"Pain management for my cyst"

The cyst started to become painful and I saw Dr Park,  She sent me to Homerton Hospital for potential surgery as the cyst had become an abscess and had inoculated.

A&E said that they were going to assess me there rather than sending me to gynae. They tested my blood and sent me away with some antibiotics . At this point I was struggling to walk as the abscess was around the size of a golf ball and the pain had stopped being a dull ache and was more like a white hot, sharp pain. The pain got progressively worse throughout the day to the point where I struggled to go to the toilet as the movement of sitting down created too much pain.

I had some pain-relief  that the hospital had given previously. I started taking this as well as ibuprofen. I don’t normally take painkillers unless I’m struggling to manage period pains. The painkillers did help slightly with the pain but I couldn’t really move around without any pain. If I lay in the right position I could stop the pain. It felt like a nerve pain.

I spoke to someone on the 111 line 5am as I had woken up from a night of interrupted sleep with intense stomach cramps. They reassured me and said it was probably from the medication and told me to make sure I ate more whilst taking the tablets. The next 48 hours are a bit blurry but I had a few calls with the GP and then 111 as I was struggling to manage the pain.

I always consider myself to have a high pain threshold but this was quite difficult to manage.Early morning a few days later it got really bad when I was trying to go for a wee and I thought I was going to be sick. I was refused additional Pain-relief that afternoon by another GP which I found a bit difficult because I was in so much pain. I do understand this was because codeine is addictive but I was definitely running out of stamina by this point.

Luckily, on that night the abscess ruptured and a lot of red, thick liquid came out. The sharp, hot pain dropped off within minutes and I could walk upright again. There was another burst of liquid at around 2am which happened as I was opening my bowels. The pain came back but then subsided quite quickly. Over the weekend the pain continued to subside and I was able to walk again. I have finished the course of antibiotics and now have an acorn sized lump which I am continuing to bathe.

Dr Park told me to continue to bathe it and to not have intercourse until the puncture wound has healed. This is probably the worst thing that has happened to me from a medical point of view. I guess I’m lucky really! I did find it very difficult to manage the pain and I think because I was told by A&E that it’d start to improve after 24 hours and it took about 60 hours for my pain to subside I struggled.

Also, nobody who I spoke to once I was in pain really asked me what the pain was like or how bad it was so I have no perception of whether what I was feeling was normal for a bartholin abscess. Other than this feedback, everyone I spoke to was really great and very supportive. I’m very grateful for the care that I received. This week I feel like a new person!