Had a boil, it healed, but there is still a superficial lump?

[sparkbark]

Okay, so I had what I believe was a boil appear on my skin last week. It's, well, on my butt. I am kind of prone to ingrown hairs and such but it usually resolves within a day or two. This one got big and inflamed and painful, with a hard lump under the surface. Based on remedies found on the web, I treated it with Campho Phenol (?) and it soon began to shrink and after a few days it no longer hurt at all and there was no more lump under the surface. However, now over a week since it appeared, there is still a red "bump" on the surface of my skin. It does not hurt at all nor does it seem to be any kind of open sore... it's just a bump. I'm not sure what to do about it. I plan to make a doctor's appointment in a few days if it does not go away, but, what could this be? I do not have any STDs. It started out exactly like every ingrown hair / inflammed hair follice I've ever had. But I am not sure what to do about this leftover bump... it's not exactly appealing to look at and I don't want to look like I have some kind of disease! Why is this bump still there if the under-the-skin part of the boil seems to have disappeared? (There is nothing under there anymore-- no hard lump-- just skin...)

[maggiecolon69]

Hi I have a boil in my lower middle back is was draining in pus for a while.. I cleaned every day & put a bandage & today I took the bandage of & it dropped a big black hard ball in the floor, now I have a big hole in my back no pus only a little drops of blood I’m worry about the ball that came out should I go to the hospital??? Please Help me ...thanks

[kXNG_KRIS1]

  ...how are you......I had some boils over the summer all came up and went back down except for once specific on which left a spot and there is no hair growing since the boil was bursted....what must I do

[kXNG_KRIS1]

hey how are you....I had some boils

[Lajk]

Hi.... I had a boil which burst on Monday . I went to hospital and the Dr. prescribed me some medicines n antibacterial ointment. today is Friday and it’s still draining.  Should I go to hospital again or should I wait

[newman711]

I had contracted mrsa, basically super staph, and had a big one appear on my left breast. I got admitted to the hospital, had iv antibiotics for 6 days, was given oral antibiotics for a month, with mupricin to apply topically. All healed up but the one on the breast. Left a big hard spot in center, that was 2 years ago. One day it was itching a little bit, so I decided to slightly lance it and see if there was that thick white pus, basically a solid in it. There wasn't, but I noticed that large lump was hard as a rock, and I remembered that before I got discharged from the hospital, the dr. lanced it, and drained it, and before he closed it up, he said he had to go in and bust the core of it. He did, but I still had that hard lump in it. I decided to investigate a little further, and I pulled out a lot of seed of it? Reminded me of sesame seeds. I got some of it out, and the lump went down some. A few weeks later, I still had some hardness to it, so I drank some beers, and reopened it, got a few more out, and I think I got most of it out, but I didn't want to go very deep, and I think the back wall of it is still in there, scraped the tissue under the skin and it was hard as a rock. Anymore that needs to come out, the dr will have to do it. I flushed it with betadyne, packed it with a mixture of mupricin and Neosporin. Looking back, I with they would have knocked me out and cut the whole thing out so I wouldn't have to deal wth it 2 years later.

[Calledit78]

Warm compresses 20 mins a time 3 times a day. Black salve ointment,  Go to doctor get antibiotics (Bactrim) speeds it up fast. Mupirocin cream, but need a Dr prescription for these.

Vitamin C and A, bananas, sweet potatoes, spinach, kale, green tea, fruits, dried apricots, raisins.

[Ajithesh]

i faced similar problem.If that part is still red or if u feel pain,that means its nor cured completely.Let the pus come out of that completely,den in a week time u can find it cured

[ruchiagarwal01]

I had a hard boil on my cheek-face. I got its pus removed from a dermatologist. But only a part of it came out. Now there is still a big bump and it has remained so for more than three weeks with no change. Please help

[Attigba]

Hi,
I have literally the same story as you! Has been two weeks since dermatologist and I still have the hard raised mark and now a scar as well! Did yours ever go down??? What ended up happening?? Help greatly appreciated!

[annalatha]

hello,my prob is one year back i had boils on my bus,breast, legs, hip nearly 10 boils consistently,all got healed disappeared except bud and breast it turned as a blood clot dark with hard surface after a year now it started slowly itching others were went down small and rest healed these three are troubling me two on breast one on bud, can u suggest me wat to do,can u clarify this something relate to abortion tablets coz after abortion i got tis can u suggest which specialist should i meet to resolve d issue and frns told might leads to breast cancer is tat true

[Missydh]

Boil has drained and now has looks like a black sore that has healed, but it is still red and hard. Doesn't hurt or itch.

[SLT29]

I had a boil on the inner part of my thigh closer to my private area the boil came to head n all the pus n blood drained out but, I noticed I had s lump right about the boil it doesn't hurt but its feels hard what could it be another boil forming?

[kpkpkp]

I have a similar boil on my bottom. It has been that way for a few weeks now and my doctor looked at it and said it was post-inflammatory healing response. The skin tissues can continue to look inflamed like that (without puss or anything inside) for some time after the initial infection and inflammation has passed. I have applied heat to mine a few times as well as some drawing salves to draw out anything inside of it and nothing comes out (I was stubborn and didn't believe the doctor at first). But, it seems to be that the doc is right -- it's just healing skin now. And the boil was deep, so it's gonna take some time to heal that lump. It's almost like a scar -- takes time to get back to normal.
The key is that it doesn't hurt or itch. If it hurts or itches, chances are it has something in it that needs to come out and the infection is still active.
I have continued dabbing this product on mine called SkinBiotics (it's tea tree oil and orgeano oil mixture) to make sure it stays dry and just for my peace of mind.  

[sparkbark]

Thanks for your reply.

So if I understand you correctly you are saying that the boil hasn't healed yet, and the loss of the hard lump under the skin is just part of the process before it heals? I have been washing the area with antibacterial soap in the shower in the morning and also before bed. After my shower I have been applying neosporin to it. I am very careful to keep it clean. However in the last 3 or 4 days it doesn't seem to have changed at all, it's just sitting there with no difference in appearance. I had been bandaging it at first to keep it clean but I had to stop that because it was really irritating my skin when my bandage came off, and I didn't want to create a wound near the boil because the wound could get infected with bacteria from the boil.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,

From your symptoms,it looks like a boil on the buttocks. A boil, also referred to as a skin abscess, is a localized infection deep in the skin. A boil generally starts as a reddened, tender area. Over time, the area becomes firm and hard. Eventually, the center of the abscess softens and becomes filled with pus. Finally, the pus "forms a head," which can be surgically opened or spontaneously drain out through the surface of the skin.

Boil on buttocks is usually due to plugged sweat glands that become infected or by an ingrown hair.In your case,the centre of the boil could not be formed ,so there was no drainage of pus and hence the red bump is still there. Pls keep the area clean and apply some warm compresses. Also wear loose-fitting cotton clothing and use an antibacterial soap or mild soap like dove.Avoid any kind of cosmetics. Topical antibiotics such as mupirocin or neomycin containing ointment are also useful.In case the symptoms persist then oral antibiotics may be needed.Pls consult a dermatologist in that case.

Hope it helps.Take care and pls do keep me posted on how you are doing.Kind regards.