My Bartholin cyst story and tips on preventing flare-ups

I got my first Bartholin's cyst after I'd been experiencing mild recurring uti like symtopms. I love wearing tights and dresses, and spanx underneath my jeans/pants. Any way, I noticed soreness but ignored it at first, it only got worse. I thought my vagina was irritated due to the tampons but one day I felt a big lump inside of me and hurt a lot. I decided to look it up and found Phoebe's method. It didn't work for me at all, my cyst was way too deep. One new year's day I was supposed to fly to New York but that night I ended up in the ER due to the excruciating pain and distress. The doctor wasn't very helpful, he gave me an local anaesthetic(huge injection) without applying any topical anesthetic. He claimed that it wouldn't hurt because he was just injecting it into the cyst. It was the most painful, horrible, deathly, bone-chilling pain I'd ever experienced. I was screaming uncontrollably, it felt as if he had chopped of my labia with a meat cleaver. I still get chills just thinking about the pain. Long story short, they lanced my cyst and sent me home without a catheter. I was given bactrim but had a really bad reaction to it- meningitis like symtopms, fever & chills. They admitted me to the hospital the next day, thinking that I had some infection when I later concluded that it was just a reaction to the antibiotic. I was shivering uncontrollably and crying in pain. I had an intense migraine that wouldn't go away with percocet. I was put on iv morphine, had a cat scan, everything was normal. They wanted to perform a spinal tap, but fortunaley as soon as I stopped the anitbiotic my symptoms gradually subsided. BUT the cyst returned 3 days later. Thats when I went to an ob/gyn. She was very sweet and talked me out of my demands of general anesthesia. She promised she wouldn't hurt me and she did a great job of lancing it. It just felt like a little pinch here and there and some painful moments but nothing like that night at the ER. She put in a word catheter that stayed in for 13 days. It was very painful to walk but I got better in 2-3 weeks. Its been three months now and I am cyst-free. Last week I had some sweling and some irritation down there, I panicked at first but commited myself to stopping it from becoming infected. I started taking turmeric capsules (2, twice a day) and the irritation subsided, swelling went down. I've taking turmeric for a week now and everything seems to be OK for rightnow. I just wanted to share my experience in hopes that my story might be helpful to someone, always make sure that you go to an OB/GYN who knows what they are doing, someone who has experience with these issues. Others may not understand your problem and end up hurting you, or even worse, may damage your pudendal nerve. Taking cranberry pills helps to maintain a healthy urinary tract, preventing bacterial infections that I hypothesize, may be related to causing these cysts (Escherichia coli e.t.c.) Turmeric is a great anti-inflammatory and helps to reduce inflammation.(Inflammation of the gland can cause it to develop bacterial infections.) I am not a doctor, this is all based on my personal research and self-experimentation. I know how badly these nasty cysts hurt and how helpless and depressed a woman may feel. Don't loose hope, you are not alone. Keep working on taking care of your body from the inside. Good luck. 

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