Lanced boil?

[patroclus]

hello, I was diagnosed with hidradenitis suppurativa yesterday when I went to urgent care for a huge (walnut-sized) boil on my bikini line. The doctor gave me a shot of antibiotics there and prescribed Bactrim DS and Doxycycline for the infection as well. So far I've taken 4 of the pills and am about to take another dose. However, since the boil is so large I was wondering whether or not I should go to another doctor to get it lanced or if I should keep taking these antibiotics & doing warm compresses like this doctor advises? She told me she does not feel comfortable lancing it herself since there is no head and she thinks the infection will just come back anyway. The thing I'm most concerned about, though, is that after a day of all of these antibiotics the boil doesn't seem to be any smaller and, I think, even looks a little larger and is still red and swollen. Should I go back to the doctor or should I just continue this course of antibiotics (a week) until they run out? I'm trying really hard not to listen to my hypochondria and I really want to trust the doctor's advice on this but I'm just so anxious :weep:

[Fishmanpa]

Relax! It's been 1 day! Take the meds. Listen to the doctor.

Positive thoughts

[nomorepanic]

It is only one day - you can't expect miracles.

Stick with them for the week.

[Cptdebbie]

Maybe everything is resolved by now, but I thought I’d put my two cents in. About twice a year I get a huge boil somewhere around my groin area. I, too, went to Instacare once and was diagnosed with hidradenitis suppurativa and given antibiotics. A few weeks later the boil was still there when I went in for my annual mole check exam at our nearby cancer hospital.

My dermatologist said it was not hidradenitis suppurativa because that diagnosis requires multiple lesions and I had one boil. Then he told me the best way to get rid of it was to apply warm compresses every couple of hours. He’d said he would lance it if I couldn’t do the compress thing because of work or something. I am a homemaker, so I did the compresses. It worked so well that I do that all the time now. I usually use a wet towel with a heating pad. The boil usually pops on its own in a few days and then starts to heal. It taught me that sometimes the old fashioned remedies still work best.

I feel for you. Those boils are nasty. I hope you are healed soon.

[patroclus]

I just got a boil lanced 2 days ago and have been on a 7 day antibiotic prescription for 4 days now. The lanced boil has healed very well according to the urgent care doctor that redressed it yesterday. However, while she was lancing it she mentioned that there felt like there was possibly another boil next to it though she said it may be a lymph node so she didn’t want to lance it. When I went back yesterday she didn’t say anything about it and said I didn’t need to come back for the lanced boil because it healed so well. The problem here I guess is when I went to change the dressings today by myself (this was my first time looking at it since it was drained), there is an area right above it that is swollen & there seem to be two additional lumps right below the original boil, as if they are somehow connected.
Should I go back to the doctor to make sure the other two aren’t boils? I have 3 days left of my antibiotics (I’m on Bactrim DS & Doxycycline), though I’m worried they won’t work to get rid of the additional lumps since I often get lumps in this area, though they are never quite as bad as the one I had lanced. And if these are lymph nodes, would they feel so closely connected like this? Sorry for all the questions its just that I’ve been to urgent care 3 times this week and it has all really stressed me out :weep:

[Elen]

Hi

This is just a courtesy reply to let you know that your thread was merged with another of your threads.

Please when posting on similar topics add it onto your previous post rather than starting a new one.

It is nothing personal it is just to make it easier for people to follow your story and to give you advice as a whole.

Elen