Help me find the cause of this stubborn abscess, please!

[pirilla]

Hi everyone, for 5 years I've been haunted by this abscess in my groin/labia. It comes and goes, sometimes it's gigantic (REALLY) and sometimes just a painful, red, inflamed, deep seated "nodule" (so it doesn't disfigure me completely, but still makes it awfully painful to walk).
I had the abscess drained at the hospital once (never again, the anestesia hurt like hell and did not numb the area at all... urgh!) and the material (the pus) was sent for culture.... which came back without bacterial growth.
Even so, over the years antibiotics is what has been (un)naturally prescribed to me. It does nothing, but that figures. The abscess has never opened nor drained naturally (in 2008 it was drained by the Doctor) except for this last flare up. I went to the ER, they gave me antibiotics (as usual), then 2 days later to my surprise the abscess burst.

Bartholinitis, folliculitis, and many STD's have been ruled out... yet still I don't know the cause. Had an MRI... nothing came up except obliteration of the subcutaneous fatty tissue (possibly from the inflammation).
My blood work seems normal as well.

All I can say is that the first time it happened, was immediately after a long episode of diarrhea I had while living in Haiti. It lasted about 20  + days but didn't seem that bad a case, specially compared with the terrible amoebic dysentery I had a few months prior (treated with metronizadol). Either way, the diarrhea was suddenly gone and that painful "nodule" appeared right away.
It's been haunting me ever since, coming and going.... i just want to know what this is so I can have it gone for good!
If anyone can help me shed some light into this, seen dozens of Doctors (GP's, Gynos, Derms, Angio, Infecto.... ) and nothing gives :((((((
Please, if someone can advise I'd be so thankful!
God bless!

[pirilla]

Hi, thank you so much for the reply.
I was not on antibiotics during the time the abscess was drained and the culture still came back negative (I was put on antibiotics after that drainage, in 2008).
Unfortunately, after 5 years, I can no longer recall all of the antibiotics I have been prescribed. The last one that I took was cefadroxil (oral) plus a few topical creams (3... some corticoids and antib.). I should say I never felt as if the antibiotics actually worked at all, the antiinflammatory helps when the pain is too much (ok, talk about obvious...lol).
This last time (a month ago) I went to the ER, and they didn't send the material for bacterial culture... I should have pushed them to do it.
Thank you so much :))

[tcottle]

It sound like to me you need to find a well respected and well known Infectious Disease doctor ASAP.  I have been fighting a systemic staph infection for 2 months now and I can tell you that having the right doc will make all the difference in the world.  The Staph infection I have been fighting is called MRSA it stands for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus it is also referred as a multi-drug resistant form of Staph.  Never the less you stated that when you had your abscess drained in the hospital that they took a sample of the pus to the lab for tests and they came back with nothing.  My question to you is, were you on any type of antibiotics before you had your abscess drained and a sample taken for analysis?  If you were then you are most likely going to get a negative bacteria test because the antibiotics will kill all the bacteria that they need to grow.  Also what types of antibiotics have they prescribed to you in the past?  Take a look at both of these sites.  They may help they may not.  Talk to you soon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methicillin-resistant_Staphylococcus_aureus
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boil

This is something else that I just found that might interest you from this website:  http://www.healthhype.com/lab-tests-for-staph.html

1. Obtaining a Sample of Infected Tissue

For a diagnosis of staph infection, a sample of an infected lesion (nasal secretion, pus, blood, cerebro-spinal fluid, urine, cell aspirate from lungs or bone) has to be obtained. Symptoms of staph infections are often caused by toxins, released from only few staphylococci, so a culture of obviously infected lesion may be negative! From this reason, samples from more than one lesion has to be provided, if possible.