Fistula, In-Grown Hair or Staph?

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This is the sore a couple of days after draining;
it is about the size of a dime.

As I mentioned earlier, I took Imuran for two weeks and then stopped due to some pain that had returned in my right side. Blood tests turned out okay, yet the pain was still there.

And then the sore appeared.  It was relatively small, located just underneath my navel.  I hadn't seen it before due to two things:  1) it was located right at my waistline and covered most of the time under the band of my undies and 2) the flab of my gut covered it.

I didn't think anything of it.  Probably an ingrown hair or something, I told myself.  By the time I noticed it, the pain was rather high, however, and it resembled a volcano that was about to blow.  So I did what any person would do in such a situation:  I drained it and cleaned it with alcohol and went on with my life.

When talking with my I doctor, I mentioned the sore and she became concerned.  Although I assured her that it was nothing but a topical skin infection, she said that it could also be a fistula.  These noxious ailments are often mistaken for ingrown hairs or boils.  They are small, but painful infections that tunnel through the walls of the colon, through soft tissue until they reach the outside.  Fistulas can happen anywhere and for someone like me, any such external infection located on the abdomen is cause for worry.

So she ordered a CT scan^* and I was convinced that I now had a fistula.  I looked up fistulas on the internet. I compared pictures of fistulas to the sore on my abdomen.  Self-diagnosis is something we crohnies always do--and almost always assume the worst.  It's not that we are negative about our ailment, just realistic and prone to being prepared for the worst.

I had my CT scan on Friday evening and by Sunday I had the results.  My doctor phoned me to explain that it was not a fistula, but that I did have moderate swelling in my lower colon. Other than that, everything looked okay.  Nothing on the CT scan could explain the sore.

The sore was troubling to her, however.  Imuran is an immunosuppressant and could leave the body open to various infections.  This is the reason why I had to go through additional tuberculosis testing before starting the drug.  Among other things, immunosuppressants have the tendency to awaken latent tuberculosis in the body.

This is the sore today.

I saw my general practitioner today in order to get a look at the sore.  It's still there, but very much smaller.  He too was concerned that, after draining and applying alcohol, it was still red and swollen.  So, he gave me an antibiotic particular to skin infections.  And he told me that if it comes to a head, not to drain it.  I need to come back in so that he can take a culture and determine what type of infection it is.  Staph, he said, is something that has been coming back with a vengeance.

My GI wants to continue with the Imuran.  I am up for that, but have to wait until this sore is gone.  I have a week on this new antibiotic and then we will go from there.  What is strange, however, and most likely the reason for such caution, is that I have been on Flagyl for the last 9 months.

Flagyl is an antibiotic.

So, whatever it was that gave me that little, yet painful pustule, was strong enough to evade the Flagyl.

This new antibiotic is called Keflex.  Amazingly, it is not one that I have every had before.

Let's see if it works.

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^* You know you're a crohnie when a skin infection requires a CT scan