TDLR: good doctors made my first clitoral abscess drainage process easy as pie, and I feel like a girl who is gonna be okay :)
Hi all! I am making this post as someone who has been stalking the forum for a few days about clitoral abscesses and UTIs and yeast infections due to a problem I was having with (what seemed to be, at first) a very swollen clit.
Around Wednesday (its now 5am Monday morning) I peed, wiped, and noted that it felt like my clit "bumped" the TP out of the way, which was notably a new sensation. At that point it wasn't sensitive or painful, and it sort of just felt like I'd overdone it the night before with my vibe. I didn't actually notice that it was not my clit itself that was swollen but an abscess centered directly on top of my clitoral hood until Friday morning when I looked with a hand mirror.
I am a virgin, I haven't had my first pap yet, and the idea of having this seemingly very rare condition threw me immediately into a panic. By this morning (Saturday) the swelling had spread to my labia on one side, and I worked an 8 hour work day waddling around in more and more pain as the day went by.
This evening, I had to tap out of a family gathering early to lay in bed, because previously nothing felt okay but laying spread eagle on my back. Around midnight tonight I had been reduced to tears from the pain, and the abscess on my clit was the size of a peanut M&M and incredibly tender. I have terrible medical anxiety and hate hospitals, but forced myself to the ER because of the excruciating pain, and genuinely had one of the best hospital visits I have ever had in my life.
The doctor and nurses who took care of me seemed to be intentionally all female, and they were all so encouraging and reassuring (I was weeping from pain/fear/embarrassment for much of the beginning of my visit) that it would be okay, and that im not the only young woman in the world experiencing this (they in fact told me I was their second tonight!)
I was at an 8/10 for pain when I arrived, and after talking me through the options, I decided to be sedated for the drainage process due to the difficulty of numbing the area with topical anesthetics and the guaranteed pain of a needle. Each of the new staff who came in introduced themselves (one for respiration, one for charts, one mentee, one for injecting the sedative) and I remember nothing but being asked about my favorite vacation spot, and then coming to 40 minutes later with a level of relief that almost made me cry. I woke up around 2:45am, its now 5:20am, and for the first time in days I was able to pee without excruciating pain, and im optimistic that even if this comes back (as I was told it likely will, which also reduced me to tears in the moment) that the relief that comes after the drainage makes all of the awkwardness worth it. I have a couple rounds of antibiotics to take and a follow up with an OBGYN in two days, and I am mostly posting this so that other girls and women who may be scared by the horror stories on here know that the doctors visit is absolutely worth it, especially if compresses and baths aren't doing the trick for you!