# IBS-C and Pilonidal Cyst Correlation



## cwhizzz (Jul 3, 2014)

Hello all!

I'm new here and looking to see if anyone else has experienced what I have and/or can provide opinions on what's going on with me. I am a 21 year old male from Jersey. During the month of June/July of 2012 I had developed a very large pilonidal abscess that grew very quickly. I had the abscess drained via incision on July 21st, 2012. For about 1 and a half month all was fine. No more pain from that area or anything. Then it hit. The abdominal cramping came sudden and strong starting early September 2012. I thought I was dying and possibly gonna have a heart attack. At the same time, I noticed that my abscess had returned and was draining profusely. So I have an out-patient procedure mid October to drain the abscess again this time by simply making a slit down my butt crack to allow it to drain. I foolishly don't mention the other symptoms to my doctor. However, it worked out for the time being because following the out-patient drainage of the abscess area my ibs symtoms disappeared for 6 months! This pretty much convinced me that the pilonidal cyst and my ibs-c symptoms were related.

Fast forward 6 months later and my ibs symptoms gradually begin to creep back up on me until they become unbearable. What makes it worse is that my ibs-c is completely constant! I am not lucky enough to have flare ups because when it starts its a constant with very temporary relief right before a bowel movement and right afterwards it flares back up severely. Well, about 2 months ago I about had it and decide to get the abscess treated again. This time I opt to do a complete excision and get the wound vac. I had the surgery on May 14th and lo and behold my ibs-c started to gradually decline for 2 weeks afterwards. The decline of the ibs-c was much more gradual this time around and I physically felt the spasms start to cease daily in a wave of relief starting with my large bowel going down to my smaller intestine. So for two weeks all was dandy. On the morning of my father's wedding the ibs-c symtoms disappeared. The relief felt absolutely amazing - for a short period of time. That very same evening it flared right back up! It has been constant ever since and I have a foul smelling drainage coming from a sinus an inch under the wound of where my abscess was removed. The actual abscess wound itself is healing extrmely well according to the doctor and all the Gentiva nurses that treated me and doing so surprisingly quickly with nice red healthy tissue already developing and a not very noticeable scar. I am happy with that at least. However, my ibs-c symptoms still remain.

So, I went to another doctor Tuesday this week and she said I have ibs-c and prescribes me Bentyl and MiriLax as well as suggesting a low FODMAP diet (which I haven't started yet ). I am a very healthy guy overall. I work out, have a muscular body, and I haven't gained or lost weight throughout the onset of these ibs-c symptons. No alarming symptoms like blood in the stool or anything that may indicate more serious matters either. The worse part about this is the fatigue. I feel so worn out by this and people don't believe me when I say that sleeping for long amounts of time (I'm talking 9 hours or more) helps a lot. I am going to have another appointment to hopefully schedule a removal of the pilonidal sinus that is draining this foul smelling pus because it stains my underwear pretty bad. In the meantime I am taking Bentyl and that is helping slightly. I have also been taking Jigsaw Probiotics with 25 billion for about 2 weeks now but that hasn't been doing too much for me and I had hoped it would so that's disappointing.

My question is this: Is it in anyway way possible that the ibs and pilonidal cyst are related? I mean, contrary to what happens to most people on this site my symptoms only occurred AFTER I had the pilonidal abscess and not before and everytime I get the abscess treated properly I experience some great relief and even return to 100% normal bowel function except this time it has been extremely short-lived. I think it is because I might have another cyst given that there is a moderate amount of drainage still occurring near the inital abscess. The 2nd drainage I had in October probably had a better effect because it was done shortly after the initial incision and because the slit made in my butt crack was large and remained open for longer allowing for large amounts of that foul smelling stuff (whatever it is) to leave my body. These are just some thoughts and I may be totally wrong. Please provide any thoughts as I am desperately seeking answers and help for this.

Best,

cwhizzz


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