my neck 😂

Here's your latest picture guys (excuse the state of my poor skin from the dressings)

Glad it's getting better!

That's healing nicely, the wound looks great.

Thanks for the update and let us know how you get on with normal dressings.

That's healing beautifully.Thank you for the Spooner photo 😁

Hi all, just reigniting this thread with an update and a question.

The wound hasn't been packed not for a couple of weeks (hurray!) but still has dressings on to protect it. Still a bit sore too but not too bad.

However, it's still oozing quite a bit with smelly stuff - anyone know of this is normal? I'm changing my own dressings now so it hasn't been seen by a nurse in a week, so can't ask.

If you all give me helpful advice, I'll share another picture

If it's still smelling bad, I'd have it seen to.

Agree.

Poor you, OP. The gift that keeps on giving!

Wow I had no idea cysts could leave such a hole! Incredible but also horrible! Glad you're doing better OP and hope the next check goes fine.

How are you doing @Wegovypictures ?

I saw the doctor again yesterday who said it's not clear that it's infected, but have given me some antibiotics incase as there's still a lot of stuff leaking out.

More likely they think the new pain is because I managed to rip out some of the new tissue when changing my dressing

So onwards and hopefully it'll start closing soon!

You poor thing. Could you go back to having the nurse do the dressings for a while?

Looks like you are sensitive to the adhesive on the dressings, which must be uncomfortable. Could you use a different sort? For instance the Micropore ones give me welts on my skin if left on for a few hours, but other types don't.

Just what I was thinking 😂

Oh my good godfathers is all I have to say.

I had one in this exact spot, OP, which looked exactly the same as yours initially - very red and angry and painful. This was in 2010. I was given 2 sets of antibiotics but they wouldn't remove it when infected. Finally it got a huge white head and just looked like the biggest spot ever. Heaven! Finally it burst one day in the shower and what came out was intense, one if the best experiences of my life (!) - loads of pus followed by loads of cyst stuff (thick, lumpy white stuff). DH was horrified. I was desperately trying to look in mirror. I went to the GP and he looked quite ill when he looked at it and rapidly got the nurse to clean me up. I had to go in and get it dressed every other day for a couple of weeks. I had 2yo twins! It did heal up eventually.

Sadly, it came back after a year or so as not fully removed I suppose. I asked but they wouldn't remove on NHS as it was on my neck not somewhere more obvious and was therefore classed as cosmetic - but it got pretty big. I hoped it wouldn't get infected again. It didn't, luckily. Finally (about 12 years after the initial cyst popped), I had it properly removed privately with a local anaesthetic - very quick, very professional. It was a complete hard ball (I guess the 'stuff' was all induce the sac). I wasn't allowed to keep it but I was allowed to touch it (it was like a rubber bouncy ball) and take pictures afterwards which I have. The cyst was a lot bigger than expected as it went in so deep and was actually nearly golf ball sized when it was out! They stitched the wound and it healed very quickly, in just a few days! It even healed flat so there was no 'dip'.

I'm glad they removed yours OP as it means it hopefully won't be back.

@PrincessOfPreschool please share your pictures!

That's all I have. The rest were on an old phone 🙁

That’s HUGE

I had a sebaceous cyst removed under local anaesthetic from about the same location as OP’s, maybe a little lower. I didn’t think it was that big but it left a crater I can fit my finger tip into. The surgeon who removed it refused to film it and he didn’t even squeeze it while excising it. What a fun sponge. I still rub the crater and wonder what might have been.

@Wegovypictures amazing! It must be such a relief. Your lovely slim neck all free of bulgy yuckington! Thanks for sharing. I hope you feel much better x

Oh
my
GOD

That is huge, HUGE! I bet that was such a relief to have removed!

Hi @PrincessOfPreschool how did you find a private doctor for this? Could you share where you had it done please? I have three that I’ve had for years, and would really like to have them removed.