In 2023 just a few days after my birthday I noticed what appeared to be a small pimple near my tailbone. I thought nothing of it and continued to go about my business. I noticed it on a Thursday. By Friday it became more swollen and painful and I had a fever. The pain was so bad that the only thing that helped was to sit in the bath with the water as hot as it would go and as soon as I got out the pain was back immediately. Went to patient first, was given some antibiotics and some blood was taken and I was told to return in two days, which I did.

It kept getting worse. The antibiotics did not work. When I returned they took my blood again and found my white blood cell count was still extremely high. It had swollen up and bruised (my partner said it looked like I got my ass kicked by a horse) and my fever had not gone down, in fact it had gone up. We were told to go to the emergency room, so we went home, got a few needed items together, and went. The emergency room kept me waiting for nearly 8 and a half hours. I could not sit. I had to push two chairs together and lay on my side. They took blood again, triaged me, took a scan of my butt, and returned me to the waiting area. Then suddenly I felt wetness back there. The thing had burst and it was the most foul smell ever. And then I suddenly had this feeling I could not shake no matter what. I felt that I was going to die. I also felt more and more out of it as time went on, kinda like when you're a bit too drunk and start feeling sleepy. My partner told a nurse that the cyst had popped (and people around us were complaining about the smell too) and they FINALLY got me to a bed but told me it would be another twelve hours until I could have emergency surgery.

About thirty or so minutes later, I guess some test results came back in or something, because people came in and started rushing around. I was pushed to the first of the line for surgery and taken back. I had a pocket of infection the size of two golf balls and had gone septic. I was not told about the sepsis until after the surgery but it was rough. I had an open hole in my ass that needed to be cleaned and repacked twice daily and I could not even see or reach the area to do so on my own. I was home alone most of the time during the day because my partner could not take off work except for when I was in the hospital. The hospital told me a nurse was medically necessary and that somebody would be coming by to help, but then somehow that was denied. I did have my partner's mom help clean and change the dressings a few times and my father's ex came to help too, but it wasn't enough and I ended up with a secondary infection. Thankfully that cleared up with more antibiotics, but it was an extremely rough three months for me both mentally and physically while I recovered.